Love for Christ and Law Keeping

[Peters]

Scott

Marcos,

You've (perhaps inadvertently) missed the meaning of this important Text by changing the wording

Brother, I didn´t change the wording. That is how it is translated in the NKJV and the KJV. The NASB and ESV translations include "œyou will". In any case, it doesn´t make any difference to what the question is about. In either translation, love is present in the soul before law-keeping overflows from it. I wanted to discuss how one nurtures that love apart from law-keeping since law-keeping is the result of it not the cause of it.

Btw, your original question of "loving Christ".....we can only love Christ because He FIRST loved us. That's the answer. He does the work; He gives dead-souls, faith.

Absolutely. However, I think this answers the question: How does one *get* love for Christ? I was thinking more about how one *nurtures* this love apart from law-keeping once it has been granted. But, yes, we come to love Christ by the grace of God alone. Amen.

Faith is NOT a work! It is a gift - the connection that links us to Christ. To think that faith is a work in any sense, misses the understanding of the "call to faith" in the Gospel.

This in interesting to me, I´m not sure if I agree that faith is not a work (it is certainly a gift though). I´m going to start a thread about this in the Theological Forum. I hope you post in it, brother.

Let us ALL be very careful with God's Holy Word....and never-ever read a Bible verse. Read the whole book; chapter; epistle, Etc. Find out what the writer intended to communicate to the reader.

Amen.

 

[Peters]

David

His commands are not burdensome, look at the ark that contained the commandments, quite small and light and carried by 4 people, He just wants us to love one another as He loved us

Please don´t misunderstand me; I´m not saying that the commandments of God are burdensome (unless of course you are seeking to be justified by them). I´m saying that they will be burdensome if they do not come from a love for Christ that is present in the soul *before hand*. This is how we got onto sanctification by faith.

 

[Peters]

John

Marcos:

Thank you for your questions. Its helped me a great deal in going through some questions that I myself had. Last night a light came on. Dealing with your questions sparked it. Thanks.

Brother, this has been something that has helped me greatly too. I am so prone to get caught up in the externals of law-keeping at the expense of love and devotion from the inner-man. I don´t want to simply tick off acts of obedience and call that sanctification. This is such an obvious error to point out, but I see people (myself included) falling to it all the time, and before you know it the affections are as dry as a bone, which in turn opens up the door to a host of temptations. I am grateful for your participation here, John.

 

[just_grace]

Salvation...

Originally posted by Peters
David

His commands are not burdensome, look at the ark that contained the commandments, quite small and light and carried by 4 people, He just wants us to love one another as He loved us

Please don´t misunderstand me; I´m not saying that the commandments of God are burdensome (unless of course you are seeking to be justified by them). I´m saying that they will be burdensome if they do not come from a love for Christ that is present in the soul *before hand*. This is how we got onto sanctification by faith.

... is by Grace alone, He just wants us to love one another. All the requirements of the law are met In Christ and our lives are HIDDEN in Him.

Praise His name.