Jul 29, 2010 - Category: General

LIVING A LIFE OF LOVE

God calls all of his children to Live a Life of Love. Love characterizes life in the kingdom. The first two verses of Ephesians chapter five reveal how we can live a life that honors God. These verses call on us to be imitators of God as his dearly loved children and to live a life of love. This life of love is said to be the kind of life that Christ lived. His love for us was manifested through the giving of himself as an offering and sacrifice on our behalf. His offering and sacrifice was accepted by God and was to him a fragrant aroma.

Think with me about the Manifestations of Christ’s Love.

He Gave Himself for Us.

He left the glories of heaven to become one of us. He came from a place filled with purity and goodness to a world full of evil and wickedness. He did not come as a king, but as a servant. He did not come to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for us. He showed by his life and his death what a life of love looks like.

He Sacrificed Himself.

For our sins to be forgiven there had to be a sacrifice. In the sacrificial system God gave Israel, the innocent lamb was offered for sin. The innocent died for the guilty. Year in and year out the Jews had observed the ritual sacrifice for their sins. Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice—the innocent for the guilty. One day when Jesus passed by where John the Baptist was, John said of him, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross to pay our sin debt and bring us back into a right relationship with God. There is no need for any other sacrifice. Jesus was the final offering.

He Satisfied God’s Demands for Us.

The sacrifice of Jesus for us was a fragrant aroma to God the Father. God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice. As Jesus hung on the cross, just before his last breath, he said, “It is finished.” Jesus met God’s requirements and as the innocent “lamb” died for our sins. Our redemption was secured when God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.

What a life of love Jesus lived. And we are told we are to imitate God in the way of love. We are to live as Jesus lived. What would your life be like if you lived a life of love?

Manifestations of Our Love.

We Give Ourselves.

Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 16:24-25, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (NIV).

Jesus is not talking about self-denial, but rather denial of self. We are not called to just give up “things” for God. We are called to give up our very self for him. This giving up of our right to ourselves is not the end but the beginning of life as a disciple of Jesus. When we come to understand we are not our own, but we belong to God, then we will be free to give ourselves to others.

We Sacrifice Ourselves.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1, NIV). Jesus died for us. We are to live for him. Our living is to be a holy sacrifice to God that pleases him. As before the sacrifice is not things but self. The offering of ourselves to God is the reasonable thing to do. Our sacrifice is in response to God’s mercy. With mercy and grace God redeemed us and our spiritual act of worship is to offer ourselves to him as a living sacrifice.

We Meet God’s Requirements.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4, NIV).

How can we meet the holy requirements of God? By living according to the Spirit. We keep the requirements of the law as we walk in step with the Holy Spirit. We are enabled by the Spirit to lay aside the sins of the flesh and to live righteously. We have been set free by Jesus to live right.

As imitators of God we will live a life of love. Love is not just a feeling. Love is the manifestation of a life transformed by God. The ultimate manifestation of love is Jesus. As his disciples, we are to give ourselves, sacrifice ourselves and walk in the Spirit.
This is what it means to Live a Life of Love.

Pastor Ron