Friday Morning Manna
February 14, 2020
Nathaniel Fajardo email:[email protected]
“Now
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three . . .
“But the greatest of these is charity, or LOVE.” 1 Cor. 13: 13. We all know that, So, what else is new? What, if any, do we still need to know? Perhaps it is not knowing more as it is first settle questions that remain unanswered satisfactorily, i.e., if we still believe somehow that “love is what makes the world go round,” “love is a many-splendored thing,” “love is the answer,” “love unites,” “love conquers all,” etc. You get it.
The number one question: Has our world, the only planet in rebellion against God’s authority and law become any better, i.e., more peaceful, safer, happier and a healthier place to live in because of faith, hope and love? And by what metrics and whose standards are these to be measured by—creation or evolution? The law and testimony or the wisdom of this world? If yes, how has it become any better, and with whom? If not, why? Let’s consider the following:
Faith. Like the word “belief,” faith, according to many churches’ definition by way of doctrine, preaching and practice, has come to mean so many things that even contradict themselves that is a prominent ingredient of the spiritually intoxicating “wine of Babylon” or confusion of doctrines described in Revelation. It is such a comfort to know we still have free and easy access to the immutable Word of God that remains unchanged and constant regardless of all the changes man has and will continue to attempt to distort, amend, lower, replace or do away with the word and the law of God. Presumption is Satan’s counterfeit of faith and is third of the three temptations he plied on Jesus in the wilderness.
Hebrews chapter 11 is often called “the faith chapter.” I call it “the Hall of Faith” for it contains specific names of those God counted faithful and who are representatives of the unnamed and unknown ones of all ages. Verse 1 is not so much a definition of faith as it is a description of what genuine faith can do, as it did for the “Hall of Faithers.” “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Heb. 11:__.
“Presumption is Satan’s counterfeit of faith. Faith claims God’s promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God, and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequences of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven
[grace]
without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted
[see Exo. 20::]
Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures.”- E. G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 126.
Believing the great love of God will save from the consequences of our sin even when we transgress any part of His law “sincerely” yet with impunity, is the “faith” and “belief” of the masses of Christianity. Having “done away with God’s law,” they have become “a law unto themselves” which John calls “lawless.” Such of course is not genuine faith; it is presumption, counterfeit faith. Moreover, faith without works is dead. It is not living, working faith but dead, worthless faith. The apostle says: “Was not Abraham our father justified by his works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? James 2: 21, 22, N.K.J.V.
Knowledge is power and privilege but also accountability
If you said, “I know that love is greater than hope or faith,” then you’re in. Notice: “But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12: 48. To those who actually know, as well as those who claim or profess to know the present truth, “much has been committed to them, therefore, more will be asked of them in their judgment.
Increased knowledge not only earns one corresponding power, privilege and prestige; it increases accountability and responsibility. In case of failure, lapses, negligence, irresponsibility or outright transgressions, it increases culpability and guilt with their appropriate, just and respective consequences. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.” James. 1: 17. And “the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6: 23.
But to avoid knowing the required knowledge of the plan of salvation for man, is as sinful as these consequences clearly show: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me [the “priesthood of believers” is the royal priesthood, 1 Pet. 2: 9] because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” Hosea 4: 6. Here God says this lack of knowledge is actually rejection of such knowledge as connected to the law of God! In evolution, lack of knowledge is not fatal. In the plan of redemption prepared from the foundation of the world, lack of knowledge of the terms of eternal salvation, is! Let us make that distinction.
God is love
What omniscience saw and planned, divine love acted upon as the plan of redemption/salvation of the everlasting gospel, “prepared before the foundations of the world were laid.” Prophecy revealed “a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev.___). This Lamb, of course, was Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. This is love. As the defining virtue of God, love is “before anything that was made, was made. Why? “God is love.” 1 John___. It does not say was or will be. Because God is, His love is present tense. In Christ, He “is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Heb.___. the great “I AM.” To Abraham He declared, “I AM that I AM. I AM means, not subject to time, timeless. So is His love. Jesus, “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3: 16) referred to Himself as, “I AM the door;” “I AM the good Shepherd;” “I AM the resurrection and life,” etc. Since God is made up the three Persons of the Godhead, the Godhead is love, too. It cannot be otherwise for “these Three are One.”
Can Love Make America Great Again? If not, who or what will?
God’s Word says: “Righteousness exalts a nation. But sin is a reproach to any people.” Prov. 14: 34.To exalt is also to make great, and vice versa. The question above is asked in all seriousness. There is nothing flippant, sarcastic or political about it. In the first place, there should be no time or space in the heart, mind or mouth of the Christian who knows the times we are living in, to entertain any foolish thoughts. They know that: “By thy words shalt thou be justified; by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matt. 12: 37. If any are c0ndemened in the Judgment seat of Christ (Rom. 14: 10), it will be through self-condemnation.
Far too many are pegging their own faith and hope as well as the future of their children on this question. All, regardless of political affiliation, should want to know the answer for all mankind, not only Americans, desire lasting peace, true prosperity, genuine freedom and liberty from any and all that ails humanity—true greatness. All the kingdoms of the earth from the first established on the plains of Shinar after the flood, down to our day and age, have sought and touted their apparent yet short-live success in empire and nation-building. They all collapsed and crumbled away, buried in the dustbin of history. God’s messenger wrote:
“In the annals of human history the growth of nations, the rise and fall of empires, appear as dependent on the will and prowess of man. The shaping of events, seems, to a great degree, to be determined by his power, ambition, or caprice. But in the Word of God the curtain is drawn aside, and we behold, behind, above, and through all the play and counterplay of human interests and power and passions, the agencies of the all-merciful One, silently, patiently working out the counsels of His own will. . . .
“God has revealed in His law the principles that underlie all true prosperity both of nations and individuals. ‘This is your wisdom and understanding,’ Moses declared to the Israelites of the law of God, ‘It is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life.” Deut. 4: 6; 32: 47. The blessings thus assured to Israel are, on the same conditions and in the same degree, assured to every nation and every individual under the broad heavens.”- E.G. White, Education, pp 173. 174.
Now we have the answer from the book of Deuteronomy! God’s law is “our wisdom and understanding,” it is “our life,” it is what “underlies all true prosperity of both nations and individuals under the heavens! It is the “righteousness that exalteth a nation” for “the law is perfect, converting the soul . . . The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Ps. 19: 7, 9. “For all Thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119: 72, etc.
It is not strictly “love,” as we know it, but the law of God, and more specifically, love for the law of God that “exalts” or makes great any nation! Since the Lawgiver is God and God is love, then the law of God is the law of love. As Paul wrote: “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13: 10, KJV. God’s love and His law are mirror-images of His character. Thus, “Fulfilling the law is love”!
All citizens and residents of America are under its government which political system still guarantees the God-given inalienable rights, first religious, then civil. Religious liberty is fundamental and foundational; civil liberty and the rights accruing from it, are dependent on the former. This, in fact, is the very genius of the U.S. Constitution as expressed in the very First Amendment of its Bill of Rights. It is the first because the separation of church power and state power, the religious and the civil, statecraft and church craft is the bedrock of true freedom and liberty. Any freedom or liberty without this as a foundation, is man-made, not ordained by the God of love as the Dark Ages graphically proved.
The popular old ditty “What the world needs now, is love sweet love, it’s the only thing that there’s so little of” is spot on! Never more was this global want and its glaring deficiency more self-evident than now! So, it is either love is the answer or it is not; if not, something or somebody else is. You see, we, the people, the nation, the religions and the world have come to understand and define love by experience–which is so lacking if not totally bereft of the knowledge of God’s love in Christ, thus, hinging our expectations from this defective understanding and definition of love. And then it is on these unsecured and insecure hooks that we hang our plighted hopes and faith on. As has been said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
Now we know that it is not a different Constitution or a certain amendment to the existing one or a different system of government or a certain political party that will make a nation great, according to God’s Word. Since America is a central focus of Revelation 13, does it reveal that America will become great again in these last days of earth’s probation? If she will, will it be that “greatness” as a nation that it once occupied in world history? The Bible says, “righteousness exalteth a nation.” Will righteousness exalt or make America great again? What kind of “righteousness”? In the time of Christ, His righteousness stood in stark contrast to the righteousness of the religious leaders of the nation. If you are Bible-believing Christian and believe that God has, through prophecy already revealed what shall be, don’t you think we should review what the Word says in view of what is happening in America right now and in the world in these tumultuous times?
Why does love, that is, God’s love make us “more than conquerors through Him”? Simply because He is the Creator the Savior. Thus, absolutely “nothing” can separate us from the love of Him” “who loved us before we first loved Him.” Therefore:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [Ps. 44: 23]. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 8: 25-39. (Continued next week)