Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 072. Aggressiveness of Love

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Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 072. Aggressiveness of Love



TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 072. Aggressiveness of Love

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Aggressiveness of Love

The fifth trait also grew up out of the first three. Our Lord was aggressive. He pushed steadily, aggressively on in the way marked out for Him. Fear is cowardly. Faith is aggressive; it finds the right path and then its onward steady moving can't be stopped. Purity is aggressive. The unselfish passion for God has a strange power of aggressiveness. Love is aggressive. Goodness is aggressive. Fearlessness is always on the move forward when the need calls.

Jesus' aggressiveness was tremendous. His mere presence here showed His aggressiveness. Here, where sin reigned, and death and misery and suffering through sin, here He came. Down into the very thick of Satan's sphere of action He deliberately came with His sweet purity and obedience. Into the midst of demon-possessed and diseased men, into the midst of prejudice and superstition and cruelty that sin has bred, He quietly came, and by His very presence attacked all of this work of Satan's hands.

Every added hour of that life of purity was a hard aggressive attack upon the evil one. Every beating of His great heart in compassionate love for the multitude scattered like torn sheep, made aggressive inroad on the tempter's domain. We think that sin is aggressive, and it is. But it can't compare with the steady aggressive energy of goodness and love. The tempter seems to be all aggressiveness, of a very tenacious, persistent sort, especially if you are trying to get away from him. But our Lord Jesus was aggressive in a way that made a new record.

Now dig down under those five words—sinlessness, unselfishness, obedience, fearlessness, and aggressiveness—and you will quickly find the consonants and vowels that spell the one word—love. God is love. Jesus revealed His deity in the love which He lived. Only the word takes on a new meaning, or rather reveals its own true meaning, as He lived it. Love is pure. Love is utter unselfishness. Love is obedient—"he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." (Joh_14:21.) Love is fearless—"perfect love casteth out fear." (1Jn_4:18.) Love is aggressive—"the love of Christ" (2Co_5:14.) is an irresistible, constraining force driving us ever onward to meet the needs of men.

It was love as incarnated in Jesus that defeated the prince of hate. This is the secret of victory, love, as its meaning is revealed by Jesus. In all of this our Lord defeated the enemy. He was cutting the ground out from under the enemy's feet. Such a life completely neutralized the tempter. In what He was, and in what He did, our Lord defeated the evil one at every turn, and left him no possible chance of recovery.

Calvary was the climax. The death was the climax of the life. It gathered up into itself all the meaning of the life. It was the crowning act of the defeat administered to the traitor prince, and of the victory won on our behalf. There the sinless one was made sin for us. In that He forever defeated the prince of sin, and settled His claim upon us. The Cross was the greatest act of unselfishness ever done. And in that fact lies the defeat of the selfish one. The obedience of our Lord's life reached its highest and finest point when He poured out His life-blood with such shame and pain. "He was obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross." (Php_2:8.) In that obedience, carried to the farthest possible point against the extreme of difficulties, He defeated the disobedient prince. And he fearlessly. and aggressively pushed His victorious way through until the great work of our redemption was completely finished. This is the secret of our Lord's sweeping victory over the tempter.