People say they love the Lord and they love his words. Yet, phrases such as “dispensation of grace”, “revelation of the mystery”, or “minister of the circumcision” are foreign to them.
These ideas are intimately connected with the character and purpose of the Lord. Anyone who claims to love the Lord and yet is unaware of these doctrines is like a wife who says she loves her husband but does not know where he works, when he goes to bed, or what he eats for dinner.
A mature and substantive love for the Lord should encourage us to understand what he is doing. This requires reading, study, preaching, and learning the Bible, and that, respecting the Bible’s dispensations.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” – Romans 10:17
We Heart Jesus
Love for the Lord does not begin from the same place as your high school crush. When people make this mistake they confuse their relationship with the Lord as one similar to their girlfriend.
They want to feel bubbly inside when they sing his name. They want to say he is beautiful, smart, sweet, exciting, and fun to be with.
They want to hold his hands as they walk on the beach, or, as the famous poem goes, have him carry them on the beach.
This sappy view of our relationship to the Lord of glory is not only a little disgusting, it is unbiblical. The result is an immature church that is more sensual than spiritual.
God today is not trying to give a big hug to everyone on earth, he is offering salvation through Christ.
Love with Understanding
God has been operating with humanity for thousands of years. God has commended his love toward us in such phrases as the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:2).
It was by the cross that the Lord was able to provide righteousness without the law to ungodly people (Rom 3:22, 4:5). He did the work that you couldn’t do to obtain for you what you did not deserve. You have eternal life as a free gift of God through Christ (Rom 6:23). This is the teaching of Jesus Christ “according to the revelation of the mystery” (Romans 16:25).
Salvation is not offered through a passionate pursuit of the first commandment to love the Lord God with all our heart, mind, soul, hoping for a candlelight dinner with chocolates and roses someday in heaven.
Loving the Lord means to be interested in what he is doing, not what we want him to do.
When Jesus taught the law to Israel he was performing his function as a “minister of the circumcision” (Romans 15:8).
But now Jesus is ministering to the uncircumcision that what was against us is taken out of the way (Rom 15:16, Col 2:14).
Now we do not know Christ after the flesh, but after his resurrected position in heavenly places as the Head over all things (2 Cor 5:16).
If we do not know Christ after the flesh, then we should stop trying to hold his hand and understand that we are his hand.
“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” – Romans 12:5
Article Index Published: August 13, 2011
Last Modified: January 26, 2017