“When a Christian grasps how Jesus saved us at infinite cost to himself, how he emptied himself of his glory, and took on a humble form to serve our best interests, it creates a grateful joy that inwardly moves us to want to please, know, and resemble him. Our happiness gets put into his happiness and serving him becomes our perfect liberation.”- Timothy Keller
“This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”- Hebrews 8:10 (NIV)
Timothy Keller concludes Chapter 6 of Making Sense of God as he talks about when duty becomes choice. Yet, any single-minded pursuit needs to be moored to a deeper purpose. If not, such pursuit carries the potential to take on the characteristics of an addiction.
Because the pursuit requires more and more to obtain the same high. And this compulsion prompts a growing sense of despair.
Therefore, we need to take on liberating, right constraints. As Christians who live for the God who both created and redeemed us, by definition we take on liberating constraints. Hence, the Christian faith involves more than merely complying with the proper regulations of our Creator. We also foster a new, growing, inward passion to love and know our Redeemer.
In conclusion, Hebrews 8:10 tells us that the Spirit of God writes God’s law on our hearts. Consequently, Timothy notes, this enables Christians to see the will of God as a list of God’s loves and hates. Loves and hates that help us to please Him and come to be like Him. Not to see those loves and hates as a crushing burden.
Thus, Pastor Keller exhorts:
‘To have the law ‘written on our hearts’ means that we are freely doing what we most want to do. We are loving our redeemer through following his will. . . . As we follow God’s will out of an inner desire to love our redeemer, we increasingly come to sense that we are becoming who we were designed to be by our creator.”
Today’s question: How do you see Jesus as our perfect liberation? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Forging an identity – traditional”
