The Nature of Love part 4
Human nature has, on this side of the cross, been revealed as the love nature of Jesus Christ. The love nature that IS Jesus Christ living in us and as us and through us. The nature of giving rather than receiving. And I understand that we must first receive FROM the Father before we can give what we've got. But it's BETTER to give than receive. The receiving isn't the be-all end-all. You can only give what you have, and you can't give what you don't have. So you must first receive then release. But it's only through releasing that we truly receive. If that makes any sense. Today I want to focus on the revelation part of the love nature. I want us to understand that--just like in the Wizard of Oz--the very thing we needed is the very thing we had all along. It was just buried down deep inside. And something needed to happen in order to reveal what was in there. The flesh (of human effort) needed to be cut away. We needed to be circumsized. Here's what always struck me about the whole idea of circumcision: even from the beginning cutting away the physical flesh was only a type a shadow. It was always about the heart. Deuteronomy 10:16 says it like this, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." Get the flesh (or human effort) out of your heart! And then a few chapters later we see this glorious truth, "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live" (Deuteronomy 30:6). See the progression? Circumcise your heart! That's Old Covenant. That's the Law trying to make you jump through religious hoops in order to be somebody you're not. Then, at the appointed time of the cross, The Lord thy God will circumcise your heart! He did it because we couldn't do it. He did it both for us and as us. It's this idea that we were MADE in His image, but didn't know who we were. We tried to be somebody we're not. Tried to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. Tried to be like God through the knowledge of good and evil. But that could never work. So Jesus CONFORMED us to His image. He showed us who we really are by showing us who HE really is. He cut away all of that external stuff and showed us that God's heart was always beating in our chests and we just didn't know it. The circumcision didn't ADD anything. It took away everything that wasn't necessary. It got rid of everything on the surface and revealed that inner man. That hidden man of the heart. That circumcision (made without hands) didn't GIVE us the love nature. It simply showed us what was buried down deep inside. And because of that revelation we can stop trying to be someone else. We can stop trying to change. We can begin to BE who we really are because now we can SEE who we really are. Not "acting" like Jesus, because that will always be just an act, but just letting what's inside come out naturally. Letting the love that we are filled to overflowing with come out all on it's own!