New Behavior

KEY VERSE: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” —Ephesians 5:1,2

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 5:1-20

THE LOVE OF Christ, by which every true Christian is encircled, is described by Paul as being “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:39) Failing to realize this, many have erroneously supposed that Christ is more loving than God—that God is austere and unloving, ready to visit wrath upon his creatures at the slightest provocation. But this incorrect idea could not be farther from the truth, for the Scriptures reveal that it was God’s love which provided the way of salvation through Christ, and that what Christ has done, and will continue to do for us and for the human race as a whole, is by the Heavenly Father’s design, and therefore an expression of his abounding love.—John 3:16

Of course, this does not mean that Jesus is not also loving, nor that he does not personally have our interests at heart. Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9) All the glorious characteristics of the Creator are revealed through ‘Christ, including his love. So we find in our study of the Word that divine love is referred to interchangeably as being the love of God and the love of Christ. Or, for example, as we have stated earlier, when the writers desired to be more specific, they defined it as the love of God “which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—I Tim. 1:14

First, in the acknowledgment of our undone condition, and that Christ died in order that we might be reconciled to God, there results a further constraining power of divine love; and, secondly, the result of this is our recognition that we do not belong to ourselves, but to him who loved us and died for us. Third, divine love thus compels us to give our all to the Lord, persuading us that we should devote ourselves wholly to him and to his service; and this, we now realize, includes even life itself. Thus we have the steps by which we enter into the circle of special divine love.

In Romans 12:1 Paul describes this as presenting our bodies a “living sacrifice.” Paul declares also that such a dedication of ourselves is but our “reasonable service.” Paul expresses this thought by the words, “because we thus judge,” that is, our reasoned conclusion is that in view of the circumstances we owe our all to the Lord, so we consecrate ourselves to do his will.

To make this full consecration, and then faithfully devote our lives to him day by day until our sacrifice is wholly consumed and we have been faithful even unto death, is our part of a wonderful arrangement whereby we become sons of God. This is the age of the “heavenly calling,” when those constrained by the love of Christ to make a consecration to the Lord are given the hope of joint-heirship with Christ, to live and reign with him in his kingdom.

Paul assures us that if we present ourselves a living sacrifice, our offering will be acceptable to God. Such a consecration implies the surrender of our wills and the acceptance of the will of God as it is expressed through Christ. “Therefore, if any man be in Christ,” the apostle explains, “he is a New Creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”—II Cor. 5:17

We become New Creatures through the begetting of the Holy Spirit, and for those who receive this begetting, “all things” become new. They have new hopes, new aims, new ambitions. These have a new vocation in life which is to serve the Lord rather than self. They set their affections on things above, rather than on things of earth—they run diligently for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, which is everlasting gain, rather than for material wealth which fades away—worldly honor, glory, and riches.

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