If heroes gave their tomorrow so that others today could have a future, then think for a moment of the heroic and sacrificial cross work Jesus endured to propitiate or satisfy the just demands of God the Father for the sins of man (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10) to provide an unparalleled tomorrow! Jesus endured the unbridled shame, excruciating agony, and an ignoble death by Roman crucifixion so that whoever believes [pisteuo, to have faith; from pistis, a reliance upon God’s only begotten Son for salvation]) will have eternal life. The redemptive promise made in Jn 3:16, shall not perish, is inextricably linked to God’s Son (cf. Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12).
For us today, Jesus gave up His physical
life on a divinely designated day in history so that He could live within us
today, tomorrow, and forevermore through His Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:9; 1 Cor
2:14; 2 Cor 4:3-4). We may not share in the personal experiences of the
disciples when Jesus was ministering physically on earth, the crucifixion event,
the empty tomb, the physical appearance of Jesus on the third day, and the post-resurrection
days before His physical ascension into heaven, and witnessing His ascension
into heaven, but we do share in the precious gift of the Holy Spirit (the same
Spirit promised to them at Pentecost, Acts 1:8). Though we obviously do not share
in the life of the incarnate Jesus as did the disciples of His day, we can read
about their interactions with Jesus for ourselves in the divinely authoritative
New Testament and rejoice that the same Jesus who was with the believers in the
first century lives within us who believe today!
Yahweh’s love for mankind is
clearly revealed in allowing His Son to suffer at the hands of unregenerate man.
This, I must confess, is quite challenging for me to grapple with
intellectually – Father, forgive them; for
they do not know what they are doing (Lk
23:34). The love of God, in my estimation, is the hardest doctrine for
me to understand this side of eternity. I was spiritually regenerated on
1.19.1976, and now, here I am, 50 years later in the Lord, and essentially, I
am still no closer to understanding the love of God today than when I was born
again! I am beginning to think it is a hopeless endeavor for me, even though I
rejoice and revel in His love for me!
Now, to be very clear, I have
always accepted the love of God, embraced it, shared it with others, and never doubted
His love for me and for others. I will be the first to testify; I am unworthy of
the love of God. This is not a statement of humility but a fact of life. The
demons may proclaim that the love of God is “too good to be true,” however,
they had rejected a holy God for a god impersonator by the name of Lucifer,
aka, Satan (the adversary), and every one of those dark angels is eternally doomed
for the pit, including Lucifer, who is pretending to be an angel of light (2
Cor 11:14).
I learned early on in my
spiritual life to love and praise Yahweh for the many things I can understand as
well as the things I do not understand about Him (cf. Deut 29:29). So, here I
am fifty years later with the Lord testifying that there was never any doubt
that Yahweh is a God of love (agape) Who keeps His Word. “Did not Jesus’
death on the cross demonstrate His love for you?” Might you ask? I would wholeheartedly
say, “Amen,” to that question! His horrific death on the cross is the supreme demonstration
of His love for all of the sons and daughters of Adam foreshadowed in the
Garden of Eden (cf. Gn 3:21). His death for all does not mean all will receive the
gift of life eternal; hence, whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (Jn 3:16; cf. Jn 3:17).
Should you struggle with comprehending
the love of God as I do, you know there is no secret innate battle with denial,
only a spiritual honesty acknowledging that Jesus manifested His greatest attribute
– love (agape, 1 Cor 13:13; 1 Jn 4:16) on the cross, but I am failing to
understand the why behind the love. I know right well that Jesus had to die to
redeem us, and that there was no other way in the mind of the all-knowing God.
Love at such a great expense directed toward the enemies of God makes no sense
to me!
With the fall of Adam, all men
were born enemies of God! As an enemy, we are hateful, hostile, and adversarial
to all things God! How could God love you or me who loved the darkness more
than the light!? The simple answer is that He did, and proved it without
question! The perplexity is in the why. You might as well throw love along with
grace and mercy into the vat of perplexity!
God’s attribute of love offers
the best it has to help others become more like His Son (Christlikeness). We may
not understand God’s overtures of love, but with the Holy Spirit’s enablement,
we can demonstrate the love of God to others, and that is not too hard to
understand at all, yes?! A sacrificial act of love on our part might provide the
eternal hope of tomorrow for someone Yahweh brings into our lives in the now.
The natural man cannot love
supernaturally (agape) because such love is sourced in the Holy Spirit, of
which he or she does not possess within his or her heart. Providing love (agape)
to others makes no sense to the natural man (non-believer), and is a challenge
to the supernatural man (believer). The love of God makes all the sense in the
world for the cause of Christ. However, we cannot do that unless the love of
God indwells us already (Rom 8:9). We do not need to pray to receive the love
of God, for it comes with salvation; we are to be obedient and let the love of God
out of our heart for others (Rom 5:5)! Heroes of the faith (Jn 14:15) share and show
the love of God to others.
The natural man (or sensual man, unbeliever) does not possess the Holy Spirit (Jude 19), and he or she is unable to love as God and incapable of obeying (cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 4:4) – the prime directive of Scripture. Modern-day heroes of the faith love (agapao) Yahweh with the totality of their being, intellectually, emotionally, and volitionally (Deut 6:5; Mk 12:30) and love (agapao) their neighbor as themselves (Lev 19:18; Mk 12:31) in accordance with the Word of God. This is an incontrovertible fact and the epicenter of all Scripture for all time. It is a perpetual contemporary directive rooted in the past, present, and future. A biblically vertical love for God makes a biblically horizontal love for others a reality. The absence of a love for man is a byproduct of failing to love Yahweh wholeheartedly (losing your first love, cf. Rev 2:4). Anything less than wholehearted is cold-hearted.
Let’s face it; if not for the
love (agape) of God, we would all wind up in a really terrible place at
the end of the road. Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin, and it is a divine
imperative that we must be satisfied (cf. Rom 10:13; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5) with
the Sacrifice (Acts 4:12; Jn 14:6) that satisfied Yahweh for the penalty of sin
(eternal separation from Yahweh), a work that only Jesus could do and did (1 Jn
2:2; 4:10) to provide a way from the sum of all fears – eternal separation from
Yahweh in the lake of fire! May grace and mercy follow the modern-day heroes of
the faith until He appears. Halleluyah! <><
%20sunflower%2040x50.png){kind=small}
%20Blk%20Camel%20for%20posts%20T-bkgrd%20right%2053%20x%2044.png){kind=small}
