Reflections on October 23rd: “Know Christ, Know Love; No Christ, No Love”

It is revealing to consider just how often Jesus was critically confronted by enemies. When you take in the Scriptural witness, today’s skepticism towards Him is not at all inconsistent with the biblical pattern. The Sadducees and Pharisees as the Sanhedrin (Matthew 21:23), the disciples of the Pharisees (Matthew 22:16), the Sadducees by themselves (Matthew 22:23), and the Pharisees by themselves (Matthew 22:34), etc. were all putting Jesus to the test. Furthermore, when we reach the 22nd chapter of Matthew, we are reading about the Tuesday of Holy Week. Sometimes we encounter the popular impression that as Jesus’ public ministry progressed He gradually gathered a parade of fans; most certainly He became increasingly well-liked and received. No, not quite. In fact, the opposite is the case. We have to face the fact that by nature we really aren’t fond of Jesus. In fact, by nature — if I am writing what is true — we hate Christ. We want nothing of Him. The enemies of Christ listed in chapters 21 and 22 of St. Matthew are our representatives. Our sinful flesh stinks as much as theirs did. But as long as Christ is rejected, we cast the worst harm on ourselves. The great irony is that people claim to cherish love. Some will do absolutely anything for it, and yet when we reject the Savior who is love — not simply the example of love, or the energy for loving — but love en-fleshed. He is love in His person. To reject Christ is to reject love. The Pharisees therefore chose a fascinating test for Christ in asking Him what the greatest commandment was (it was a test designed for controversy and accusation since the Pharisees held to 613 laws), but they just didn’t anticipate what Jesus was going to say: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37-40).” Who could argue with this answer? Is it not the epitome of true religion? To be absolutely committed to God in the heart, to totally desire Him in the soul, and to completely train our thoughts on Him in our mind, and then to demonstrate that these are real by then loving our neighbor as ourselves which makes our confessed love for God real and tangible! What greater fulfilling of the law could there be? And this is why we hate Jesus (before our conversion to Him of course, and according to our sinful nature even after our conversion): He applies upon us the acid test that reveals that we have failed. Who loves God this way? Not us. And yet the status of these commands are indisputable; they are the irrevocable will of God and they must be kept! It is incumbent on poor sinners therefore to run to Jesus if they would ever be counted as keeping these greatest commandments. Only Jesus loves God this way, and only Jesus loves US this way. When the Gospel reveals that His fulfilling of the law is counted FOR YOU (yes, we mustn’t neglect Christ’s active obedience as an essential component of the Gospel), then and only then do we see God on our side; as having hope, as viewing God no longer as our enemy we run from or criticize, but as God whose Christ gives love…loving for us and loving us, so that to know Christ is to know love, but if there is no Christ, then needless to say there is no love. In Christ, Dr. Espinosa

• Share