MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 6, 2024
Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 35
LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 8)
“But unto the Son He (the Father) saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast LOVED righteousness, and HATED iniquity (sin, transgression); therefore God, even Thy God (the Father) hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. And Thou, Lord (the Son), in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thy hands [as the Creator]: They shall perish but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art THE SAME and Thy years shall not fail.” Heb. 1: 8-12, KJV.
In no place in the Bible will we find such an astounding statement except in the Scripture cited above: that the Father addressing His only-begotten Son as God! And in reiterating His office and role as the Creator of the universe, the heaven and the earth, emphasis is made that righteousness is the scepter-authority of the eternal throne of Him “who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” As the existence of a throne implies a kingdom, His is a kingdom of righteousness even as it is a kingdom of grace, and glory.
Thus, the love ‘fruit’ of the divine Spirit, is one and the same as the love of the Father manifested in “giving His only begotten Son” to fallen humanity to become one with them in the mystery of the incarnation “for the suffering of death,” and the love of the Son for His fallen, undeserving creatures that He volunteered to offer His own sinless life and sin-cleansing blood as the penitent sinner’s only Substitute and Surety.
This is the divine “selfless love” which proceeds only from and is imparted to fallen humanity by the Holy Spirit of Christ and the Father. It is divine love that loves the sinner unconditionally and hates sin unconditionally—in the same breath. One without the other is not the love of the Godhead but of finite, sinful mortals.
It is only such love of, in, and from God the Father in Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit in the heart of the penitent sinner, that “constrains” (2 Cor. 5:14) him to obey God’s commandments lovingly, willingly, voluntarily, and by practice and repetition, spontaneously; it becomes habitual, then a part of the character. Nothing less will suffice or is acceptable in the judgment for indeed, “God is love.” Once more, this love hates sin unconditionally for “our sins and transgressions separate us from God.”
The highest and most sublime form of worship is the unquestioning, intellectually and spiritually-founded loving obedience to God’s law of love and righteousness. It is only this love that “conquers all” for together with divine grace, empowers the striving disciple to successfully “resist the devil” (James 4:7) and victoriously “overcome even as Christ overcame.” (Rev. 3:21).
This is the love that is “greater than faith or hope” (1 Cor. 13: 13, 1-12); love that absolutely “nothing can separate God from us”(Rom. 8:35-39). By this, you will know them by their fruits.”
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.