Beloved part 5
The biggest difference between Jesus and anybody else is that Jesus was God's BELOVED Son. Now this does NOT mean that God doesn't love you. Of course He does. He IS love. He always has and He always will love you. But Jesus KNEW this truth. And it set Him free. It equipped and empowered Him to BE who He was. That was Adam's--and really, all of humanity's--problem. Adam didn't know who he was. He didn't know God as Father. He didn't know he was loved. So he swallowed the lie that says you have to DO in order to BE. He WANTED to be loved, but he didn't know he WAS loved, so he tried to EARN love. But love isn't something that can be earned. It is freely given, and must be received. When the Bible talks about earning something it says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). And there are a few important things to notice here: 1. The Bible does NOT say the wages of sin is hell. It says the wages of sin is DEATH. Which goes along with Ephesians 2:1, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." We WERE dead. Because of Adam's sin. And then we were quickened, or made alive, when Jesus died (both for us and as us) and then rose again. So the sin part and the dead part is over. It's not, "If you sin, you will die." Its, "Adam sinned, by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and on that day he died. And you were in Adam at the time, so you died too. But then Jesus made you alive. By showing you who God is. By showing you what love is." Jesus took away the sin of the world by giving us something (Himself, love) to believe in. He made us alive by His quickening Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that we are loved by the God who IS love. And that's what the gift of God is: Eternal life. Which Jesus defined in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Eternal life is the Father/Son relationship between Creator and creation. Eternal life is living a life of love. Knowing and believing that you ARE loved, and loving one another with that same love. Letting God love you until you are filled to overflowing with what He has already filled you with. Letting yourself BE loved so that you CAN love. The love and affirmation of a Father always equips and empowers His Son. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom. Freedom FROM sin and death, and freedom TO live and love. We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. But now we are alive in His love. One more Bible verse to finish off this Rant series: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death" (1 John 3:14). We were dead. When we were sinners. Before the cross. That's when (and where) sin abounded. That's when (and where) grace did much more abound. The old passed away. The dead were given new life. Because humanity was given the Holy Spirit. The love receptort that lets us KNOW (and believe) the truth that has always been true. You can't earn a gift. And you don't need to. God died for us because He couldn't live without us. He gave us everything He had and everything He is. So that we could have it. So that we could BE it. So that we could love... because we are loved. Because we are His beloved!