Thesis 28 -- The Qualitative Distinctions of Love
There is simply nothing like God's love. God's love is so high above ours, so powerful and transformational, there's really no comparison. I suppose that living in the veritable "light" of that love is what will make heaven as wonderful as it will be.
Here's thesis 28: The love of God does not first discover but creates what is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through attraction to what is pleasing to it.
J C Ryle echoed Luther when he wrote, "Our love is excited by the extraordinary charms of worth and grace... Who ever loved that which was altogether hateful? Such is the manner of man." The manner of our God is entirely different. "God loves us before one particle of grace enters our soul, when we are a loathsome mass of vice and iniquity. God loves that which is altogether unlovely." (Holiness)
God "loves sinners, evil persons, fools, and weaklings in order to make them righteous, good, wise and strong. Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good." (113)
Look it, here's the truth about me and my "love". I have problems loving even those I find lovable. That's not to say that the Lord hasn't worked in my heart, but the longer I bask in God's love for me in Christ, the more I understand that I don't really love like this at all. In fact, I think it's kind of funny when people make fools of themselves on WipeOut and bounce off those big balls or get smashed in the gut with the sweeper. Oh, for the day when I can look into the face of my brothers and sisters and really love them...freely, genuinely, generously. But in the meantime, my love is "awakened by attraction to what pleases it. It must search to find its object and, one might add, will likely toss it aside when it tires of it." (113) So, won't you please sign up for WipeOut so I can laugh at you?
Christ did not come to call the righteous (lovable). He came to call unlovable sinners. "This is the love of the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction where it does not find good that it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and needy person. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Go figure. Did you ever understand that verse in that context? I sure didn't.)
"God is not, as in the theology of glory, one who waits to approve of those who have improved themselves, made themselves acceptable, or merited approval [through believing!], but [he is] one who bestows good on the bad and needy." (113)
And so we come to the end of our disputation. We began talking about our utter poverty and inability to obey the law. We must die. "The sinner must be reduced to nothing." (114) We must suffer the humiliation of knowing we bring nothing but debt. But we can face this destruction of our "ego" because we've been loved. We haven't been loved because of anything lovable within us. We've been loved because He chose to love us and in that very act of choosing us and loving us into His kingdom, he's made us perfectly righteous. It's from this position of having been loved like this that experiential heart change takes place. We begin to love others -- not in any effort to earn or merit -- but simply in response to what he's done in loving us. God looks over the whole earth of our hearts, sees that they are formless and void, sends the Spirit to brood over us, and creates that which he can look upon and call "very good." He creates ex nihilo -- out of nothing. From the "nothing" of our souls he creates beauty that pleases him.
In Christ we have true goodness because God's love is powerfully transformative and makes us, by the very act of loving us, worthy of love. Yippee?!
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I've enjoyed doing this study with you all. Thanks to all of you, particularly those of you who posted. Thanks for the lively discussions and pushing me to think more deeply.
I'll be back to this in a few days with some thoughts on how we might proceed from here. Oh, BTW, if you're interested you might check out my store at www.shop.elysefitzpatrick.com. I'm trying to help fund our son Joel's seminary education, so if you want to buy any of my resources, please check us out and Joel will be glad to serve you.
Why don't you write back with your fav Luther/Forde quote? Thanks for dropping by.
Here's thesis 28: The love of God does not first discover but creates what is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through attraction to what is pleasing to it.
J C Ryle echoed Luther when he wrote, "Our love is excited by the extraordinary charms of worth and grace... Who ever loved that which was altogether hateful? Such is the manner of man." The manner of our God is entirely different. "God loves us before one particle of grace enters our soul, when we are a loathsome mass of vice and iniquity. God loves that which is altogether unlovely." (Holiness)
God "loves sinners, evil persons, fools, and weaklings in order to make them righteous, good, wise and strong. Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good." (113)
Look it, here's the truth about me and my "love". I have problems loving even those I find lovable. That's not to say that the Lord hasn't worked in my heart, but the longer I bask in God's love for me in Christ, the more I understand that I don't really love like this at all. In fact, I think it's kind of funny when people make fools of themselves on WipeOut and bounce off those big balls or get smashed in the gut with the sweeper. Oh, for the day when I can look into the face of my brothers and sisters and really love them...freely, genuinely, generously. But in the meantime, my love is "awakened by attraction to what pleases it. It must search to find its object and, one might add, will likely toss it aside when it tires of it." (113) So, won't you please sign up for WipeOut so I can laugh at you?
Christ did not come to call the righteous (lovable). He came to call unlovable sinners. "This is the love of the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction where it does not find good that it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and needy person. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Go figure. Did you ever understand that verse in that context? I sure didn't.)
"God is not, as in the theology of glory, one who waits to approve of those who have improved themselves, made themselves acceptable, or merited approval [through believing!], but [he is] one who bestows good on the bad and needy." (113)
And so we come to the end of our disputation. We began talking about our utter poverty and inability to obey the law. We must die. "The sinner must be reduced to nothing." (114) We must suffer the humiliation of knowing we bring nothing but debt. But we can face this destruction of our "ego" because we've been loved. We haven't been loved because of anything lovable within us. We've been loved because He chose to love us and in that very act of choosing us and loving us into His kingdom, he's made us perfectly righteous. It's from this position of having been loved like this that experiential heart change takes place. We begin to love others -- not in any effort to earn or merit -- but simply in response to what he's done in loving us. God looks over the whole earth of our hearts, sees that they are formless and void, sends the Spirit to brood over us, and creates that which he can look upon and call "very good." He creates ex nihilo -- out of nothing. From the "nothing" of our souls he creates beauty that pleases him.
In Christ we have true goodness because God's love is powerfully transformative and makes us, by the very act of loving us, worthy of love. Yippee?!
************************************************************************
I've enjoyed doing this study with you all. Thanks to all of you, particularly those of you who posted. Thanks for the lively discussions and pushing me to think more deeply.
I'll be back to this in a few days with some thoughts on how we might proceed from here. Oh, BTW, if you're interested you might check out my store at www.shop.elysefitzpatrick.com. I'm trying to help fund our son Joel's seminary education, so if you want to buy any of my resources, please check us out and Joel will be glad to serve you.
Why don't you write back with your fav Luther/Forde quote? Thanks for dropping by.
It's really hard for me to narrow it down to one favorite quote. This book was eye opening for me.
I really liked the picture this passage gave me from page 105-106:
"Works performed on the premise that one was going to BECOME righteous thereby are not good to begin with. They defend us against the goodness of God. They are done not for the neighbor but for the glory of the self. Works that can be called good, however, flow FROM righteousness as from an overflowing vessel, not into it as an empty one waiting to be filled....The cross has reversed everything. The foolishness of God in the cross is wiser than the wisdom of the world. The righteousness that avails before God is a being claimed by the crucified and resurrected Christ. It is not like accomplishing something but like dying and coming to life. It is not like earning something but more like falling in love. It is not the attainment of a long-sought goal, the arrival at the end of a process, but the beginning of something absolutely new, something never before heard of or entertained."
I think my favorite passage though is from pages 109-110 which you quoted in your previous post. I hope you don't mind that it's long.
"The insistence that only those works are truly good that are done spontaneously and joyously out of faith, hope, and love belongs to the very heart and soul of Luther's Reformation. That is why he can make the claim that faith doesn't have to be prompted to do good works because in faith everything is already done. This seems a preposterous claim. It is based, however, not on any claim we can make about ourselves but on the fact that the Christ who creates faith has fulfilled all things. Indeed, one should not miss the spectacular nature of the claim here. The believer is not being exhorted to do works on the basis of faith in order to catch up with what is demanded. Rather, the announcement is made that because the Christ who has fulfilled all things dwells within the person of faith, everything has ALREADY been done! There is simply nothing to do!
Here is a drastic parting of ways with a theology of glory. The Christ of the crass TAKES AWAY the possibility of doing something. The theologian of glory might be able to follow to the point of accepting the truth that Christ has fulfilled all things, but then that will have to be used as motivational fuel to make sure the law gets its due. The point is precisely that the power to do good comes only out of this wild claim that everything has ALREADY been done. The language has to break out into preaching. Never mind that when we look to ourselves we find no sign of good works. Never mind our fears and anxieties. We are looking in the wrong place. Look to Christ! He has done it all! Nothing will be gained by trying to shore up the Old Adam. Christ leaves nothing for the Old Adam and Eve to do. The old can only be killed by the law, not given artificial respiration by recourse to it..." to be cont.
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"....That is the point of the language here and its exuberance. To the theologian of the cross the language of grace and faith must be pushed absolutely to this length-until it kills the old and raises the new. Nothing at all will ever be gained by backing down. We will only fall back into law where the demand continues endlessly and nothing is ever finally done. So we can only let the language of grace sound forth. Grace says, 'believe it' and everything-EVERYTHING!-is already done. It is the creative Word of God. If that doesn't work then nothing will."
Thank you, Elyse, for taking the time to read through this book and also to write comments for all of us. Your comments really helped me to digest each theses. Thank you for your faithful service to us and to the Lord!!!
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John Piper just linked this article on Twitter. It reminded me of all we have been talking about here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1995/1564_Brothers_Tell_Them_Not_to_Serve_God/
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Hi All -- I saw that Tweet, too, and have been thinking about how he said that the gospel is not a help wanted sign. Exactly what we've been saying. Today I'm trying to remember that I going to church so he can serve me. Thanks for posting all of this.
Here's a post from Michele,
"Therefore the sinner must be reduced to nothing in order to be saved. The presupposition of the entire Disputation is laid bare. It is the hope of the resurrection. God brings life out of death. He calls into being that which is from that which is not. In order that there be a resurrection, the sinner must die. All presumptions must be ended. The truth must be seen" (pg. 114).
This is my favorite quote for the day because it helps me to understand suffering in a way that glorifies God. It takes the focus off my suffering, as far as that can actually be done, and puts my focus back on the hope of the resurrection. The hope of an eternal good, a good that is worth waiting for, a good where I actually "stretch my neck out" as it were and look for this hope with the expectation of God bringing life out of death.
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The final thesis blew me away with a new (to me) definition of love--"It is love, the love of God that creates out of nothing, calls into being that which is from that which is not." (p. 112-113). God's love creates! I have heard that it initiates, confers good, saves, gives...but I had never imagined that it creates me from nothing. I knew I was a new creation in Christ, but I didn't realize that I was "without form and void" before, that this new creation now forms and fills me. Our salvation is even greater than we realized...our Savior is even more wonderful than we have formerly believed!
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