Sacrifice part 3
When we understand the sacrifice, we can make the sacrifice. Because the sacrifice was, and is, love. When we understand how we are loved, we can love. That's as simple as I can make the Gospel. 2 John 1:5 says it like this, "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another." It's all about love. Which means it's all about God. All about Jesus. Because God is love. Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in YOUR flesh. Love in YOUR body. And because HE is the One living in you--and through you, and as you--we don't have to "make" the sacrifice that He made as much as we have to simply let it flow through us. We fill ourselves with what HE has filled us with and we let it come out naturally. That's what it means to apprehend what you've been apprehended of. That's what it means to BE transformed (into what you've already been transformed into) by the renewing of your mind. When you LET the mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you... that's when you start to understand, and think, the thoughts of God. We KNOW what those thoughts are. Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." But it's one thing to "know" something and another thing entirely to KNOW it. To understand it. That's what the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, is all about. He leads and guides us into the truth that we already know. Making what's true--what always has been and always will be true--true for YOU. Because the truth sets you free and makes you free, but only when you know it and believe it. That's why it's so important to understand WHAT Jesus did on the cross and WHY He did it. He gave His life for us, and He gave His life to us. Because He loves us. Loves us with an unconditional love. Not because of what we do, but because of who we are. And who He is. So when we understand the truth that we know--that God is love, and He loves us--that's when we can begin to love Him back. By loving each other. That's when what's inside us comes out. Naturally. That's when the sacrifice doesn't feel like something hard. It feels natural. Because it IS natural. Not the beast nature, but the love nature. Jesus gave us everything He had and everything He was. Gladly. Not because we had earned it, but because He wanted us to have it. That's the difference between a Father's love, and what religion has to offer. One is freely given. The other must be earned, but can't be earned. If you think you're making the sacrifice by trying (and failing) to keep the Law... then you totally missed the point of the story of Cain and Able. Cain brought the fruit of the ground. The fruit of his labor. What HE could produce. And God wasn't interested in it. But Able just brought a lamb. The only sacrifice God ever required, or would accept. Jesus didn't die because God wanted to kill someone and Jesus was saving us from God (saving us from Himself? Doesn't even make sense). Jesus died because we were already dead in our trespasses and sins and He wanted us to have life, and that more abundantly. He wanted us to have HIS life. So He laid it down. And picked it back up again. So that we could experience it as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us!