John 14:21,23,27
21. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
23. Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home him.
27. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Some people completely ignore this verse, because they claim that Salvation is free; Others cling to this verse so much so that it becomes legalistic, meaning that you cannot enter the kingdom of GOD, if you do not keep the commandments of GOD.
The truth is that, they are both right. Salvation is free. So, “All our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, has taken away” (Isaiah 64:6).
At the same time Apostle Paul says “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2).
Salvation is free, because GOD has made it possible through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. We will never truly appreciate the suffering that went with it. We think love is free, but it wasn’t, Jesus had to make an enormous sacrifice to deliver us from our sins.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Love goes both ways. God loved us enough to sacrifice his Son for us, but He cannot force us to love him. In human terms When you love someone you do things to please that person. Our actions are directed from the heart, not just an outward motion.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise when Jesus said that we must keep his commandments if we truly love him.
I Love God and I want to keep his commandments, but I just can’t seem to do it.
Apostle Paul in Romans 7:15-20 expressed this really well
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
I accepted Jesus when I was 12 and things went swimmingly well until I turned 17. From my teens to my forties, I don’t know what happened. You hear about people living a riotous life and then turning to GOD after a season; it was just the opposite for me, I became a christian, but I could never keep up or live up to the christian standards.
I was confused, I accepted Jesus, but I could not follow him. I prayed for the holy-spirit, I thought I felt his presence but I am not sure. I read the Bible, I prayed… then I gave up, I got caught up with the world and I lost everything.
I had the Moses complex. I decided early on that I was going to be God’s right hand man. I imagined that I was special, that I was going to accomplish something great. But first, I had to straighten myself up. No matter how much I tried, I Just couldn’t do it. I was never good enough to meet neither mine nor God’s standards. I didn’t know it, but I was so full of pride. Even when I genuinely thought that I was humble, deep inside, I was still trying to be God’s right hand man.
I now realize that, this is an issue of the heart. I said that I loved Jesus, but it was an emotional statement. I wanted to be the Status Quo. I could never live up, because I never really loved God, the way he loved me. By that I don’t mean that I love God now, like he loves me. All I mean by that is; I did not truly experience the love of God to my heart’s desire. You see, you cannot truly love another person, unless you received love from them. unless you knew them.
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Its not that Jesus, didn’t know you. There is a difference…. I know who the president of USA is, but I don’t know him. I know my mother, my father and my siblings. On the same note, I know about GOD, but I never knew him. In order to know him, you need to experience him.
If you are a christian who is struggling with sin, and you know that you love GOD but you just can’t get your act straight, it’s because you don’t know him well enough to want to give up your sin. Pray long and hard to know him intimately. For me personally, it meant that I had to loose everything. I had to come to the realization that I had nothing but him. He didn’t just meet my needs… he surpassed all of my expectations. When I realized that I could trust him, he became a tangible and real being, like a real person with personality and all that.
Love conquers all. He conquered me. Ask him to conquer you with his love. Tell him you want to experience him, even if you have to loose everything. He will always meet us on our own grounds. He doesn’t enjoy stripping us to our bare minimum, but some of us have a flare for the dramatic. We just can’t accept him, until the drama has been played out.
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