PERFECT LOVE
“Greater love has no one than this,
that someone lay down His life for his friends.”
(John 15:13)
When something is perfect
When something is perfect, it is complete. You can’t add to it, and you can’t take away from it.
Jesus Christ demonstrated His perfect love for us through His death and suffering on the Cross, as He lovingly paid the price and bore the wrath for all of our sins …
“Greater love has no one than this,
that someone lay down His life for his friends.”
(John 15:13) (God now calls us “His friends!”)
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;
Yet, perhaps for a good man
someone would even dare to die.
But, GOD demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners,
(while we were still His enemies)
Christ died for us.
Much more then,
having been justified by His blood,
(His blood washes away all our sins)
We shall be saved from wrath through Him,
For when we were reconciled to God
though the death of His Son, (on the Cross)
much more, having been reconciled,
we shall be saved (from Hell)
by His life (the Resurrection).
(Romans 5:7-10)
Jesus Christ also demonstrated His perfect love as He forgave those who did all those terrible things to Him …
“Then Jesus said,
“Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.”
(Luke 23:34)
As children of God, our own lives need to start reflecting His perfect love. We must learn and know that “Love” is not a “feeling”… it is an action!
Here, God teaches us that love is based on how we act and how we treat others …
“Love is Patient (slow to anger) and
Love is Kind,
Love does NOT envy;
Love does NOT parade itself,
Love is NOT puffed up (prideful);
Love does NOT behave rudely or arrogantly
Love does NOT demand its own way,
Love is NOT provoked,
Love thinks NO evil;
Love does NOT rejoice in sinful activities, but
Love Rejoices in the truth;
Love Bears all things,
Love Believes all things,
Love Hopes all things,
Love Endures all things.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.”
(1 Corinthians 13:1-8)
This Biblical definition of love is also a perfect description of Jesus Christ! Just replace the word “love” with His Name and you will see.
If we truly believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for all our sins, was buried, and raised again (Resurrected) from the dead on the third day, we are told we are “born again” (this time in the “Spirit” and not of the “flesh”), and only then are we considered “children of God.”
God’s Word says we should then start seeing the “fruit” of the Spirit being produced in our lives. But, remember, we don’t produce this fruit of love, it is the Holy Spirit within us that produces this fruit. God inspects the “Fruit” we are bearing in our lives to see if we are His and have His Spirit now living within us.
God says the fruit of the Spirit is love
He then describes how it should start to manifest itself in our lives …
“But the fruit of the Spirit
is Love,
Joy,
Peace,
Patience,
Kindness,
Goodness,
Faithfulness,
Gentleness,
Self-control.
Against such there is no law.”
(Galatians 5:22-26)
God also warns our Spirit and the flesh are at war with each other. He warns us by contrasting the fruit of the Spirit with the “works of the flesh.”
“Now the works of the FLESH are evident,
which are:
Adultery,
Fornication, (Any sex outside of marriage)
Uncleanness,
Lewdness,
Idolatry,
Sorcery, (“Phamakeus” … drugs … or the occult)
Hatred,
Contentions,
Jealousies,
Outbursts of wrath,
Selfish ambitions,
Dissensions,
Heresies,
Envy,
Murders,
Drunkenness,
Revelries, (Power of a group drawing us away from God)
and the like;
of which I tell you beforehand,
just as I also told you in time past,
that those who practice such things (Willfully)
will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God (go to Heaven).”
(Galatians 5:19-21)
“Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
(Matthew 3:10)
Jesus warns many who call themselves “Christian”…
“NOT everyone
who says to Me (Jesus), ‘Lord, Lord,’
shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
(These people consider themselves Christians!)
Many (‘most’ or ‘majority’ who call themselves Christian)
will say to Me in that Day (of Judgment)
‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied (taught)
in Your Name, cast out demons in Your Name,
and done many wonders in Your Name?
(They may have been very busy in church)
And then (at the Judgment)
I (Jesus) will declare to them
‘I never KNEW you,
DEPART from Me (from Heaven and into Hell)
you who practice Lawlessness.'”
(Matthew 7:21-23) (Sinning willfully with no repentance)
We are also warned sinful “pride” is a form of ‘Lawlessness’.
Satan himself was cast out of Heaven because of pride.
The Bible warns God hates pride, but, what IS “Pride”??!!
Pride places ourselves above others … it is the opposite of ‘humility’.
We ALL struggle with it, and here’s what it sounds like …
“Nobody is going to tell ME what to do!!”
“If I don’t want to do it, I’m not going to do it!!”
“Nobody can talk to or treat ME like that!!”
We are lovingly told to “examine” ourselves …
“Examine yourselves,
to see whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves.
Or do you not realize
this about yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?
UNLESS indeed you fail to meet the test!”
(2 Corinthians 13:5)
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
Compassionate hearts,
Kindness,
Humility, (esteeming others better than yourself)
Meekness, (not seeking revenge)
and Patience, (slow to anger … trust God in bad times)
Bearing with one another (no arguing or complaining)
and, if one has a complaint against another,
Forgiving each other.
As the Lord has forgiven you,
So you must also forgive.
And above all these
Put on love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in one body.
And be Thankful!!!”
(Colossians 3:12-15)
“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed,
do everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
(Colossians 3:16-17)
A Love Story Written In Blood on a Wooden Cross
As noted earlier, the Kingdom of Heaven is a love story. We are told the King (or Prince) is Jesus Christ and His Bride (or Princess) is the body of believers who have placed their love and faith in Him alone to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
In order to love Him we must never forget the terrible price He paid to ransom (“redeem”) His Bride (all believers) who will one day reign with Him over the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let’s take a moment to remember what it cost Him as He lovingly suffered beyond measure so His “Bride” (all believing Christians) can enter into His Kingdom of Heaven.
A Love Story from the Cross …
The word “excruciating” comes from the root word “crucify.” Crucifixion was a cruel, slow, agonizing, and tortuous form of execution designed to kill through slow suffocation. The shoulders of the person being crucified would dislocate and separate. The only way the person nailed to the Cross could breathe (or speak) would be to gather as much strength as they could and try to stand up on the nail or the spike that had been driven through their feet.
The feet were severely pressed in order to nail them to the Cross. When the feet were nailed securely to the Cross, the heel would be pressed tightly against the wood of the Cross.
So, in order to breathe or to speak, the person nailed to the Cross had to put all of their weight on the heel and the large spike that had been driven through the feet in order to stand up far enough to gasp for breath.
Also, we are told that Jesus was scourged by the Romans before He was crucified. These “stripes” He took on His back were another form of cruel punishment derived by the powers of the day.
The Roman “whip” used for scourging was small with pieces of metal and bone attached. The prisoner’s back was stretched tight as He, in this case, Jesus, was tied to a post. The Roman whip was designed to dig into the skin of the back and then tear the skin away from the bone.
By the time Jesus was crucified the skin of His back that had been torn from the “stripes” would have been hanging loosely off of the bone like a tattered cloth.
Now, take a moment to consider the amount of pain shooting through the body of Christ as He struggled with dry, parched lips and gasping for breath to stand up by pressing down on that heel which was nailed to the Cross, causing His tattered back with its exposed bone to rub against the roughly hewn wood of His Cross in order to clearly speak those words: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
A Remarkable Prophecy of the Cross
The Serpent on the Pole …
We find a prophetic “foreshadowing” of the Cross in the book of Numbers, one of the five books of Moses …
“So the LORD
sent fiery serpents among the people,
and they bit the people; (Because they were complaining!)
And many of the people of Israel died.
Therefore the people came to Moses,
and said, ‘We have sinned,
for we have spoken against the LORD
and against you (Moses); (God warns against complaining)
Pray to the LORD that
He take away the serpents from us.’
So Moses prayed for the people.
Then the LORD said to Moses,
‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole;
and it shall be that everyone who is bitten,
when he looks at it, shall live.’
So Moses made a bronze serpent,
and put it on a pole;
and so it was,
if a serpent had bitten anyone,
when he LOOKED
at the bronze serpent,
he LIVED.”
(Numbers 21:6-9)
In the Bible, the serpent is used as a symbol for “sin,” and bronze a symbol of “judgment,” because bronze could withstand the fire. We find in this verse that once the people acknowledged their sin, they only needed to look upon the serpent on the pole to be healed and saved. We are told Jesus “became” sin, like that “fiery serpent” on the pole, for us …
“For He made Him (Jesus Christ)
who knew no sin
to be sin for us,
that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21) (We’re made righteous thru our faith)
Jesus points to this prophetic model of the serpent on the pole …
Jesus said,
“And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
Whoever believes in Him
should not perish (in Hell)
but have eternal life (in Heaven).
For God so loved the world
that He gave
His only begotten Son, (See Psalm 2)
that whoever believes in Him
should not perish (in Hell),
but have everlasting life (in Heaven).
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him
might be saved.”
(From our sins and from Hell)
(John 3:14-17)
Please notice the only thing the people had to do was to confess they had sinned against God, and then just look and believe in faith they would be saved.
There was nothing else they had to do. Saved by faith!!!
No added works and no added people (or priests) were necessary (even though Moses and the priests were there).
So, just as those who looked upon the fiery serpent in the wilderness were saved from their sins, so will all of us who trust and believe in Jesus on the Cross be saved from our sins (and Hell) … and welcomed into His Kingdom of Heaven.
The Promise of the Cross is available to everybody. The offer is extended to all. The early church included all – Jew, Roman, Ethiopian, Greek, rich and poor, men and women, centurion and rabbi, together, as one. They saw … they heard … they believed.
God promised the good news of this new Covenant of God’s Grace would be offered to all people around the world. Christ lovingly suffered and died for the sins of all Mankind!
Jesus explains …
“If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments.
(John 14:14) (Obedience is a sign of love)
So, WHO Will Enter Into The Kingdom Of Heaven???
(Now, write this on your heart so you will never forget!)
Jesus Christ greatly loved us in order to save us from the utter darkness, aloneness, and torment of Hell …
All God asks of us to enter into His Kingdom of Heaven is that we love Him for all that He has done for us.
Jesus Christ’s last words on the Cross were “Paid in full.”
He paid the entry price for us!
Be sure to thank Him in prayer and sincerely love Him for all He did for you, and then believe with all of your heart that He died on the Cross for all your sins, and was buried, and then raised from the dead the third day (exactly as the ancient prophets said He would), you can now have the full assurance that you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to live “happily ever after”… Forever and ever!!!
Please note, during our short life on Earth, Satan (our enemy) will relentlessly bring pain, suffering, (and temptations) into our lives to destroy our faith, while God will allow a measure of suffering in each of our lives in order to test our faith!
God wants to see whether in those times of testing are we turning away from Him or drawing closer to Him?