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The confidence that God loves us with
this special kind of self-sacrificing love gives us a true sense of our
importance in the sight of Heaven. We see ourselves as members of “his whole family in heaven and on earth”
(Ephesians 3: 15), who “participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and who are
His credentialed ambassadors in a world that has yet to hear His good
news.
A heart appreciation of agape is
what the New Testament means by the word faith. It is a key to
understanding the Bible.
Finding the solution to anomia—the
selfish lawlessness that refuses to submit to God—is not something that
we do so much as it is something that we see. Paul explains: “I pray
that you ... may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp
[comprehend] how wide and long and high and deep is the love [agape]
of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians
3:17-19). Comprehending and appreciating the magnificent dimensions of
that love and responding to it—this is the Bible idea of salvation by
faith! And it is this faith that Jesus says will be rare in these last
days.
The person who has grasped the glorious
richness of the gospel doesn’t have to grit his teeth and force himself
to turn away from the allurements of the world. The person who knows he
has a million dollars in cash will never stoop to look for a nickel lost
in the street mire.
The world has wondered how the early
Christians could endure the privations and persecutions they suffered in
following Christ in those days of Roman tyranny. We misread history if we
assume that it was a mere hope of pie-in-the-sky, an “investment” that required foregoing present good for the return
of a greater good to come. That would be next door to selfishness, a “what’s-in-it-for-me” spirit.
Careful reading of the early church
documents discloses the existence of a purer motive—a comprehension of agape
that transcended all self-centered concern: “Christ’s love compels
us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all
died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2
Corinthians
5:14,15).
Good News!
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