Preparation part 4
The way we prepare to live this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life is by finding out what it means that Jesus is living HIS abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life in and through us! See, we're not trying to live Jesus' life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. So it's imperative that we understand that we ARE Jesus. That He lives in, and through, and as us. And in order to prepare for that type of unity with the God who is love, we have to let the mind of Christ that's already in us BE in us. The people of Israel ate the Passover Lamb with their shoes on their feet and their loins girded. 1 Peter 1:13 connected the girding up to the mind--the mind of Christ. And the mind of Christ, or the Holy Spirit, prepares us for this relationship with our heavenly Father by testifying of Jesus (our true identity as the beloved Son of God in whom He is well pleased). We saw yesterday that John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus and then Jesus prepared the way for us. And now we prepare ourselves simply by knowing and believing the truth of the gospel. We prepare ourselves by receiving and releasing the love of the Father. That's what this (I'll say it again) abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life is all about! To live is to love and to love is to live. So how do we prepare to live? By letting God love us. That was the biggest difference between Adam and Jesus. Adam was the son of God. Jesus was (and is) the BELOVED Son of God. Not because God didn't love Adam. Of course He did. God IS love. But because Adam didn't know God loved him. Adam believed the lie that said he had to do something in order to be like God. Whereas Jesus knew exactly who He was (and is) and He knew exactly who God was (and is). Jesus allowed Himself to BE loved of God. That's what the BELOVED Son aspect is all about. And that's how we prepare to love one another... by letting ourselves be loved of God. That's what Jesus said the New Commandment is: Love one another as Jesus loves you. Let me say it another way. You can't give what you don't have. So you have to receive the love of God before you can release it. You have to prepare to love by BEING loved. You have to know and believe the love of God before you can love with the love of God. Let me end this Rant with a picture of war. "Love is a battlefield," right? Well this is how it works, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:12). Fighting the good fight of faith is simply laying hold of what we already have. We've been given a gift and now we must be prepared to RECEIVE that gift. We have to know what we have before we can enjoy it. And what we have is love. What we have (one more time) is the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of Jesus!