London pastor and preacher, Charles Spurgeon, told this tale:
Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took it to his king and said, “My lord, this is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown or ever will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” The king was touched and discerned the man’s heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, “Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want to give it to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all.” The gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing.
But there was a nobleman at the king’s court who overheard all this, and he said, “My! If that is what you get for a carrot, what if you gave the king something better?” The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, “My lord, I breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever bred or ever will; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” But the king discerned his heart and said, “Thank you,” and took the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king said, “Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.
BEAUTIFUL COMMANDS?
A man-centered understanding of and approach to God finds God useful – what I want and what God can do. I give to receive. A Jesus-centered understanding of and approach to God finds God beautiful – who He is and what He has done. I give because I've received.
We often think God’s beauty is only found in His blessings and not in His commands. But the Psalmist would disagree with us: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is IN the law of the Lord, and ON his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2, emphasis mine) Here the Psalmist’s delight is rooted in the Word of God and the fruit of that delight is not only meditation, but obedience. He finds beauty IN God’s commands.
Is this unusual, weird even? Who of us LOVES, even delights to obey and submit to authority? Who of us finds God’s commands in the bible beautiful?
Ever since the garden of Eden, humanity has been trying to divorce God’s blessings from God’s commands; but ever since Calvary, God has joined His blessings and commands in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Can I, then, really love Jesus and not obey His Word? Or can Jesus truly love me and not make demands of me in His Word?
TO OBEY OR TO LOVE?
In Jesus’ last words to His disciples, He commands them to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20). His command is not only completely legitimate because of His authority (28:18), but completely possible because of His presence (28:20).
But Jesus’ words still provoke a question: Why does He say “teaching them to observe” (or obey) and not “teaching them to love”?
The answer is that for Jesus, love is obedience and obedience is love. There is no true love for God where there is not found obedience towards God. Likewise, there is no true obedience to God where there is not found love for God.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. (John 14:15)
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me “. (14:21)
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word...Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” (14:23-24)
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” (1 John 2:3-5)
KNOWLEDGE OR OBEDIENCE?
As Christians, we often wrongly assume that the more we know about God the more we will obey God. But having biblical information about God is not the same as having a spiritual reality of God. No one knew more about the Scriptures than many of the pharisees did, yet no one loved Jesus less than they did. But there were many who knew little by comparison and yet came to know and love Jesus sincerely.
Paul teaches us in Romans that the more we disobey what we know of God, the less we come to truly know God (1:18-19). Proverbs teaches us, though, that “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” (4:18) The more we obey what we know of God, the more of God we come to truly know.
Obedience begets knowledge. There’s no light into God’s Word apart from obedience to God’s Word. There’s no light for our path in life apart from obedience on God’s path for our life. As christians, there are seasons where it seems like we’re not growing in our understanding of God and His Word and/or are not growing out of our sin and selfish patterns. Perhaps, it is because we are simply not obeying what we understand of God’s Word and taking the step He’s asking us to take, which if we did would give us light for the next step (Psalm 119:104-105) and bring us into a greater degree of knowledge of Him and conformity to Him.
HOW IS OBEDIENCE POSSIBLE?
The Psalmist cries out, “I hold my feet back from every evil way” (Psalm 119:101). Yes, this is obedience, to not sin. But why? “in order to keep your word.” The bible is not simply a means to an end. No, I don’t sin BECAUSE I want to keep your word!
Again the Psalmist cries, “I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments” (119:59-60). I not only turn my feet from something, I also turn them towards something. And I turn quickly, without delay, BECAUSE I love You!
Our obedience to God is as strong as our love for God. But immediately we feel an inconsolable, unbearable burden upon our hearts. Do we have to prove our love for God to Him? Do we have to earn from Him His love for us? WE DESPAIR: “My love for God is weak then! I disobey and fail to walk in His ways all the time.” WE HOPE: Our obedience is as strong as Jesus’ love; it is rooted in, fueled by and empowered through His love. WE DESPAIR: “Then His love must be weak!“ WE HOPE: No! His love is as strong and perfect as His obedience.
Our obedience to Him is only possible because of His love for us! It is His obedience and love that is daily being perfected in our obedience and love, as weak as they sometimes are. But we hope and rejoice: “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” (1 John 2:5)
This post is adapted from the sermon I Love The Bible part 3
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