How people change
Sunday 11th June 2023
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
How people change
“Only God’s love for sinners inspires sinners to love God more than sin.”
I was catching up on the highlights of the recent GAFCON 2023 conference in Kigali, Rwanda (which you can find here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10339352), when I came across this quote from Ashley Null, which is so good I wanted to share it with you.
It clearly speaks into the current troubles of the Church of England, which are themselves so gravely troubling to so many in the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion. But it has much wider application than that alone.
It is only God’s love for us sinners that will lead us sinners to change. God’s law won’t do it, although it’s always tempting to think that rules will change behaviour. But the law will lead to either pride or guilt: if we have kept the law, we will tend to feel proud; if we have failed to keep it, we are likely to feel guilty. But the law cannot take away our guilt, and nor can it help us to love God himself. It can tell us whatpleases God, but it cannot help us to please him.
But when we know – and not just know about – God’s love for us, such that he gave his only Son to die for our sins, then that can and will change us so that we want to please him because we love him. We almost won’t be able to help ourselves! Indeed, if we don’t ever find that we love God more than sin, it raises the question of whether we really have received God’s love for us.
Now, some Christians have such tender consciences that they cannot see anything good in themselves, any love for God, but that in itself is evidence that they do love God and want to live to please him. They really care about it!
And God’s love for sinners will inspire us to love God more than sin. It won’t allow us to diminish the seriousness of sin, and nor will it let us redefine sin to please ourselves. No, loving God means loving what God loves, and so hating what he hates. It means letting him define for us what sin is, and how serious it is, which of course he does in the Bible.
Father, thank you for your love for this sinner; may it inspire me to love you more than sin. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)