BEDROCKBEDROCK
THE Lord declares through Malachi, the prophet, in Malachi 1:2 "I have loved you". These words were to God's people, Israel, and are the bedrock of all Christian life and experience.
This is what Christian life and experience is all about. Here is its heart and reality, that God has, in sovereign love and grace, made us his own, saved us from our sins, called us his children, and given us heaven and eternal life. He has given us himself in fellowship, and desires communion with us. God says, "I have loved you". God expresses the same love in Isaiah 43:1, "But now, this is what the Lord says - he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, I have redeemed you; I have called you by my name; you are mine."
It is because of this love that we are Christian believers. We did not choose the Lord. He chose us for salvation. God gave Jesus in love to die for us. In love he regenerated our souls and we were born again. We believed and appreciated the Gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose for our justification because God in love made it so. Our ability to repent is because of his love.
Malachi expresses this in a negative way to Israel in chapter 1 v 3 to 6. Esau was Jacob's brother. They were born at the same time. But before they were born and before they had done anything good or bad, as the Apostle Paul declares in Romans 9, God loved Jacob and the children of Israel, his descendants, but hated Esau and his. Jacob was saved, Esau was left unsaved. Jacob was given an interest in the Saviour's death to come, and Esau was not. Esau's unloved condition is described by Malachi just as history unfolds it. Esau could not escape, however much he tried, the just judgement of God upon sin. Edom, the nation descending from Esau, could not escape God's wrath. Jacob, though just as much a sinner as Esau, because he was loved, sovereign grace saved him; and through the Saviour's death, God made a way that he could justly forgive Jacob.
This is the way of all who are saved. God loves us and because of this he saves us. And what is so lovely and remarkable is this, that he wants us for himself and to have fellowship with us. I have loved you, you are mine, is what God whispers to our hearts. This is the bedrock of the Christians life and joy, to walk with Jesus and know his love. Adam's joy and blessing in paradise was walking with God in the cool of the day. Joy and contentment was found in the presence of the Lord and fellowship with him.
In salvation, God restores this fellowship to us. We walk with the Lord day by day, and the joy and contentment of Eden is restored to us. The hymn 'Loved with an everlasting love somewhat expresses this -
But what do we read of Israel in Malachi 1:2. "But you ask, 'how have you loved us?'". And this complaint sums up the heart of so much failure in the Christian life and is the bedrock of our problems.
What does this complaint express? It expresses that Israel was seeing God's love in temporal blessings and the feeling of happiness of the moment. Like children they were concerned about what God gave them and whether they were happy or not, and judged God's love by these.
How do we evaluate God's love? Is it by the success of our service for him? Is it by the popularity we enjoy in the church fellowship? Do we feel God's love when things go well and successfully, but doubt it when life is dull and difficulties are in our way? Do we complain of the reality of God's love when we suffer bereavement, sickness, poverty, and trouble in life? Does our joy in life, and thus our acceptance that God loves us, depend on what is happening to us? Is it this, that if things are going well we feel God loves us, but if they are not, we feel he does not? In a word, is our joy and contentment bound up in what God gives us, or is it in God himself?
What is the experience of true love between two people. Is it not in their delight in each others company; in their expressions of love in word and touch; in their exchange of ideas and communion of interests. How often do we hear of a wife who is showered with gifts by her husband, but still feels unloved, because she looks for true love, which is not gifts so much as in her husbands company, and in his giving time to her and talking with her. On the other hand we doubt the real love of a woman who expresses great affection for a man, but reveals by action and attitude that she is only interested or more interested in his money or position in society, than in him.
True love does not need things to sustain it. Where there is real love, riches and position and success mean little. God gives us true love, but so often we look only for his blessings. This is the seed of so many problems in church life today. We go to church for excitement rather than to meet with the Lord, so services become a quest for ever increasing ways of giving excitement, feeling and emotional uplift to the worshipper. The presence of the Spirit in the worship is evaluated by the amount of excitement or spectacular content, rather than if we have met with the Lord.
The quest for miracles and healing and spectacular gifts are an expression of this syndrome. There is greater pursuit of the gifts of the Spirit, rather than the fellowship of the Spirit which leads us to Jesus.
This problem is expressed in what occupies the attention and energy of the church fellowship and individual members. The hunger is not for the word of God, but energy is expended on some new activity which is thought will revitalise church life. People are more like Martha, always doing; rather than Mary who sat at Jesus feet.
The trouble is that we are carried along by the constant tide of activity and planning, of committees and new ventures. There is nothing we can do, because to question the action is to open ourselves to the criticism of not wanting God's work to go ahead.
But God says, "I have loved you". Our joy and contentment, our peace and tranquillity is in this and is ours all the time. We can walk with the Lord all the time. He longs for us to do so. Our delight is in his presence and to hear him speak to our hearts. He warms our hearts strangely as we commune with him, as he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:32). Spiritually we can experience his embrace and know him holding our hand. We can experience his care, unburden our souls to him, and look upon his beauty. He draws near to us whenever we draw near to him.
This delight in God's company is what we should look for every time we open our Bibles and engage in prayer. It should be our expectancy as we attend Sunday worship and hear his word preached. This is the love of God that we know he has saved us, and he welcomes us to have fellowship with him. This is the bedrock experience of the Christian, and what the Christian should cultivate. Out of this issues fruitful, contented and blessed living.