[SIZE=18pt] Many Christians are familiar with the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s definitions and would say that the purpose of man is to glorify God: “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] I wouldn’t argue against the proposition that all men will glorify God, but is it Man’s chief end according to scripture or more properly, is it the purpose of Man? First for those who haven’t considered the meaning of this phrase, what does it mean to glorify God? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] First we need to define glory, which is not as easy as it first sounds. In the Bible, a number of different words are translated into the English word “glory”. The meaning varies in subtle ways which we don’t gather from the translation, but the most common word used when speaking of the glory of God is the Hebrew word which we pronounce as Kawbowd (or sometimes as Kabod). E.g.: The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt] Psalms 19:1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] This word expresses the concept of a weight or super abundance of excellence, or majesty, or sublime beauty, or eminence. When speaking of the glory of men, usually a different word is used which refers to a more superficial and temporary beauty or prominence. The word is sometimes used as a noun describing a quality, but the English translations also allow it to be used as a verb and a synonym of “exult.” That is, when we read of someone glorying in something, the meaning is the same as someone exulting in something (rejoicing, taking pride in, etc.)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] God as the creator of all things is the possessor of all things, so there is nothing in creation that can add to Him or to what He is. When the Bible uses the phrase, “give glory to God” (or something along those lines) it actually means “ascribe glory to God or to exult in God” or in simpler terms to give credit where credit is due and to rejoice in Him. For example, if you’ve just found and bought a nice shiny new car and brought it home, and your neighbor says, “Wow, what a nice new car I have,” your neighbor is not giving you credit for buying and possessing your new car, but instead is taking credit for ownership of the car. However, if your neighbor says to you, “Wow, you’ve got a really nice new car,” he’s giving you the credit for your choice and acknowledging your ownership. In essence, giving the glory for the nice new car to its proper owner rather than claiming it for himself.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] We have a certain natural tendency to do this, to take credit for the things we have, we own, we do, without acknowledging God’s gifts of the power to earn wealth, the grace to have good health, the gifts of His provision, the mind to make sound choices, etc. However the scripture says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] When we praise God for those good things he gives us and does for us, we are ascribing glory to Him for those things. We aren’t adding anything to Him by our praise, but giving Him credit where credit is due. "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.'' Revelation 4:11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] So far, I’m presenting a reasonable argument for the assertion given by the Shorter Catechism, but what does God say about our purpose for existence? You might find a number of verses in the scriptures that suggest a purpose for us, but recently I read 2 verses in a newer translation of scripture which states God’s purpose for us directly: I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him – for that is the purpose of your life! Deuteronomy 30:19-20[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] I’ve read these verses many times without seeing the meaning because the translations that I’ve used stated this in an indirect way, rather than so plainly as in the quote above from the Complete Jewish Bible. For example, the New King James version translates the Hebrew as:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; "that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.'' [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]Deuteronomy 30:19-20[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] The latter version is more common in modern translations and the difference between the CJB and the other translations is one of cause and effect. In the CJB, loving and clinging to God is the cause or purpose of our lives, while the other translations suggest (but don’t specifically state) that loving and clinging to God is the effect of obedience. What supports the notion that the first and more direct translation is correct in its assertion that loving and clinging to God is our purpose?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] Consider first how Jesus, our greatest teacher and master, our Lord and Savior, the very Word of God made flesh, relates obedience to love:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.'' [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]John 14:21 and: [/SIZE]Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. John 14:23-24
[SIZE=18pt] When Jesus was being tested by the scribes and Pharisees, He was asked which was the great or greatest commandment and He responded as follows:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]Jesus said to him, " `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment."And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.'' [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]Matthew 22:37-40[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] If we understand God’s law to be the expression of His perfect will for us, then it would seem that loving God is the most significant thing that He expresses as His will for us and so as His purpose in us. The question then becomes for us, how do we love someone that we can’t see or touch or feel, or how do we love someone that we don’t know? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] We can say that we love God and even believe it, but the Apostle John in his letter called first John, explains that we may be deceived or be deceivers in this: If someone says, "I love God,'' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. 1 John 4:20-21[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] So, how do we love God, whom we have not seen, and for that matter, how do we love someone that we have seen? You can “fall in love with someone’s appearance and mannerism” but that is a love without knowledge or simple infatuation. How does a genuine love occur, where does it come from? A true love requires some knowledge of character, the knowledge of experience and intimacy, but neither knowledge or intimacy alone inspire love, for these can inspire hate as well other emotions. God also qualifies love as more than just emotion as we see evidenced in “the great commandment,” `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] This commandment speaks to emotional content, the feelings of the heart, the intellectual content, the thoughts of the mind, and to the content of our essence of being, our soul, or our will to do, so to speak. The full expression of love is a combination of feeling, knowledge and will, none of these by themselves is enough to sustain itself or to describe a unity of purpose within us. All three are that which God has required of us to commit to Him. This still doesn’t explain the “how” of how do I love God or anyone else for that matter. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] It’s easy for us to commit ourselves to something that always pleases us, but when something displeases us (or doesn’t satisfy our desire for pleasure) we commonly are prepared to abandon it for something else. Commitment to something which is unknown or which may displease us or be a burden to us is an act of will, and covers the component of love that makes demands upon our souls. The component of love that appeals to our pleasure or joy is experiential and derived from intimate knowledge, what might be called the realm of the heart. The intellectual component of love, that which comes through knowledge, is derived from the realm of choice. The same property or characteristic of man that allows him to sin also allows him to love, because love is a choice, the choice to please another rather than displease, to put another first, and ourselves second, and in essence to sacrifice oneself for another. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] The Apostle John defines love by its greatest expression: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:9-11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] In other words, God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, God sent His Son into the world to be His sacrifice for our sin, and Jesus in His love for the Father submitted His soul to death on a cross for our sakes, and so, to be like Him we should be loving one another in the complete sense of the word “love,” giving ourselves sacrificially to the benefit of others rather than for our own. This is relatively easy for those who please us, but not at all natural for those who oppose or displease us.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] We need to understand something and that love, more than being a description of God’s character is also a source of His power in our lives. Jesus said, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:44-48[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] As Christians we are made perfect, or complete, when we love as God loves. This still doesn’t really explain how we may love God, but clearly we need to know Him in order to love Him. The first part of knowing Him is to read or hear His word so that we may understand His revealed will, but He has said that there is a veil over the eyes of men so that they can’t see Him or understand His word unless that veil is lifted by Him and through faith in His Son. Since Jesus came in the image of God and with the fullness of God dwelling within Him, in seeing Jesus we may see God:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, `Show us the Father'? "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]John 14:9-13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] Then it’s fair to ask, how do we see Jesus, given that He ascended into heaven nearly 2000 years ago? He gave us the answer to this Himself and we find it in the gospel according to John as quoted earlier, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.''[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt]We want to have a method or a formula, some way that we can know and love God, but salvation is the work of God alone and a process initiated and completed by Him: Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born again.' [/SIZE]John 3:5-7
[SIZE=18pt] So in order to know God we must receive Him by faith, which is His gift and comes by the reading (and believing) of His word. If we don’t believe His word, then we can’t have faith or know Him. We are born again by receiving His Spirit within us and the seed of His Spirit which is the word of the gospel itself: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 1 Peter 1:22-23[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] Now we should understand that receiving Christ is not as simple as asking Him to come into your heart, but requires a commitment to obedience and faith in His word, like making a marriage vow, an act of the mind and of the will, but the part that God supplies, the faith to believe is often born of desperation. We need to really understand our state and our future without God, which is condemnation and separation from God and all that is good for all eternity. God has said, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt]This was spoken to Israel when the people were sent into captivity, but it’s no less true to those who are held captive by sin. The scripture also says that there is no one who seeks God: As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. Romans 3:10-11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] This should tell us that if we find ourselves seeking God, then we are in reality hearing His call and should respond to it: Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today,'' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'' Hebrews 3:12-15[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] So, how do we come to love God when we have believed Him and received His Son by faith, making a commitment to Him and to do His will? Jesus gave us the answer when He spoke to a Pharisee about the acts of a disreputable woman done for Him in love: Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. "You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. "You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. "Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.'' And He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven.'' Luke 7:44-48[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] On this occasion Jesus spoke to a man whose sin was as grievous to God as that of the woman, but Simon believed himself to be a righteous man and self-righteousness is the enemy of love and separates us from God. When we are able to see our own sin and see it as loving ourselves more than loving God, we can confess our sin to God and receive His forgiveness granted by faith in His Son. In doing so we receive this supernatural gift of God’s love and are enabled to love Him back for what He’s done for us. We can’t work up love in ourselves and by our own effort, but love comes as the natural result of receiving love from God who is love, and in return we are to endeavor to spread that love to others, not for gain or reward, but freely as it was given.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] The scripture says that in the end times there will be a form of godliness, but without its power. Anyone can do things such as charitable works, and you don’t have to be a Christian to have sympathy or compassion for another, but only God has the power to answer our prayers and is pleased to do so when we love and obey His Son and pray in His name, and according to His will, expressing His love to a world that doesn’t deserve it, and for His glory. Amen.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] I wouldn’t argue against the proposition that all men will glorify God, but is it Man’s chief end according to scripture or more properly, is it the purpose of Man? First for those who haven’t considered the meaning of this phrase, what does it mean to glorify God? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] First we need to define glory, which is not as easy as it first sounds. In the Bible, a number of different words are translated into the English word “glory”. The meaning varies in subtle ways which we don’t gather from the translation, but the most common word used when speaking of the glory of God is the Hebrew word which we pronounce as Kawbowd (or sometimes as Kabod). E.g.: The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt] Psalms 19:1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] This word expresses the concept of a weight or super abundance of excellence, or majesty, or sublime beauty, or eminence. When speaking of the glory of men, usually a different word is used which refers to a more superficial and temporary beauty or prominence. The word is sometimes used as a noun describing a quality, but the English translations also allow it to be used as a verb and a synonym of “exult.” That is, when we read of someone glorying in something, the meaning is the same as someone exulting in something (rejoicing, taking pride in, etc.)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] God as the creator of all things is the possessor of all things, so there is nothing in creation that can add to Him or to what He is. When the Bible uses the phrase, “give glory to God” (or something along those lines) it actually means “ascribe glory to God or to exult in God” or in simpler terms to give credit where credit is due and to rejoice in Him. For example, if you’ve just found and bought a nice shiny new car and brought it home, and your neighbor says, “Wow, what a nice new car I have,” your neighbor is not giving you credit for buying and possessing your new car, but instead is taking credit for ownership of the car. However, if your neighbor says to you, “Wow, you’ve got a really nice new car,” he’s giving you the credit for your choice and acknowledging your ownership. In essence, giving the glory for the nice new car to its proper owner rather than claiming it for himself.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] We have a certain natural tendency to do this, to take credit for the things we have, we own, we do, without acknowledging God’s gifts of the power to earn wealth, the grace to have good health, the gifts of His provision, the mind to make sound choices, etc. However the scripture says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] When we praise God for those good things he gives us and does for us, we are ascribing glory to Him for those things. We aren’t adding anything to Him by our praise, but giving Him credit where credit is due. "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.'' Revelation 4:11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] So far, I’m presenting a reasonable argument for the assertion given by the Shorter Catechism, but what does God say about our purpose for existence? You might find a number of verses in the scriptures that suggest a purpose for us, but recently I read 2 verses in a newer translation of scripture which states God’s purpose for us directly: I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him – for that is the purpose of your life! Deuteronomy 30:19-20[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] I’ve read these verses many times without seeing the meaning because the translations that I’ve used stated this in an indirect way, rather than so plainly as in the quote above from the Complete Jewish Bible. For example, the New King James version translates the Hebrew as:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; "that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.'' [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]Deuteronomy 30:19-20[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] The latter version is more common in modern translations and the difference between the CJB and the other translations is one of cause and effect. In the CJB, loving and clinging to God is the cause or purpose of our lives, while the other translations suggest (but don’t specifically state) that loving and clinging to God is the effect of obedience. What supports the notion that the first and more direct translation is correct in its assertion that loving and clinging to God is our purpose?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] Consider first how Jesus, our greatest teacher and master, our Lord and Savior, the very Word of God made flesh, relates obedience to love:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.'' [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]John 14:21 and: [/SIZE]Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me. John 14:23-24
[SIZE=18pt] When Jesus was being tested by the scribes and Pharisees, He was asked which was the great or greatest commandment and He responded as follows:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]Jesus said to him, " `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment."And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.'' [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]Matthew 22:37-40[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] If we understand God’s law to be the expression of His perfect will for us, then it would seem that loving God is the most significant thing that He expresses as His will for us and so as His purpose in us. The question then becomes for us, how do we love someone that we can’t see or touch or feel, or how do we love someone that we don’t know? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] We can say that we love God and even believe it, but the Apostle John in his letter called first John, explains that we may be deceived or be deceivers in this: If someone says, "I love God,'' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. 1 John 4:20-21[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] So, how do we love God, whom we have not seen, and for that matter, how do we love someone that we have seen? You can “fall in love with someone’s appearance and mannerism” but that is a love without knowledge or simple infatuation. How does a genuine love occur, where does it come from? A true love requires some knowledge of character, the knowledge of experience and intimacy, but neither knowledge or intimacy alone inspire love, for these can inspire hate as well other emotions. God also qualifies love as more than just emotion as we see evidenced in “the great commandment,” `You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] This commandment speaks to emotional content, the feelings of the heart, the intellectual content, the thoughts of the mind, and to the content of our essence of being, our soul, or our will to do, so to speak. The full expression of love is a combination of feeling, knowledge and will, none of these by themselves is enough to sustain itself or to describe a unity of purpose within us. All three are that which God has required of us to commit to Him. This still doesn’t explain the “how” of how do I love God or anyone else for that matter. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] It’s easy for us to commit ourselves to something that always pleases us, but when something displeases us (or doesn’t satisfy our desire for pleasure) we commonly are prepared to abandon it for something else. Commitment to something which is unknown or which may displease us or be a burden to us is an act of will, and covers the component of love that makes demands upon our souls. The component of love that appeals to our pleasure or joy is experiential and derived from intimate knowledge, what might be called the realm of the heart. The intellectual component of love, that which comes through knowledge, is derived from the realm of choice. The same property or characteristic of man that allows him to sin also allows him to love, because love is a choice, the choice to please another rather than displease, to put another first, and ourselves second, and in essence to sacrifice oneself for another. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] The Apostle John defines love by its greatest expression: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:9-11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] In other words, God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, God sent His Son into the world to be His sacrifice for our sin, and Jesus in His love for the Father submitted His soul to death on a cross for our sakes, and so, to be like Him we should be loving one another in the complete sense of the word “love,” giving ourselves sacrificially to the benefit of others rather than for our own. This is relatively easy for those who please us, but not at all natural for those who oppose or displease us.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] We need to understand something and that love, more than being a description of God’s character is also a source of His power in our lives. Jesus said, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:44-48[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] As Christians we are made perfect, or complete, when we love as God loves. This still doesn’t really explain how we may love God, but clearly we need to know Him in order to love Him. The first part of knowing Him is to read or hear His word so that we may understand His revealed will, but He has said that there is a veil over the eyes of men so that they can’t see Him or understand His word unless that veil is lifted by Him and through faith in His Son. Since Jesus came in the image of God and with the fullness of God dwelling within Him, in seeing Jesus we may see God:[/SIZE] [SIZE=18pt]Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, `Show us the Father'? "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [/SIZE][SIZE=18pt]John 14:9-13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] Then it’s fair to ask, how do we see Jesus, given that He ascended into heaven nearly 2000 years ago? He gave us the answer to this Himself and we find it in the gospel according to John as quoted earlier, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.''[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt]We want to have a method or a formula, some way that we can know and love God, but salvation is the work of God alone and a process initiated and completed by Him: Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. "Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born again.' [/SIZE]John 3:5-7
[SIZE=18pt] So in order to know God we must receive Him by faith, which is His gift and comes by the reading (and believing) of His word. If we don’t believe His word, then we can’t have faith or know Him. We are born again by receiving His Spirit within us and the seed of His Spirit which is the word of the gospel itself: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 1 Peter 1:22-23[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] Now we should understand that receiving Christ is not as simple as asking Him to come into your heart, but requires a commitment to obedience and faith in His word, like making a marriage vow, an act of the mind and of the will, but the part that God supplies, the faith to believe is often born of desperation. We need to really understand our state and our future without God, which is condemnation and separation from God and all that is good for all eternity. God has said, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt]This was spoken to Israel when the people were sent into captivity, but it’s no less true to those who are held captive by sin. The scripture also says that there is no one who seeks God: As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. Romans 3:10-11[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] This should tell us that if we find ourselves seeking God, then we are in reality hearing His call and should respond to it: Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today,'' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'' Hebrews 3:12-15[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] So, how do we come to love God when we have believed Him and received His Son by faith, making a commitment to Him and to do His will? Jesus gave us the answer when He spoke to a Pharisee about the acts of a disreputable woman done for Him in love: Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. "You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. "You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. "Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.'' And He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven.'' Luke 7:44-48[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] On this occasion Jesus spoke to a man whose sin was as grievous to God as that of the woman, but Simon believed himself to be a righteous man and self-righteousness is the enemy of love and separates us from God. When we are able to see our own sin and see it as loving ourselves more than loving God, we can confess our sin to God and receive His forgiveness granted by faith in His Son. In doing so we receive this supernatural gift of God’s love and are enabled to love Him back for what He’s done for us. We can’t work up love in ourselves and by our own effort, but love comes as the natural result of receiving love from God who is love, and in return we are to endeavor to spread that love to others, not for gain or reward, but freely as it was given.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt] The scripture says that in the end times there will be a form of godliness, but without its power. Anyone can do things such as charitable works, and you don’t have to be a Christian to have sympathy or compassion for another, but only God has the power to answer our prayers and is pleased to do so when we love and obey His Son and pray in His name, and according to His will, expressing His love to a world that doesn’t deserve it, and for His glory. Amen.[/SIZE]