When Love and Grace Made the Universe Stand Still

There is a saying, “kids who are loved at home come to school to learn. Kids who are not loved at home come to school to be loved.” Is it any different in Sabbath School? Is it also true that God’s children (ages 0-125) who know they are loved come to Sabbath school to learn, and those who don’t yet know they are loved come to Sabbath School to be loved?

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

I can still remember sitting at my desk in my 4th-grade classroom at Tulsa Adventist Academy, listening to my teachers, Miss Fisher and Mrs. Krueger, lecturing us about something. I don’t really remember exactly what it was about, but we must have been struggling with our grades, because all I remember is that both teachers told us, “If you only learn one thing this year, learn this. We love you!” Now we were loved at home. We were loved at church and school, but as educated as my teachers were, they knew the most important thing was not money or a degree. It’s love. Without that, nothing else matters, and when you know you are loved, nothing can stop you!

For the love of Christ controls and compels us, because we have concluded this, that One died for all, therefore all died (2 Corinthians 5:14 Amplified Bible)

So, while humanity tries harder, reads self-help books, and attempts 12-step recovery programs, Paul says it is by looking at the cross and knowing we are loved that we gain all the power to succeed. I remember John the Baptist telling everyone to “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John 1:29. He didn’t tell them to try harder next time. He told them to look at the Lamb. Let His love soak into you.

As legalistic humans, we are always wanting to promise to try harder next time. But the answer is not promising to try harder. The answer is letting yourself be loved.

In Jeremiah God mentions how Israel had not kept the promises they had made, so He was going to make a better promise. His promise would be better because He is the the One making the promise instead of them. He is the perfect Promise-maker, while we are lousy promise-makers!

“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33 NLT)

So God promises to do for us what we could never even promise to do for ourselves, much less even try harder to make happen. God is the One promising, and He is the One who is accountable to make it so. Please notice something essential, though. It’s in Jeremiah 31:3 NLT, several verses before He promises to write His law on our hearts.

I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

Just like my teachers realized all the book knowledge in the world doesn’t mean a thing without love, God feels the same way. Knowing all the laws and having them memorized in your mind and knowing them all by heart doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t know how much God loves you!

Friends, there is no reason for you to promise God you are going to try harder and do better next time. He has already promised you! We don’t need to promise God what He has already promised us! What? I don’t have any work to do myself? Well, yes, and I will let Jesus tell you Himself, precisely what your work is.

Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29 NLT

Our work is to believe God’s promise that He loves us with an everlasting love, and He will place the principles of His love (also known as His law) in our hearts!

This is why John never told us to try harder! Just look at the Lamb and let His love soak into your heart till your heart is saturated with His love, which is also His law. You don’t need to promise God anything. Your work is to believe the promises God has made to you!

I don’t need too many self-help books. I don’t need to try harder. I just need to look at the Lamb and fall in love with Jesus! His love will change me in ways I could never change myself. After all, all the self-help books and promises of better performance don’t mean a thing without love!

So just how good is God at keeping His promises to love and save us? For brevity, let me share one example. You can read about it in Joshua 9-10.

The Gibeonites used deceit to trick Israel into letting them in on the covenant God had made with them. Even though Israel was not supposed to make a covenant with anyone living as close as the Gibeonites, they did. Later, when the Gibeonites were under attack, they called upon Israel to save them, and even though the Gibeonites had used deceit to secure this covenant, God was so relentless in keeping His promise of love that He caused the sun to stand still until the Gibeonites were all rescued! God fought for Israel as Israel fought for the mischievous Gibeonites. Let that soak in. The Gibeonites were in no way worthy of any of God’s blessings, but God was still loving and faithful to His promise, causing the sun to stand still until they were all rescued. Talk about a love that moves heaven and earth! And this powerful love was given to the most undeserving people! So, scientifically speaking, the most incredible power in the universe is not gravity or the suctioning power of the black hole. God’s love overruled all those powers and made the solar system stand still. Imagine what this love can do in your heart!

God’s powerful promises and love are also for you and me. In Hebrews 13:5, God promises never to leave us or forsake us, but the Amplified Bible is the only English version that even begins to grasp what God is actually promising.

for He has said, “I will never under any circumstances desert you nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you- assuredly not!” Hebrews 13:5 AMP.

If we know we are loved we can come to Sabbath School to learn, and we can learn while we are loved, but we can’t learn without love.

If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2 NLT

—and the greatest of these is love.1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT

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Love is sufficient, but it is not the swoony heart-beat cheesy sort of love we are talking about here. It is the tough, grit your teeth and persist type of love. It is the stuff that drives patience and persistence.

Let me tell you a story. For most of my life I have been involved in teaching. I loved my students but that love had to be tempered by a get-tough, lay-down-the-law type of love. One of my students came to my office at the end of the semester. He had failed Mathematics comprehensively. He didn’t hand in some assignments; others were poorly done; and his examination results showed that he lacked a real understanding of what was going on. He was on his knees, bawling his eyes out and begging me to give him at least a conceded pass or let him sit a supplementary examination. Patiently I told him that there was a thing called academic integrity and that meant that if I said that a student had passed, I was confident that they had what it takes to go out into the real world and use what they were supposed to have learned in class. I could not say that about him

I told him about my experience as a student in my youth where I was failing for the same reason he was failing; lack of application. I took a year off my education and worked in a concrete pipe factory as a manual laborer (Technically I was a stripper – which always sounds good when I tell the story). At the end of the 12 months I had matured and returned to my academic studies and have not failed an examination or assignment since.

I advised my student to leave College and get a job. I told him he needed to face the real world and come back with an understanding of what it means to study hard, and why it is important. To his credit, he followed my advice and came back 9 months later determined to work. He graduated 3 years later and at graduation specially thanked me for giving him the best advice ever.

I could have just said that I loved this student and to encourage him, give him a conceded pass. It would not have sat well on my conscience and the only good it would have done him is that he would have had a number on his grade sheet. Instead I gave him the grade he deserved, a fail. That “fail” shows on his transcript as does the “distinction” I gave him a year later. He could show that to any prospective employer with pride, because it shows that he persisted.

Love is tough stuff. It must be. Jesus loved us while we were still sinners. If our love is in the right place, we will fight the good fight and run the race right to the end. There are two responses to such love; responding to it, and sharing it.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:1,2

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When Love and Grace Made the Universe Stand Still — 5 Comments

Simeon Ogutu on December 20, 2016 at 9:39 pm said:

Thanks William for this insightful post on love.I hear some preachers say once saved always saved which is a false theology. In the context of your post,does work have a role on love? Should I just sit back and watch now that I'm loved?

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- WILLIAM EARNHARDT on December 21, 2016 at 12:31 am said:
  
  Thank you Simeon. When we truly appreciate God's love, His love works through us, but it's not our works, its His working in us. That is why Galatians 5 calls all the good deeds the fruit of the Spirit, while the works of the flesh, which are our works are only bad things.
  
  Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT
  
  In 2 Corinthians 12:9 its the power of Christ working, not me.
  
  My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 NLT
  
  Galatians 2:20 says Christ is living in me, so He is living and working through me while I am crucified.
  
  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8‭-‬10 NKJV
  
  Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us, God’s grace gives us good works, but it is God's workmanship and not mine.My good works are a gift of God’s grace and I can't take credit for it. This is why Jesus says that the good things we do glorify God and not us.
  
  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
  Matthew 5:16 NKJV
  
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Maurice Ashton on December 21, 2016 at 2:25 am said:

Love is sufficient, but it is not the swoony heart-beat cheesy sort of love we are talking about here. It is the tough, grit your teeth and persist type of love. It is the stuff that drives patience and persistence.

Let me tell you a story. For most of my life I have been involved in teaching. I loved my students but that love had to be tempered by a get-tough, lay-down-the-law type of love. One of my students came to my office at the end of the semester. He had failed Mathematics comprehensively. He didn’t hand in some assignments; others were poorly done; and his examination results showed that he lacked a real understanding of what was going on. He was on his knees, bawling his eyes out and begging me to give him at least a conceded pass or let him sit a supplementary examination. Patiently I told him that there was a thing called academic integrity and that meant that if I said that a student had passed, I was confident that they had what it takes to go out into the real world and use what they were supposed to have learned in class. I could not say that about him

I told him about my experience as a student in my youth where I was failing for the same reason he was failing; lack of application. I took a year off my education and worked in a concrete pipe factory as a manual laborer (Technically I was a stripper – which always sounds good when I tell the story). At the end of the 12 months I had matured and returned to my academic studies and have not failed an examination or assignment since.

I advised my student to leave College and get a job. I told him he needed to face the real world and come back with an understanding of what it means to study hard, and why it is important. To his credit, he followed my advice and came back 9 months later determined to work. He graduated 3 years later and at graduation specially thanked me for giving him the best advice ever.

I could have just said that I loved this student and to encourage him, give him a conceded pass. It would not have sat well on my conscience and the only good it would have done him is that he would have had a number on his grade sheet. Instead I gave him the grade he deserved, a fail. That “fail” shows on his transcript as does the “distinction” I gave him a year later. He could show that to any prospective employer with pride, because it shows that he persisted.

Love is tough stuff. It must be. Jesus loved us while we were still sinners. If our love is in the right place, we will fight the good fight and run the race right to the end. There are two responses to such love; responding to it, and sharing it.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:1,2

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William Earnhardt on December 21, 2016 at 5:32 am said:

Thank you Maurice. Yes love is tough stuff. that is why Paul said in our opening verse, 2 Corinthians 5:14 that it is the love of Christ that constrains, or compels and controls us. When you know you are loved nothing can stop you.

You showed love for all your students, by dealing fairly with the one in question. Like you said about integrity, if you had given him an unfair grade then it would have been unfair for others to have the same grade he got, which would have made everyone's grades unfair!

It makes me think of this verse in Romans 8:3-4 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

Christ did not just die for me, I died in Christ. Christ did not just fulfill the law for me, He fulfills the law in me. That is the only fair way for me to get a passing grade.

Back to 2 Corinthians 5:14 love must be the motivating power. Galatians 5:6 talks about a faith that works by love.

Maurice you said that you loved all your students. I am sure just as many of your college students needed love, just like my 4th grade class needed love. We never outgrow our need to be loved, and being loved encourages us to do our best. Thank you for spending a lifetime loving and teaching others. I can't imagine a better way to spend a lifetime!

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When Love and Grace Made the Universe Stand Still

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When Love and Grace Made the Universe Stand Still — 5 Comments

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