Finished part 5
This might seem like a little bit of a strange way to end this Rant series, but I want to talk about the last part of Hebrews 12:1, "Where seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin with doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Maybe a little bit strange because we've been talking about how it is finished. How Jesus did everything He needed to do in order to get us to where we needed--where He wanted--us to be. How now that it is finished we can enjoy the fruit of Jesus's labor. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. Which is love. But that's the point! Rest is not inactivity. Rest is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the only thing the Holy Spirit can or will ever direct us to do is love each other. What else could the God who is love want or require from us? And that's why He first loved us. He gave us everything we could possibly need in order to enjoy this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that He has given us. He has equipped and empowered us to run the race that is set before us. He has equipped and empowered us to do what we were created to do. Which is, quite simply, to live. To live is to love and to love is to live, right? They aren't just connected. They are the same thing. So what we need to understand is that we ARE loved. That is finished. Jesus said the greatest love a man can have is to lay His life down for His friends. And then He went to the cross and did just that. He didn't just tell us what love is, He showed us what love is. He put His money where His mouth was, if I can say it that way. And He didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it. So that we could enjoy His love by giving it away. By sharing it. We live Jesus's abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by letting Jesus live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Nobody can live Jesus's life except Jesus. So we need to stop trying so hard. Just let it go and let it flow. Run the race that is set before us. By staying in our lane. By being who we were created to be instead of trying (and failing) to be someone we're not. It is finished. Jesus did it. That means you don't need to do it yourself. You can let the God--the love-that is inside come out. By filling yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. By letting God love the hell out of you and then loving Him back by loving the people that He has put in your path. The work is finished. But that doesn't mean there is nothing for us to do. It simply means that we can do what we were created to do. The separation that WE put between ourselves and God--when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of death and then hid from the presence of God--has been erased. There is no separation between God and man. God lives in man. And God is love. So that means love lives in man. It's a done deal. We can run the race... we can love... because it is finished. Because we are loved. And because we are loved... we are love! It's not just what we do, it's who we are!