February 16-22, 2020: John 12:1-35
Pure, sanctified love, expressed by Christ’s lifework, is as sacred perfume. Like an opened bottle of perfume, it fills the whole house with fragrance. Eloquence, and extended knowledge of the truth, outward devotion, rare talents, if mingled with sacred, humble love, will become as fragrant as the opened box of ointment. But gifts alone, ability alone, the choicest endowments alone, cannot take the place of love.[1] Never before was there such general knowledge of Jesus as when He hung upon the cross. He was lifted up from the earth, to draw all to Him. Into the hearts of many who beheld that crucifixion scene, and who heard Christ’s words, was the light of truth to shine. There were those who never rested until, searching the Scriptures and comparing passage with passage, they saw the meaning of Christ’s mission. They saw that free forgiveness was provided by Him whose tender mercy embraced the whole world. They read the prophecies regarding Christ, and the promises so free and full, pointing to a fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem.[2]
The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light which streams from the cross of Calvary, and in connection with the wondrous, central truth of the Savior’s atonement. Those who study the Redeemer’s wonderful sacrifice grow in grace and knowledge.[3] The cross stands alone, a great center in the world. It does not find friends, but it makes them. It creates its own agencies. Christ proposes that men shall become laborers together with God. He makes human beings His instrumentalities for drawing all me unto Himself. A divine agency is sufficient only through its operation on human hearts with its transforming power, making men co-laborers with God.[4]
Philip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew says, “Satan’s power is external and coercive. God’s power, in contrast, is internal and noncoercive. . . . Such power may seem at times like weakness. In its commitment to transform gently from the inside out and in its relentless dependence on human choice, God’s power may resemble a kind of abdication.* As every parent and every lover knows, love can be rendered powerless if the beloved chooses to spurn it. . . . God made himself weak for one purpose: to let human beings choose freely for themselves what to do with him.”[5]
It’s God’s sacrificial love that draws us to Himself.
Something to consider:
Christ's love is as perfume, when the bottle is opened the fragrance can fill the room and reaches into the heart of anyone who breathes it in, regardless of who they are, what they may have done, or where they may be at in their life.
As a follower of Jesus, what is the kind of fragrance that your love is permeating? Is your scent so light and airy that it only reaches those closest to you? Or perhaps, it is so strong that it may be suffocating those you come in contact with who may have weaker lungs than you?
Pray that each of us will have the kind of love that is sweet and gentle which will be the kind that will draw others to Jesus.