ViewPoint Q&A: God's Love In Us

One of the best ways to get to know Jesus better is to ask someone who already knows Jesus well. Dennis Kinlaw certainly fits that category. He has joyfully radiated passionate love for the King for decades, and his lifetime of scholarly work has focused on Jesus as the center of biblical theology. Revive had the chance to sit down with Dr. Kinlaw and ask him about the ingredients of white-hot love for Jesus.

Who is Jesus?

Dr. Kinlaw: There are two watershed events in human history. One was Moses' experience with God at the burning bush, when God told us His name: I AM. The second was Bethlehem, when God came to earth as a human, Jesus Christ. When you've seen Jesus, you've seen all there is to see of God.

Now, of course there are parts of God that cannot be seen, but everything we can see of God has been revealed in Jesus. Jesus said it Himself: "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." That's why the four gospels are so critical.

You've been a Christian for nearly 75 years. How have you kept your love for Jesus alive for so long?

Dr. Kinlaw: The greatest gift God has ever given me is a hunger for Him. I want Him. I can't live without His presence. The most important thing in my life is to feed that hunger for Jesus so it never goes away. If it diminishes, I replenish it as quickly as I can. He wants to be present in my life. In John 13-17, the preposition "in" occurs sixty-six times. He wants to be "in" me, just like He wanted to be "in" His people from the beginning.

The other thing I would say, looking across the years, is that I can't live without Scripture. I've been in the academic world; I've spent years in graduate school writing papers, dissertations, etc.; I've read devotional and theological books. But when I read them, it's like I'm living off of potato chips-I need the meat of Scripture itself! Every time I go to the Scriptures, I find Him there. What's interesting is that the more you know Him, the more you want Him and the more you love Him.

How do you display your love for Jesus?

Dr. Kinlaw: Well, let's start with the grammar of your question. For a long time, I wanted Him to perfect my love so that I could love Him better. I wanted God to fix me up so I could be holy.

Then one day, Jesus said, "That's not the way it works, Kinlaw." He showed me that what I need is not perfected human love. I need God's love within me-the same love that binds the Trinity together. I need a divine gift from God, not a perfected human work.

So I've learned to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in my life. He's the one that births the divine love within me, and I must be careful not to grieve or offend Him so that a chasm develops between us. Romans 5:5 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. We think it says that "God helps us love Him," but what it actually says is that we need the Spirit to produce God's love in us.

Many believers would say that they have a "personal relationship with Jesus," but He doesn't seem to be a priority in their daily lives. What should we make of this?

Dr. Kinlaw: Salvation isn't a gift that I can get, then I've got it and I'm fixed. Salvation is a byproduct of my relationship with Jesus. You can't get the life of God in you and put it on reserve until Judgment Day. Personal relationships can't be frozen, and they aren't past tense. God's name is I AM, and I've got to be in a present tense relationship with Him.

Perhaps on this point we have misled people by emphasizing that they can "make a decision for Jesus," and they'll be fixed from then on. But we need Jesus now if we are to know His saving grace now.

If you were advising a new believer on how to set the stage for a lifelong, dynamic relationship with Jesus, what would you tell them?

Dr. Kinlaw: Live in the Word. Live in the Word. Live in the Word. And keep living in the Word.

I also think that about every six weeks, a person ought to read the biography of someone who walked intimately with God. There's a stack of them out there—Martin Luther, John Wesley, D. L. Moody, C. T. Studd, A. B. Simpson. When you see how God worked in someone else's life, you get a clue as to what He can do in your own.

Finally, get as close to people who know God intimately as you can get; look for them and "saddle up" to them. Everything good in my own life has come as a gift from somebody, somewhere; nobody makes it alone. Look for the people who will inspire you and challenge you.


Dr. Dennis Kinlaw is the founder of The Francis Asbury Society and former president of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. Dr. Kinlaw is a widely respected scholar whose books include Let's Start with Jesus, This Day with the Master, and We Live As Christ. To learn more about this great man's life and work, visit www.FrancisAsburySociety.com/kinlaw.htm.