The Expulsive Power of Christ's Love (A Communion Message)

No doubt you have heard the astute observation – “Nature abhors a vacuum.” The same is true of our human nature. We cannot expel an unwanted affection without replacing it with something better. The greatest power in the world is the love of Christ that “constrains us” to live holy, self-denying lives (2 Cor. 5:14). It accomplishes far more than the most compelling rational arguments about the follies and fallacies of sin. The old Puritan writers referred to this great master-principle as “the expulsive power of a new affection.”

The realization of Christ's love to us is the cure for both guilt and fear. The two are related. When the love of Christ has displaced the old affection for the world, we become conscious of the fact that only God could have wrought such a change. Then our hearts go out in love to Him. Fear is dispelled. The immediate witness of the spirit is experienced. We truly feel that “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ” (Rom. 8:38,39. All of our delight is in Christ. The thought of Hell does not terrorize us, because our oneness with Christ is such, that if God should send us to Hell, He would have to let Jesus go too!