“Reacting to God‘s Love”

            Reacting to God’s love, really means living for the love of God in a way that advances in the world the cause of God’s love, which is only found in Jesus Christ. Loving Jesus Christ means that we no longer need to be our only main concern in daily life for if we live reacting to God’s love, in our very lives, we actually find that we are really living for others. This is really when we find ourselves living to God. The Christian life we aspire to is orientated to God as both its source and its goal.

            So what does reacting to God’s love mean for us today and what might our typical responses be to God’s actions toward us?

            God reacts toward us in many ways; but let us consider three important, fundamental actions of God toward us. First, grace; second, love and third, communion. First, considering God’s grace, I believe our initial reaction, once we allow ourselves to be overcome by God’s grace, is that we begin to trust and rely on God in a manner that we never could have previously. Second, considering God’s action of love, our response, as we are impacted by the enormity of the sacrificial love God made for us by the gift of Jesus, we respond with love for God and for others. And third, considering God’s action of communion with us we grow - we become the person, that God created and intended us to be.

            God’s actions and our responses give our life meaning and frame the way we live. Our faith toward God is connected to how we understand and live out our lives. Our responses to God’s actions in our life will be varied. We will have personal and particular roadblocks. It is never an easy call that we are given both collectively and individually as Christians. Most important though is entrusting ourselves completely to God’s care - to God’s gracious and loving provisions. As we are able to do this, then we can turn toward others with sincere hearts, and we can focus intently on God in our prayers. Certain things will compel us to trust, love and be in communion with God in prayer. None of our paths will be exactly the same because we have all had particular, and different experiences; but ultimately, our shared experience will converge in the glory of our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

            The Apostle Paul, explains, that it is reasonable that we should live to God, through Jesus Christ, being dead to ourselves. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “Jesus died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” Jesus Christ offers us a boundless love - it has been evidenced in His death. The very knowledge we have of this love, ought to limit our attention and affections that they may go in no other direction than that of loving Jesus in return. This should be our ultimate reaction to God’s love.

            I believe that it is impossible for anyone that truly considers and ponders Jesus Christ’s wonderful love, which He manifested towards us by His death, to truly not become affected by it, in some way within their personal lives. We grow and mature in our responsive love back to our Master, our Saviour. We are bound to Him and constrained by our inevitable union and then we can devote ourselves more wholly to His service. For Jesus is, the one who died for all. Jesus Christ died for us, that we might die to ourselves. To die to ourselves is to live to Jesus Christ; it is to renounce ourselves, that we may live to Jesus Christ; for Jesus Christ redeemed us with this perspective — simply, that He might have us under His authority, as His peculiar possession.

            It then follows that we are no longer our own masters. In Rom. 14:7-9, it proclaims, “None of us lives to our self, and no one dies to their self. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” So we are dead in Jesus Christ, in order that all ambition for personal distinction in our own lives may be laid aside and we owe to Jesus Christ our life and death, because He has wholly bound us to Himself. As we believe God’s love is made perfect in Jesus Christ we then are compelled to live in a way that advances in the world the cause of God’s love. This simply is living and reacting to the love of Jesus Christ in our very lives.

            Yes, I want to live and act solely for my Master, Jesus. I hope you do too. Amen.

Rev. John Calvin Rhoad Jr