The
One Love That Endures |
A series of
four studies on the matter of covenant.
by Grant
Thorpe
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It is hard
to live, and certainly impossible to make progress, without
love. Everything worthwhile in life needs the certainty,
the hope, the resilience, the joy, the sacrifice, the
forgiveness and the indifference to pettiness which are
part of an enduring love. |
| All that
is best in life still has to do with love-whether it is
the kindness of a friend, the affection of a child or
the many years of a faithful partnership. More particularly,
the best things in life are what we have given to others,
our putting others before ourselves, forgetting for a
time that we had needs of our own because of finding our
life in the life of another-living outside of ourselves. |
| We may have
stepped back from love by saying that we don't hate. But
the coolness of this, the indifference, is sometimes harder
to bear than outright hostility. Love is what it is-and
no number of surrogates will persuade us that there is
no such thing as love. |
One
locale for love |
It may be
provocative to say that there is one love that endures.
Each of us likes to think that we have within us reliable
affections for others. But, as we say, 'there has to be
a limit'. We are saying that human loves have reasonable
'cut off' points. |
| The disciple
of Jesus-Peter-earnestly protested to his Lord that he
would be faithful, even to death, but Jesus seemed strangely
unimpressed by his devotion. 'Will you lay down your life
for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows,
you will have denied me three times.' |
| Jesus could
see the limits of Peter's love and provided him with a
larger frame of reference. He added: 'Do not let your
hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me'.
Our attentions need to be diverted from the confidence
we have in our own affections, or from the doubts we have
about loving, to the amazing faithful love of God and
his Christ. |
| Love is
of God. It is not in that we love God. It is not in that
we love each other either. Even Jesus wanted to deny that
anyone other than God was good: 'Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.' |
Participating
in God's love-through covenant |
It was to
Israel especially that God revealed the mystery of love,
and he did this by keeping his covenant with them. His
purpose was not merely to demonstrate love to them. That
could be alienating because they would be unable to respond
in kind. His covenants included them-where they were-so
that they were caught up into his purpose for the world.
|
| God is still
known today as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because
he poured himself out for them and into them-and through
them to other nations. These fathers of Israel found their
lives so supported by the Lord's favour that they were
drawn out to accomplish his ends rather than their own-or,
perhaps I should say, their purposes were changed to be
one with the God who had befriended them. |
| But it is
through the nation of Israel that grew from this family
that God's love was displayed to the world. The people
of Israel were the special focus of God's attention. Through
Moses and the prophets and their experiences in history,
they knew that God had chosen them. He had loved them
and was fulfilling a promise made earlier to Abraham.
He called this 'keeping his covenant'. |
| They were
rescued from slavery in Egypt. They were sustained on
their way to Canaan. They were met by God at Mount Sinai
and told how to live as the people of God. They were pardoned
by God for gross sin. They were chastened for unfaithfulness.
Later, they were given military conquest of the promised
land. |
| In all of
this, they were made partners with God-as he was holy,
so they were to be holy, and he provided the way for this
to occur-especially through atoning sacrifices. They participated
with him in his purpose as he participated with them in
their life. |
| The whole
Bible could rightly be seen as one long love story. God
had promised to bless the family of Abraham-and through
him, the world, and now, he was fulfilling his promise.
Certainly, his love was eternal. Another way of saying
the same thing is that his covenant was eternal. |
| Israel often
talked of God's steadfast love-and often linked this with
his keeping of covenant. They also linked it with his
choosing them to be his people. Choosing is essential
to love. No-one is impressed with a generalist love which
never alights on a particular person. God's love is specific
and intentional. |
| Steadfast
love conveyed warmth of affection. Behind the choosing
and saving of Israel was an unexplainable affection-rooted
in God himself and beyond scrutiny. Steadfast love is
also closely linked with mercy-God had compassion on his
people when they suffered through their sinfulness. |
| The true
people of Israel loved the God of steadfast love. In some
way, they became like the God they worshipped. He was
their God, and they were his people. |
Love
is of God |
We are inclined
to think of our relationships in terms of rights and self-fulfilment-of
'having' a relationship. All this assumes that a human
being is something in and of themselves. Even the pursuit
of intimacy becomes an exercise in self-discovery and
further isolates us from others. Community cannot be built
out of people who are 'into themselves'. |
| The selfishness
and divisiveness of human living appears to be insurmountable-when
we are confronted with it. But there is a power more potent
than discord. It is the love of God. We may think that
we have had the last word about God. But God has had the
last word about us-and it is not that we suffer for our
foolishness. It is that we be joined again to his loving. |
| God is love.
We cannot say this of any god-or any view of God, but
only of the God and Father of Jesus. While it should be
plain enough in the creation, it is declared to us in
Jesus Christ that God remains as love-love in himself,
love for the creation, love for sinners, love stronger
than death, love large enough to complete what he has
begun. |
| God's love
is the Father-who is the fountainhead of all things. God's
love is this love focussed on his Beloved Son. God's love
is what we see in the Son who does the will of his Father.
God's love is communion between Father and Son, and, the
flowing of the Holy Spirit who knows the depths of God
and who can reveal the Son to us. |
| This God
who created the worlds for his Son, and created a people
who would be Bride for his Son, cannot be thwarted by
our sinning. Rather, he uses this occasion to make himself
and his purpose fully known to us. |
| One of the
thrills of life-if you have not yet discovered it-is to
read the Gospel of John and observe the Son of God talking
about his Father, and to his Father. Love flowed between
them freely. Each gave to the other, received from the
other, honoured the other and served the other. The Father
entrusted all of his creation to the Son, and the Son
trusted the will of his Father entirely. |
| But the
amazing thing in this relationship is that we are not
left to merely observe it. Observation invites admiration,
and perhaps, emulation, or perhaps, competition. But here,
we are being invited to participation. Jesus knew that
the love of God encompassed us. He knew the love of his
Father as no other knew it, but he knew it was for all
of us. |
| He knew
also that he was to lay down his life for those the Father
loved. What manner of love can call on the one on whom
it is focussed to die for the others that it longs to
encompass? The Father's love longs for this: that we should
say 'Father!' as Jesus said 'Father!' Therefore, the Son
entered into our life, and into the alienation that we
had fostered, and into the death that was its judgement.
|
| Here is
love that endures, and nowhere else. We broke communion
with our Maker but we did not escape the covenant for
which we were born. Love has come to us through God revealing
himself, and through his reconciling us to himself. It
has come as a love story of incomparable beauty-that we
should be prepared as a Bride for the Son. For this Bride
he spared himself nothing-so that she would be completely
his own. |
| It is true,
God is bonded to us in faithfulness. His covenant is eternal.
His love is enduring. Through all the meandering of our
sinfulness and the faintness of our affections, God has
been no less our God, and, has called us to participate
in his loving. |
Covenant
love endures |
What then
is the most potent of all powers? God's covenant love
has reached to us, not through spectacular demonstration,
or conclusive victory-not yet. But Jesus Christ is the
faithful love of God in person. Because he is raised from
the dead and ascended to the God's right hand, nothing
can separate us from the love of God in Christ. He lives
forever for this-to intervene on our behalf. |
| What then
of our awful emptiness? What of our erratic affections?
What of our discoveries that everything is tainted with
selfishness? What of our unfinished loving and problems
still unresolved? These are just so many paths provided
by our loving Father for us to find our way back to his
love. Our sin was that we wanted to love from within ourselves.
Our salvation is that God gives us more than ever we lost-his
love, straight from a cross and an empty tomb.
|
| Ahead of
us is a wedding in which our beauty will be feted by our
true Lover, and we will be ushered into the mysteries
of love which only the Father and the Son can know. In
anticipation of such delights which covenant love secures
for us-remember, we do not generate love-we can trust
him for all that is past, and for all that is now, and
for all that is to come. Love flows into our hears now
because the Holy Spirit is given to us. |
To
consider |
What are
the various ways in which you see love being pursued?
Can anyone distance themselves from the matter of love? |
| Why is it
important for the revelation of love to be told as a story-a
history? |
| What does
it mean that God's love is directed to us specifically?
What does it mean that it encompasses us? |
| What changes
come to us when we know the love of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit ? |
| Why is the
death of Christ so significant in our coming to know the
love of God? |
| Will constancy
of love ever be a human characteristic? If so, in what
sense? |
To
read |
Exod. 34;
Deut. 4:37; 7:6-9; 10:14-15; |
| John 17;
Rom. 5:1-5; 8:31-39 |
|
| ©
Grant Thorpe |
