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The Principle of Love in the Law, May 17
We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
.
There is no evidence of genuine repentance unless it works reformation. If he
restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, confess his sins, and love God and
his fellowmen, the sinner may be sure that he has passed from death unto life.
When, as erring, sinful beings, we come to Christ and become partakers of His
pardoning grace, love springs up in the heart. Every burden is light, for the yoke
that Christ imposes is easy. Duty becomes a delight, and sacrifice a pleasure. The
path that before seemed shrouded in darkness, becomes bright with beams from the
Sun of Righteousness.
The loveliness of the character of Christ will be seen in His followers. It was His
delight to do the will of God. Love to God, zeal for His glory, was the controlling
power in our Saviour’s life. Love beautified and ennobled all His actions. Love is of
God. The unconsecrated heart cannot originate or produce it. It is found only in the
heart where Jesus reigns. “We love, because he first loved us” (
1 John 4:19
, RV). In
the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the principle of action. It modifies the
character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and ennobles
the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life and sheds a refining
influence on all around.
There are two errors against which the children of God—particularly those who
have just come to trust in His grace—especially need to guard. The first ... is that of
looking to their own works, trusting to anything they can do, to bring themselves
into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in
keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. All that man can do without Christ
is polluted with selfishness and sin. It is the grace of Christ alone, through faith, that
can make us holy.
The opposite and no less dangerous error is that belief in Christ releases men
from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the
grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.
But notice here that obedience is not a mere outward compliance, but the service
of love. The law of God is an expression of His very nature; it is an embodiment
of the great principle of love, and hence is the foundation of His government in
heaven and earth. If our hearts are renewed in the likeness of God, if the divine love
is implanted in the soul, will not the law of God be carried out in the life? When
the principle of love is implanted in the heart, when man is renewed after the image
of Him that created him, the new covenant promise is fulfilled.... Obedience—the
service and allegiance of love—is the true sign of discipleship (
Steps to Christ, 59,
60
).
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