Sunday, July 28, 2013

God's Love for People.

I have been reading The Joy of  Calvinism by Greg  Forster. In Chapter 2, he talks about the love of God as sacrificial, like the love that humans have towards each other. Now he defines love as how one behaves towards something. He mentions that this not a new idea of love instead we like it when people do or don't do things for us. He connects this with God's love for humans. Not in a general sense but in a particular sense. God love humans to save them. He says "(w)e all know that the test of my love for God is whether I'm willing to sacrifice other things I love for God's sake. But the test of God's love for me is exactly the same" 74. This is most evident when we consider the cross, as Forster notes. Jesus willing went to the cross (Jn 18:11, Matt 26:53-54) as God have gave His only son for our salvation (Jn 3:16). Jesus did think that He status as God was something to be used for His advantage but gave it up to become a slave and rescue his people (Phil 2:6-7).

This element of God's love to those whom He saved is really magnificent. God loved us  so much that we are His top priority to save us. This comes out in the promise that God works together all thing for good for the people who love Him. That God calls us to love Him in the same way that He has loved us. This is not so feeling based emotion. That is not true love, true love makes sacrifices for those they love.

This plays into how we treat God in our daily life. We show our love to God by obeying His commands because we sacrifice our own desires (Jn 14:15 c.f Matt. 16:24-25). This love is best seen within our hearts are we joyfully obey without any rebellion in our heart. Augustine makes this distinction in his treatise, The Spirit and the Letter (note that this is the title page, click next to continue to the text). God gave Jesus for our salvation and Jesus willing gave His live. We are called to do the same. Our love for God is not feeling based but is a reflection of our obedience to Him. The amazement of God's love for us should break our wills and force us to repent of our sins, our lack of obedience. We obey because of the the great love that God showed toward us in saving us through Christ. 

Friday, July 5, 2013

Ask for Wisdom

This is not normal for me to post about my morning devotional time but I needed someplace to collect thoughts. James 1:5 says "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." What caught my eye was "without reproach." In the original language it is a participle connected to God. NASB adds an "and" which is in the original. So the thought is connected to God who is a generous giver. The word reproach means to exploit a fault to belittle a person or it could mean to find a fault because the person did something wrong. The text warrants the first definition. One reason the exploiting a fault works best is because verse 5 is connected to verses 2-4 which talk about trials in life. The people are suffering therefore it makes the most sense to understand reproach as the first definition. This means that God is not using the trial to punish a person for not having wisdom. Notice it that God "gives generously to all without reproach." God does not belittle us when we lack wisdom but gives it joyfully. He does not require us to pay for the wisdom that we receive. So next time when you are in the middle of a trial, pray for wisdom and remember that God will not humiliate you because you lack it.