Lovest Thou Me ? 



Jesus did not ask Peter to keep some doctrine or whether he understood and would promise to keep some command; He simply asked: Lovest thou me? I am convinced that through the tunnel of time into eternity the same words echo: Lovest Thou me?

God is not really interested in all the silly things we keep as so important, that we sometimes in hindsight have to shake our heads at ourselves in stunned, amazement that we let a thing that silly upset us. He does not care how much money, popularity or knowledge we have. He does not care if we miss it daily and struggle a lifetime with the same sin. No, He does not. He wants to know if we love Him and if we love one another.

Jesus gave us two commandments, ONLY two. Love God with all that is in you and  love one another as I have loved you . And then He says: if you love me you would obey My commandment. He is talking about loving one another as He loves us. Can we do this? Loving God seems easy if this second part is not attached.

The new testament teaches that if we say that we love God and hate our brother( or sister) that we are liars. - This does not mean that we have to stick around to be abused by some other person's brokenness. Since we all have some form or another of misinformation about the idea of love, let's just look for a minute at the way that He loves.

He left heaven, union with the Father, to empty Himself of all His divine attributes and live on earth as a humble man, a slave, and then allow His body to be abused and tortured to death; carrying in His soul the grief of our sins and twisted-ness, so that we can have the choice to sin or not. How is that for love? While we were His enemies, Christ died. For a good person that will accomplish good things, for our children, we may be willing to do this, but He demonstrated His love to us, in that He allowed this atrocity to be committed against Him, the innocent, while we were dirty, rotten scoundrels. To top it off, we can continue in our sin, if we so choose. ( We will reap the reward, the wages of our sin if that is our choice.) Maybe we would be willing to die for a sinner if he or she will promise to amend their ways... But He did not add any condition to His sacrifice, except that we believe in Him and appropriate His sacrifice to ourselves.

Can we really comprehend such unconditional love? Can we really wrap our hearts and minds around such a Savior?

This Love, this awesomeness, is enough to fill me up to overflow with love, adoration, gratefulness and worship. What do you do with a God like this? He loves me. He loves you. He is love.

A Complete Redemption

Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

There is a fourfold suffering in this verse for a fourfold result. Jesus did not leave some of redemption undone. There is no longer any other sacrifice needed. He did it all. The redemption is complete.

1. Transgressions are acts of rebellion and apostasy. It is the willful deviation from the path of righteousness, pre-meditatively crossing the line. It is the times when knowing right we do wrong. He was profaned and defiled. He was violated, subjecting Himself to violence, for the redemption of those who live by violence. He was desecrated for the filth and defilement of the lowest of humankind. He bore the penalty. There is no sin; how violent, putrid or gross, that He did not pay for this.

2.But He was also crushed. He was humbled and humiliated, afflicted. oppressed and broken in pieces just as we humans are. I often wondered at the mockery of the soldiers... It was for our iniquities, our depravity, for the perverseness of our crookedness on the inside. It was for our sinful twistedness, our misery, our faults. He paid the price. He was crushed, mocked, humiliated so that we can say "no" to shame and guilt. Jesus took that shame and guilt so that you can be free.

3. He was punished, chastised and bound. Disciplined... and in it all, did not break out but obeyed even unto death. Jesus submitted Himself to the will of God and obeyed. His obedience bought our peace. So much more than absence of strife. It is well being, wholeness, friendship; to live in security, tranquility and welfare. It means to be successful and blessed.

4. He was beaten, bruised, black-and-blued and hurt with so many stripes - without number-, for our healing and wholeness. He endured the Roman 'cat' for our healing. Now this healing is not only a privilege, a gift but also a responsibility. He suffered so that we may be healed. What does it say of our value of this suffering if we refuse this healing.

It is clear that Jesus Christ paid the complete price for a complete salvation: body, soul and spirit. There is no part of the human experience that is not covered. We have a responsibility to walk in this complete redemption. Be the best you can be. Do the best you can do. Find the will of God and obey it.

Every question humanity has, has been answered in Jesus Christ.