Love isn’t a euphemism

Jesus was asked once, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" And in His answer He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4 - not one of the ten commandments by the way - Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;” And one application of that is that there is not one kind of a God of the Old Testament, and a different kind of a God that is revealed in the New Testament. There is one God, one Lord, over all, unchanging, eternal in the heavens.

But there is a trend today in some Christian circles to present God in just one dimension: as just a God of love. After all, the Bible does say that God is love, and so there is this tendency to pare all our theology and all our doctrines down to a one word definition of God. God is love. And that sounds good and plausible.

The problem with this philosophy is that God is much more than just love. But when you accept or assert that everything about God can be boiled down to just the concept of love, then you can end up destroying your theology. True theology recognizes that there are many dimensions to God’s character, and while love may be one of them, there are others that must be given equal consideration.

For instance, one of the major doctrines of God is that He is first of all holy. The Bible spends the first five books of the Bible particularly establishing the holiness of God. Take for example, when Moses saw the burning bush and went over to see what this strange thing was all about, as he was coming to the bush, the Lord spoke from the burning bush and said, “Moses, don’t come any further. Remove the sandals from your feet. For the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Before God even told him who He was or what He wanted Moses to do, first of all God establishes that even the ground around the bush was holy and Moses couldn’t just blithely approach Him.

Now in those days, names meant something about the character of a person. And so at some point in the conversation, Moses says, “Well ok, suppose I go to this people and say so and so, but then they ask me who sent me? What is His name? What shall I say to them?” And God answered, “I Am who I Am. Tell them, the I Am has sent you.”

In other words, God was saying I am so much bigger than one name. By giving Moses His name, Moses could basically put God in a box. Like Love. Once you have God in the box labeled Love, you can define Him by that, and only that. And if something comes along, or even scripture teaches something that doesn’t really fit into that box labeled Love, then you can discount it, or say it must be just a metaphor or an allegory. God really can’t mean that, otherwise God can’t be love. So God said you aren’t going to put Me in a box and label it with a name, and thus think you can define ME. I Am. I am bigger and more wonderful than that. I am unsearchable. I am unknowable. I am a mystery. I’ll tell you what I am, you won’t define what I am.

You see, if we don’t have the right understanding of the holiness of God, then we can’t really understand the grievance of our sin. And if we don’t have the proper understanding of how grievous our sin is, then we can’t really appreciate all that God has done to forgive us from our sin. And if we can’t appreciate how much it cost God to save us from our sin, then we will more than likely not worry too much when we continue in our sin. We end up with a cheap view of grace. To understand grace we need to understand God’s justice. Grace may be a free gift from a loving God, but we need to understand how costly that grace was that was purchased.

Yes, God is love. But God is also holy. And a permissive God is not a loving, holy God. So our sin had to be accounted for. And God counted our sins to Jesus. The payment for our redemption was paid for in blood by the substitution of God Himself in human form. And justice and mercy joined hands at the cross.

access to God

All religions of the world, in every culture around the world, are all interested in one basic thing, and that is access to God. There is an innate recognition in man that there must be something bigger than us, some reason for our existence, some purpose to life. And even those who would deny the existence of God must deny this realization at the very core of their existence, for as it says in Romans 1:19 “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.”

But contrary to the doctrines of many religions of the world, the Bible tells us that we are estranged and alienated from God because of sin, and therefore ignorant about God. Isaiah 59 tells us that “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

So the bad news is that man is alienated and estranged from God. He cannot grope for Him and find Him, or lay hold of Him. He cannot even really understand Him fully, but only see enough evidence around him through creation to be convicted, and that conviction and his sin is enough to condemn him. So if we are to have access to God, to know God, it is incumbent upon God to reveal Himself to man, if man is to know enough to be able to be reconciled to God. And that is the good news; the gospel, and the message of the book of Hebrews, that God has appointed Jesus to be our prophet, priest and king. Our prophet to tell us about God, our priest to mediate and minister for us to God, and our king to make us citizens of the kingdom of God.

As Hebrews 1 opens it tells us that God has set about to reveal Himself to the sons of men by first the agency of prophets - and a prophet is a person who proclaims the word of God, and then secondly God reveals Himself by the agency of a priest - who ministers to us from God and from us to God, and finally one day will reveal Himself as King over all the earth when He comes back in glory.

Since man is unable to gain access to God, God sent His Son, His exact image in human form to us. Hebrews 1 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, who whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

He became our priest, our mediator, able to grasp both man and God at the same time. He is our access to God. And there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. All who would come to the Father must come through Him. For He is the exact representation of God. This phrase found in Heb. 1:2 comes from a Greek word from which we get the word character. It speaks of an instrument, which had carved on one end a character or letter, and then would be used to press into clay or wax, leaving an exact imprint. God imprinted His character into human clay – and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father – Jesus Christ. He is our access, our great High Priest, who has gone into the holiest of heaven to intercede on our behalf, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by the blood of His own sacrifice, as the spotless lamb of God.

Hebrews 9:11 says “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

***Through the end of October, we will try to hold services on the beach, weather permitting. But in the case of inclement weather, we will hold our Sunday service at the Christian Conference Center in the heart of Bethany Beach until we move indoors permanently during the winter months.

***There will be a ladies night out, “Fall into Fellowship” at Patty McCarthy’s house on October 17 at 6:30pm. All women are encouraged to attend. Please call Susie for more information.

fall into fellowship

Just an update on the Beach Fellowship as we enter into fall. The weather has certainly been unsettled so far this season. So, starting October 9, we will have a backup available on Sunday mornings in case of inclement weather. We will keep the main objective to have services on the beach as the weather permits through the end of the month, but will also utilize the Christian Conference Center as a backup. If we have to move indoors, someone will be on the beach to direct latecomers to the Conference Center. Starting in November, we will move permanently into the Conference Center until late Spring of 2012.

As we enter into the “off season”, we just want to encourage you with the words of Paul to Timothy, that we be found faithful “to preach the word, in season and out of season…” We are continuing in our Sunday study of the book of Hebrews which is very challenging, but essential as we mature in our faith. And at our Wednesday evening Bible study, we meet at 6pm for dinner at the Harrell’s house, and then continue in our study of 2 Corinthians.

There is going to be a special women’s night out on Monday, October 17, at 6:30pm which we are calling Fall Into Fellowship which will be hosted at Patty McCarthy’s house. All women of the church are encouraged to attend. Dinner will be provided, followed by a brief word of encouragement. Please call or email for directions or more information.

It’s going to feel like fall on the beach this Sunday, October 2, so dress accordingly. Hope to see you there.