Preached by David Hughes on May 13, 2012

LIVING UNDER THE CONTROL OF LOVE

Last month in Heart to Heart we shared about living without guilt.  Jesus made a way for us to have a life free from judgment, condemnation and guilt.  How?  Through His sacrifice for us and as us He took all the judgment of sin.  Having paid the just requirement we no longer are under condemnation and guilt – ever!  For us to truly live in Christ we can no longer continue to hold on to guilt as if it is ours to own.  We have no more right to embrace guilt than Jesus does, because what He has done is make His condition, our condition.  As He is so are we, in this world (1 John 4:17).

It seems though that guilt is used by so many against the children of God in order to motivate and move them.  We have held before us some standard of God’s acceptance of which we are told we fall short of.  So in light of our failure, the resulting guilt is used to motivate us to try harder and be a better christian and hopefully gain God’s favor and acceptance.  It’s like a little mouse in his cage running on that little metal wheel.  No matter how hard he runs, he gets nowhere.  So it is with guilt, it may create some activity but it never will gain us God’s acceptance or produce His fruit through our lives.  So what is left to control and govern the child of God if guilt and condemnation have truly been removed?  One thing . . . love.

2 Corinthians 5:14 says . . .

“For the love of Christ controls us having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.”  [NASB]

“In every case Christ’s love motivates and rules us because we recognize that He died for everyone, and therefore all persons died with Him.  But He died – He has given His life for all of us – so that all persons may come alive and live through Him.”  [Ben Campbell Johnson translation}

"For with us it is Christ's love that governs everything. . ."   [Cassirer translation]

God is love.  It simply is who He is.  It’s His very nature and that is the nature He has put inside us as a new creation in Him.  The love of God controls, compels, governs, rules, motivates and animates us.  There is nothing any more powerful or life changing than God’s love – we must simply learn to trust and yield to His nature in us.  I’ve heard many tell children of God not to get to caught up in just the love of God, we have to remember He is a God of wrath also.  Such a statement is made in not understanding two main things.  One is that the wrath of God has been totally satisfied at the cross (Isaiah 53:10-11).  The other is they see God’s love as weak in being the only thing needed to truly govern, control and change us.  Thus there is a reliance on guilt and condemnation and the threat of judgment to get it done.  We must learn to live in the control of God’s love in us, it is more than enough.  Don’t be fooled to think that guilt and condemnation could ever produce greater fruit than the compeling love of Christ.

The nature of God, which is love, is lived out through us by the Holy Spirit within us.  I am in no way advocating sin and a “do as you please” attitude under the idea of love.  The truth is in yielding to the love of Christ within, we are yielding to the nature of God to be the very life expressed through us.  We are actually saying to the Lord for Him to “do as He pleases” through us.  The result could never be sin (to miss the mark) when we do this, it would be the expression of righteousness and love (which in fact is the mark that sin misses).  We must choose to live by the correct law.  The law of commandments only produces condemnation and guilt and never leads to righteousness.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ, which is love, only lives out in righteousness and never leads to condemnation and guilt.  Thank you Jesus for giving your life for us, so that you could give your life to us, so that you could truly live your life through us - it’s the only real freedom.

Love in Christ,

Pastor David Hughes

Preached by David Hughes on May 6, 2012

Preached by David Hughes on April 29, 2012

The last 5 minutes of this message did not record, it will be recapped at the beginning of Part 4 of this series.

LIVING WITHOUT GUILT

Guilt is possibly the worst means of control or motivation to use on anyone – it simply does not work.  The greatest problem though, might be the fact that it “appears” to bring results.  We see people use it in relationships by taking some wrong that was done and holding it over someone’s head in order to get them to respond a certain way.  Religion and legalism use it to get people to behave and act right.  In fact, without it they see no means at all for the Lord to control people.  I’ve even heard and seen some use the cross of Jesus as something to invoke guilt in order to compel people to some action.  I’ve heard some say, “Jesus was willing to die on the cross for you, can’t you at least keep the nursery, or drive the bus, or pray for an hour”, . . .  and the list goes on.  There is certainly nothing wrong with any of these actions, but the cross was never meant to be used to create guilt to motivate us.  It is in fact the means in which God in Christ removed our guilt and sins.

Last month in Heart to Heart we looked at the verdict that was on sin – and the conclusion was, we were guilty.  But Jesus in His redemptive sacrifice took away (removed) our sin, abolishing the condemnation and guilt and resurrected us in Him a new creation in Christ, justified and righteous in Him.  Romans 8:1 says . . .

“Therefore there in now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”   [NASB]

“Now there is no accusing voice nagging those who are united to Jesus Christ.”   [Ben Cambell Johnson]

This being so, no verdict of ‘guilty’ goes forth any longer against the christian, he lives in closest union with Christ.”  [Sanday & Headlam]

So if we are in Christ why do some continue to live as if under guilt?  The weight of guilt comes when we believe we have a sense of obligation to make payment for a sin or offense before God.  We still believe we are under judgment and its consequence before Him.  In other words, we owe Him.  We feel He has placed some requirement on us in order to earn or merit His love and favor.  We know we really could never meet such a demand and so we fail and fall short – and thus, we live “guilty”.

What if Jesus did in fact meet that requirement, what if He really did totally . . .  pay the bill.  We live feeling guilty before God because we don’t understand that Jesus made full restitution for sin – our sin.  His sacrifice of Himself paid everything, once . . . for all . . . for all time (Hebrews 10:10-12)!  It seems so hard for us to believe such an act of love and mercy and grace.  Even when we see he paid the bill we want to at least leave the tip – we try to add something.  But nothing else is needed, He was the total sacrifice taking away sin and removing all guilt.  So we should no longer live with a guilty conscience (Hebrews 10:2) but in the freedom of His love and grace.

Next month in Heart to Heart we will look at the fact that if guilt has been removed then what does in fact control us.

Love in Jesus,

Pastor David Hughes

Preached by Val Rodriguez on April 22, 2012 (21st Anniversary Celebration)

Preached by David Hughes on April 15, 2012

Preached by David Hughes on April 8, 2012.

Preached by David Hughes on March 25, 2012.

WHAT’S THE VERDICT?

We have all seen this scenario play out on some T.V. show or movie . . . there sits the defendant with his lawyers, nervously waiting, and then the bailiff announces, “All rise” – and in walks the judge.  The moment of truth.  What will he say?  Guilty?  Not guilty?  Everything hindges on what the verdict is.  The verdict is a decision of guilt or innocence and the consequence that follows.  Whew!  Glad this was just a movie and I didn’t go through anything like that . . . or did I?

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 3:23-24

There would be no need for us to be redeemed and justified in Christ if we had not been guilty.  The verdict came in, the gavel fell, and all were declared guilty and separated by sin.  The whole purpose for the Law in the old testament was to expose sin for what is was, but the law could never bring righteousness to anyone – only guilt.  Now some people believe that for God to state such a verdict meant that He was void of any love or compassion and simply took some sort of morbid delight in passing out punishment.  Let’s make this clear – God has never been void of total unconditional love and compassion.  God has never had a disdain or hatred for anyone.  God hated the condition of sin that separated His creation from the relationship He desired with us . . . so, because of His great love, He did something about it.

“But now, apart form the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.”  Romans 3:21-22

Jesus became a man and on the cross identified with the very thing that kept us separated – sin.  So now through faith in Christ we are justified and made righteous.  We are brought back into relationship through Jesus.

“Although Christ never experienced any sin whatsoever, in our behalf God identified Him with everything in the whole realm of sin in order that by trusting in Him we might become recipients of God’s righteousness.”  2 Corinthians 5:21 [Blackwelder translation]

The verdict was guilty and there was no way around it, so Jesus for us and as us paid the consequence of sin so we could have a relationship free from a guilty verdict – in other words, justified.  We need to also understand what justification is not.  As one author puts it, it is not to be acquitted, which is to successfully defend ourselves against the charges (we had no grounds for such a defense).  It is not to be pardoned, which is to be found guilty and just given a second chance (Jesus didn’t give a second chance, He gave us a new life).  It also does not mean to be paroled, which is to be found guilty and set free with certain restrictions (some people must think going to church is just so they can check in with their parole officer).

Through Jesus we are now justified.  The final verdict is in – we are now innocent, not guilty in Christ!  This verdict did not come because the gavel fell, but because the blood of Jesus fell.  We must see the magnitude of the work of the cross in order to learn to live as one who is not guilty!  Not understanding our forgiveness and innocence in Christ can allow a false guilt to rob us of experiencing so much in Christ.  The new creation we now are is free from sin and it’s consequence because Jesus fully paid it all!

Love in Jesus,

Pastor David Hughes