One of my favorite passages of scripture is Matthew 22:36-40. Where Jesus said, “’You must love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Can obeying those two commandments be a shortcut to obedience to God? It certainly sounds much easier than trying to keep every commandment and demand to the letter. However, as long as we have the sinful nature we inherited from Adam, keeping those two commandments is just as impossible as keeping them all.
I don’t know about you, but on my own I would have a serious problem aligning all my heart, all my soul and my entire mind behind anything, even my love for God. The enemy would work to harden my heart, wound my soul and distract my mind. I might be able to love my neighbor as myself if self-love is the same as selfishness. But when Jesus points out in Luke 10:30-37 that my neighbor may be someone who is unacceptable, forget about it.
Jesus knew that I couldn’t do it on my own. It would take His life, death (in my place) and resurrection to provide me with forgiveness, salvation and eternal life. Only His sacrifice on the cross could give me access to Abba Father when I pray in Jesus’ name. It is only through those gifts of God’s grace and love and the presence of the Holy Spirit within me that make it possible for me to love God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind and to love my neighbors (all of them) as myself.
We often sing during worship, “It is amazing grace. It is unfailing love, that you should take my place that you should bear my cross.” My eyes fill with tears every time I think of how God demonstrated his love for a lost world (including me) by sending His Son to pay the price for our sins by shedding His life’s blood as the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God.
The term “unfailing love” is found in the NLT 164 times. Not once does it refer to my love for God, how I love others or even how I love myself. It is only God’s love for me that is unfailing. PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!