What is God like? There are many good answers to this question. God is holy. God is love. God is just. God is joy. These are all true. Actually, these are our sermon topics for the next 3-4 weeks. This Sunday, we will center on the love of God. Christ said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” Furthermore, John writes in his first letter, “God is love.”
What a marvelous reality! Is there greater news than this? Certainly not! Is there a more excellent truth that makes the heart sing with more exuberant joy than this? It has yet to be found.
I was reading a book and an article on Biblical Counseling. The author proposed that in the beginning at the Garden man was unified. They had a unified self. After the Fall, sin broke everything. The once unified self is now the divided self. This divided self is manifested in two parts: 1) the needing self and 2) the rejected self.
The needing self cries out, “I need to belong,” “I need self-esteem,” “I need strength.” The rejected self groans, “I do not belong,” “I am ashamed—I do not have self-esteem,” “and I am weak and helpless—I do not have strength.”
I wonder which cry or groan each of you are more prone to feel. Depending on which is stronger in you, you might tend to be one who moves toward people, or one who moves against people, or one who moves away from people. We all have some aspect of this divided, broken self.
So then, what do we do with this paralyzing and ever-permeating human problem? If we are to follow in the steps of the first Adam, we would hide, blame shift, and try to cover our shame with lousy fig leaves (the modern forms of fig leaves might be money, success, pleasure, power, entertainment, cosmetics, etc.).
But the invitation this Sunday will be to abide in the greater Adam, who is Christ. He was rejected on our behalf, so that we might be accepted. He became poor, so that we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). He was given over to death and despair, so that we might have life and joy forevermore.
I invite you to read John 13-17 throughout the remainder of this week. Focus on John 15:9, and ask God to show you the Spirit of his love more intensely and deeply, so that you might taste and see that the Lord is good.
My prayer today for each and every one of you is that God would pour out his love into your hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5). Please pray this for me and for one another in the LifeWay family.
With great love for you,
Tim Kim