First Love
1 John 4:19 says, “We love him, because he first loved us.” For in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Without God’s having loved us first, we would not have the capacity to love him in return. God was the prime mover. He loved us not because of who we are but because of who He is. For God is love and in him there is no darkness at all.
The sermon on the mount began with Jesus’ teaching the multitude about the way to the kingdom of heaven, to put God first by loving Him above all. Approaching the Lord begins with a heart of meekness and humility. When we approach His throne with a broken and a contrite heart realizing we are poor, lacking in the spirit of God and mourning over the sin that has separated our heart from His heart, he will fill us with his Holy Spirit and comfort us with the comfort of his spirit.
The people had never heard a message like this. They had been to the synagogues and to the temple and listened to the teachers, scribes and Pharisees. However, unlike the religious leaders, Jesus did not speak with great swelling words of vanity, but in the power and authority of God’s spirit. He laid bare the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. They misrepresented the path of righteousness by telling the people that they were justified by their own good works. Jesus said, they have their reward…. their reward is of men but not of God.
Jesus Contrasted the teachings of the religious leaders with the truth of the authority of the word of God. Six times, Jesus said, You have heard…. but I say unto you. He exposed and explained the false teachings of the religious leaders. Jesus said, You have heard it said that you should hate your enemies but I say unto you, love your enemies and do good unto those who persecute you and despitefully use you. If the law requires you to carry a Roman soldier’s pack one mile, then go a second mile. The first mile is of obligation, the second mile is motivated by the love of God to serve others from a heart of Love.
The Pharisees said, how can anything good come out of Nazareth? They did not understand Jesus’ message of salvation and redemption by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. They were blind and could not see from a spiritual perspective because they did not have the spirit of God to see and perceive the truth of the Word of God. They were blinded by their own pride and by their conviction that they were right in their own self righteousness. They thought they were the only ones deserving of righteousness by keeping their interpretation of the Old Testament Law and that they alone were deserving of righteousness. They thought everyone else was guilty of condemnation and death.
Jesus said, Unless your righteousness is above the righteousness of the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees thought they were righteous and that Jesus was not. They railed against Jesus for ministering to sinners, the downcast, down trodden and destitute of this world. Jesus said, I have not come to minster to those who think they are healthy but to those who know they are sick and in need of God’s healing wholeness.
We are in the midst of a spiritual battle. In the Old Testament the enemies of Israel represented sin and the contamination of the wickedness and evil of this fallen world. The Amelikites were the enemies of God’s chosen people who worshipped the wrong god. God said through his prophet Samuel to Saul the king of Israel, “You need to eliminate and utterly destroy the Amelikites. You need to purge the evil from this land in order for God’s righteousness to prevail.”
However, Saul preserved the king of the Amelikites and the best of the cattle and sheep. This was a sign of the downfall of Saul’s reign as king over Israel for disobeying God’s commandment.
Jesus himself came to inspire and convict those who are called to a different way of life. He gave them a different standard of righteousness. In Matthew 5:20 and following Jesus said, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. 21. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill (commit murder); and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 23. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
We need to be right with our brother before we can be right with God. If you claim to love your brother whom you have seen and yet keep resentment against him, how can you love God whom you have not seen? In order to approach God’s throne of grace, then com with clean hands and a clean heart. This means to reconcile with your brother and your neighbor to come to God with a heart free from guile and vindictiveness. Then when we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When our vertical relationship with God is aligned, as we walk in the light of Christ as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will (continue to) cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Jesus emphasized the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. Living the beatitudes… to love your wife and to forgive others is to forsake worldly attitudes… to give up a spirit of anger, strife, contention, vindictiveness, and resentment. Instead we reconcile our hearts with God’s heart with meekness and humility… with a broken heart mourning over the sin nature that has separated our souls from God’s Holy Spirit. When we ask God for forgiveness God cleanses our hearts by the of the blood of Christ, for he is our perfect sacrifice for sin, having shed his innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood. Then we can walk in the newness of the spirit of life in Christ.
Samuel said, God doesn’t want your sacrifice at the altar… he wants your heart. He wants us to bow our hearts in humble adoration before we bow the knee. The object of prayer is to align my heart with God’s heart. As Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will but thine be done.”
David prayed in Psalm 51 after having committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdering her husband Uriah to cover up the adultery: “God, against you and you only have I sinned. Create in me a new heart O Lord and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.” A broken and a contrite heart is the beginning of confession and reconciliation. In order to forsake sin, we need to recognize the sin that doth so easily beset us. Then we can come to our Father with a broken heart of meekness and humility. As David prayed, “Be merciful unto me O Lord according to your infinite mercy and loving kindness, blot out my transgressions.”
Who pursued whom? Did we seek God or did he seek us? God himself was the prime mover. For In that while we were yet sinners, Chrsit died for the ungodly. God has called us from a wold of sin and iniquity into the glorious light of the gospel of truth. Before the foundation of the world he chose us and elected us to be the holy and without blame before him in love. This is amazing grace… this is unfailing love. For Christ came not into the world to condemn the world but that they world through him might be saved.
Jesus said… A new commandment give I you… that you should love each other as I have loved you…
… that we may ever live together in fellowship with Him to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
