I do enjoy sharing these quotes from John Piper most Fridays. Today\u2019s is no exception. He posted it a couple of months ago, and you can hear the challenge resonating through the decades since this event took place.<\/p>\n
One of the most memorable moments of my seminary days was during the school year 1968-69 at Fuller Seminary on the third level of the classroom building just after a class on systematic theology. A group of us were huddled around James Morgan, the young theology teacher who was saying something about the engagement of Christians in social justice. I don\u2019t remember what I said, but he looked me right in the eye and said, \u201cJohn, I love Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was like a thunderclap in my heart. A strong, intelligent, mature, socially engaged man had just said out loud in front of a half dozen men, \u201cI love Jesus Christ.\u201d He was not preaching. He was not pronouncing on any issue. He was not singing in church. He was not trying to get a job. He was not being recorded. He was telling me that he loved Jesus.<\/p>\n
The echo of that thunderclap is still sounding in my heart. That was 40 years ago! There are a thousand things I don\u2019t remember about those days in seminary. But that afternoon remains unforgettable. And all he said was, \u201cJohn, I love Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Morgan died a year later of stomach cancer, leaving a wife and four small children. His chief legacy in my life was one statement on an afternoon in Pasadena. \u201cI love Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loving Jesus is natural and necessary for the children of God. It\u2019s natural because it\u2019s part of our nature as children of God. \u201cIf God were your Father, you would loveme, for I came from God\u201d (John 8:42). The children of God have the natural disposition to love his Son.<\/p>\n
Loving Jesus is also necessary because Paul says that if you don\u2019t love Jesus, you will be cursed: \u201cIf anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed\u201d (1 Corinthians 16:22). Loving Jesus is an essential (not optional) mark of being a beneficiary of God\u2019s grace. \u201cGrace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible\u201d (Ephesians 6:24). If you hold fast to the love of anything above Jesus, you are not his disciple: \u201cWhoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me\u201d (Matthew 10:37).<\/p>\n
Loving Jesus is not the same as obeying all of Jesus\u2019 commands. Jesus said, \u201cIf you love me, you will keep my commandments\u201d (John 14:15). That means that obedience to the commandments is the result of loving Jesus, not the same as loving Jesus. Love is something invisible and inside. It is the root that produces the visible fruit of loving others.<\/p>\n
So here at the beginning of 2009, I join James Morgan in saying, \u201cI love Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as I say it, I want to make clear what I mean:<\/p>\n
I admire Jesus Christ more than any other human or angelic being.
I enjoy his ways and his words more than I enjoy the ways and words of anyone else.
I want his approval more than I want the approval of anyone else.
I want to be with him more than I want to be with anyone else.
I feel more grateful to him for what he has done for me than I do to anyone else.
I trust his words more fully than I trust what anyone else says.
I am more glad in his exaltation than in the exaltation of anyone else, including me.<\/p>\n
Would you pray with me that in 2009 we would love Jesus Christ more than we ever have? And may our Lord Jesus grant that from time to time we would deliver quietly and naturally a thunderclap into the hearts of others with the simple words, \u201cI love Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThough you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory\u201d (1 Peter 1:8).<\/p>\n
Loving him with you,<\/p>\n
Pastor John<\/p>\n
By John Piper. \u00a9 Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org<\/a> <!\u2013 <\/p>\n\n
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