The simple, beautiful - and impossible - plan of the Almighty

The Gift of the Spirit

(1 John 3:23-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 27, 2016)

[23] And this is his commandment,

that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ

and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

[24] Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.

And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

His Commandment: Faith Working Itself Out Through Love

He is God. He is above us. He has the right to give us His demands. These are fundamental truths of our faith. He is the “I-AM.” Not us. We are the image-bearers, not the Original.

What He gives by way of commandment, is so simple and beautiful. Trust God. Let Him love through you, especially in His household, the church.

Trust God: This is what true belief is. We rest in the “Name” of Jesus the Messiah, the eternal Son of the Father. To lean on His Name is to fall into His reliable arms. Our ability to stand before God is entirely based on the obedience and death of Jesus for us.

Let Him love through you: Love is willing to suffer for the good of the beloved. Love is never me first. It is always my life for yours. Christian love is divinely initiated and comes back again to the Source. The parent who finds insight in a trying moment and the child who is made to know that someone great has just lowered himself or herself for the benefit of someone small are part of a divine drama working out in real life. Christ empowers the giver (Romans 5:1-11) and Christ insists that He is the receiver (Matthew 25:40). It all starts in the church, but whatever takes hold in the church can never be contained within that family. Whether good or ill, it spreads out into the world.

Only by the Spirit of God

So, trust God, and let Him love through you, especially in the church. Simple and beautiful? Yes. Easy to do? Not entirely. In fact, as the history of Israel amply proves, impossible. Why? Back again to Jeremiah 29:19 quoted last week: “But you would not.” Yet when faith and love are impossible with fallen man, with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

What do we need from God? What does He have for our success in this mission of faith and love that we lack? The best gift known among humanity—the gift of Himself.

How does that gift work? We live in God and He lives in us by the person of the Holy Spirit. But you may wonder if you have the Holy Spirit. Yes, you may wonder, and of course none of has enough of the Holy Spirit. But we know that we are different than we once were. We once lived for ourselves in this contemporary world of me first, and my feelings above everyone else. God has changed that forever (not yet perfectly, but most definitely) through the Word of the cross and the work of the Spirit of love—a love supremely expressed in the death of Jesus.

“He gives more grace.” (James 4:6) Grace means gift. The two concepts are forever together in true religion. For John to refer to the Spirit as a “gift” means that we don't receive the Spirit based on our works. It is the other way around. We do works because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The works of true faith carried out in Christian love, especially for one another in the family of God, are signs that we have the gift. All of the benefits of the Christian life, including the privilege of suffering—it's all from the grace of Almighty God. Therefore, all of our faith and our works are for His own glory and not a reason for own boasting.

What does the popular but false theology of autonomy say? It insists on the autonomous way and rejects the way of the cross.

The autonomous way: I walk away from my obligation to pay what I owe. “To my own self be true.” Sorry, I have reasons for not paying you what I owe. Plus I don't have the money.

The autonomous way: I walk away from my marriage and family responsibilities. “To my own self be true.” Sorry, this no longer works for me. I need to get out of this relationship.

The autonomous way: I walk away from the church. “To my own self be true.” Or another proposition: “To my own experience of Jesus be true.” Sorry, but I think that the institutional church is not a good place for me now, or maybe ever again.

Whether money, marriage, or worship: Sorry, I am sure that my Jesus understands me and the choices that I have had to make for my own well-being, even if you don't. So long!

The way of the true Jesus of the cross and the resurrection: “Glory to God, both in life and death.” Therefore, “Believe in the Name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.” And again, “Love one another, even when it hurts—maybe especially when it hurts.”

Not a bad plan. No, this is God's good plan—His only plan. Back to point one. He is God. But that's the root of the issue where the autonomy theology begs to differ: How could my Jesus ever get in the way of me being me. Me first. No one is allowed to get in the way of that, even Jesus. But then He would never get in the way of me, would He?

Has it come to this? Yes it has. And many will hold this me first truth to be self-evident. But we have a better message to bring to others. We would rather be inconvenienced and pained by love than to have no love at all. Our cry: “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:11)

The Christian life is a truly good life of faith, hope, and love. It is only possibly by the grace of the Almighty. The good news for us: He who began a good work in us gives more and more grace to His children. How else could we survive in the Babylon of this dying world?

One last thought: Being a parent or a friend in a world of exile sometimes requires saying hard things. Sometimes we remind each other about who we are—and whose we are. No, we can't just walk away from our debts. No, it is not God's voice telling us to leave a spouse. No, Jesus is not on our side when we reject the institutional church and decide to just be Christians all by our lonesome at home. Mordecai had to challenge Esther out of love. Haggai had to speak to selfish Israel out of love. Sometimes love may even sound a bit pushy, a tad nasty. God's Spirit will eventually show us through the Word that self-first living is simply not the love of Christ, and that love truly is the reason why we have come to the kingdom at such a time as this.

Old Testament Reading—Haggai 1:12-15 – I Am With You

Gospel Reading—Matthew 5:11-12 – Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.