Lesson 12: "Law and Love"
The description of Lucifer's fall is the very definition of self-love and self-esteem. Hear the words of Scripture: "You [Lucifer] were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. ... Your heart was lifted up (in pride) because of your beauty" "How you are fallen from heaven ... For you have said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation ... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High" (Ezek. 28:14-17; Isa. 14:12-14).
Lucifer is trying to become God. This is self-esteem expressed by the desire to displace God and actually murder Him. And we are born with this and all our best thinking and efforts have grown from this and can rise no higher than this. This is the drive behind our desire to do away with God, and the reason behind the need for the repentance of the ages.
The cross gives a psychological profile of ourselves. It takes the pride of man and humbles it in the dust of the ground. "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3).
Pride is an intoxicant. The sobriety test for pride is the cross. Praise God He has effectually given everyone "faith" in order to keep them sober if they so choose.
Everyone is born thinking "of himself more highly than he ought." It's called self-love, which is the taproot of sin and would, if left uncontrolled, push everyone else aside and even manifest itself in the murder of God in order to become number one. But the standard of agape powered faith appreciates the cost, which Christ paid on the cross in order to destroy self-love; and soberly evaluates every soul of equal value with the life of Jesus and that value is the basis for a healthy self-respect.
The antidote to this self-love is the love of God, agape. Agape is not self-promoting, but dares to step down lower. The cross is the irrefutable evidence of God's agape for sinners. On the cross, Jesus died the second death for all the world while all the world still hated Him. Agape is self-emptying, it is the compelling force that God uses to reach hearts. This love is the power of God unto salvation and will create in us all that is lacking. It crucifies self-esteem and replaces it with self-respect as each life is equal to the life of Christ who gave Himself for us. (See the booklet by Robert J. Wieland, The Word that Turned the World Up-Side Down.)
The word "therefore" (Rom. 12:1), gathers up everything in chapters 1 to 11 and brings them into sharp focus. Because of all that has preceded, he instructs us to "present" our bodies as living sacrifices to God. The word "present" is the same word used of Jesus when He was presented in the temple after His birth. We are to present our lives as a living sacrifice in this our cosmic Day of Atonement. It is Jesus' gift as our High Priest to cleanse our lives which He purchased on the cross. Then He can cleanse the heavenly sanctuary. Ellen White writes, "The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith" (Evangelism
, p. 221).This cleansing has everything to do with the Law of God as the standard. The only thing spiritually that we are consistent at is failure with our eros-focused faith. All our continued efforts to succeed at keeping the commandments of God with eros are frustrated. We do the same thing over and over again hoping for different results! Our eros love cannot keep the commandments of God.
An "intellectual strength [our ego stronghold as a church] has in it the seeds of defeat, for the 'time of trouble' must ultimately involve a confrontation with 'self' that 'the man of sin' might be revealed. For this reason the last conflict of the people of God ... has been compared to Jacob's experience. ... In the audience chamber of the Most High he became a victor. His confrontation was with himself. His ego was laid bare and his guilt was swallowed up before the One against whom he had sinned so grievously" ("Then Shall the Sanctuary be Cleansed,
" Donald K. Short, p. 58)."The 1888 message is especially 'precious' because it joins together the true biblical idea of justification by faith with the unique idea of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. This is a Bible truth that the world is waiting to discover. It forms the essential element of truth that will yet lighten the earth with the glory of a final, fully developed presentation of 'the everlasting gospel' of Revelation 14 and 18" (Ten Great Gospel Truths that Make the 1888 Message Unique, Robert J. Wieland: http://www.1888mpm.org/book/gospel-truth-10).
The story of Peter and Jesus by the seashore (John 21:15-17) is an example of this problem. Jesus asked Peter twice if he loved (agape) Him, and both times Peter answered that he only had (phileo), a brotherly love for Him. Now the third time Jesus asked, He used Peter's word, phileo. "Peter, do you even love me with a brotherly love?" Peter could no more produce agape with which to love than he could make the fish jump into his nets. In like manner we can no more keep the commandments of God with only an eros-love, than we can love Christ or one another. It takes the power of God--the agape of God to accomplish this.
The law of God convicts our eros-motivated faith, and yet we try to do the law so as to gain the prize and avoid the punishment, while agape-motivated faith sees the God of the law as most precious and thus the law is performed in him naturally.
"Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2). The beauty of this statement lies in the meaning of the original Greek! The word "transformed" is referring to a change in nature. This does not mean for you to improve yourself, but it does recognize our utter inability and helplessness. This is the message of the cross--the abasement of all pride. It does mean having your very nature changed from what it is so that we are made partakers of the divine nature through the faith that works by agape (2 Peter 1:1-4; Gal. 5:6).
This transformation, is the "new creation" of 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. It takes place through the "renewing of our mind." How may our minds be renewed? In Philippians 2:5-8 Jesus steps down lower and lower, until He is obedient to death, even the death of the cross. (In The Word That Turned the World Upside Down Robert J. Wieland has written a beautiful account of these seven steps down that Jesus took.) This is agape.
With eros-motivated faith, we will always fail to keep the law of God. With agape-motivated faith we naturally will keep the law because it is in our new Holy Spirit energized nature to do so.
The renewing of our mind by agape results in the keeping of the law of God (Rom. 13:8-10). "Love (agape) does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love (agape) is the fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:10).
With all of this giving to us, God gave us each a measure of "the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12; Rom. 13:3). This faith, working by agape, humbles us as we follow Jesus who stepped down. He thus saves us from ourselves.
Jesus says, "As many as I love (with a brotherly love), I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Rev. 3:19). If the Laodiceans had agape, there would be no need of Jesus' appeal, "Repent." Laodicea's love is eros--a self-motivated love and this is why Jesus calls for a radical transformation. Jesus wants us to repent of our eros-centered faith.
--Daniel H. Peters
Additional reading:* For "Clear Definitions of Agape and Faith," Robert J. Wieland's "Dial Daily Bread": http://www.1888mpm.org/blog/clear-definitions-agape-and-faith
* E. J. Waggoner on "Romans 12" and "Romans 13":
http://www.1888mpm.org/book/romans-chapter-12-practical-exhortations-church
http://www.1888mpm.org/book/romans-chapter-13-christians-and-state
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