The Love of God (1)
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July 22, 2018 |
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"We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).
Dr. Jaerock Lee,
Senior Pastor of Manmin Central Church
Chairman, The United Holiness Church of Jesus Christ
Permanent President, The World Christianity Revival Mission Association
Founder & Board Chairman, Global Christian Network
Founder & Board Chairman, World Christian Doctors Network
Founder & Board Chairman, Manmin International Seminary
Founder & Board Chairman, The Alliance Holiness Theological Seminary
Doctorate of Ministry, and Honorary Doctorate of Divinity
His sermons were broadcast by the Far East Broadcasting Company and the Asia Broadcast Station.
He conducted crusades in New York City, Washington D. C., Baltimore, Maryland, Los Angeles, and in Hawaii of the USA; Japan; India; Pakistan; the Philippines; Argentina; Honduras; Peru; Russia; Germany; Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Jerusalem of Israel; and Estonia.
"Whole Spirit is the level of faith that pleases God (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
To achieve the level of the 'completion of Whole Spirit,' you must understand both the love of God and His justice clearly and combine them properly. Only then can you achieve perfect love." - Excerpt from Leadership Conference "Love"
You can gain the right to become God's children by believing Jesus Christ. But to become His 'true' children, you must understand the love of God and achieve it. This level of love is a deeper level even in the fifth level of faith. In other words, this level is the level of 'the completion of whole spirit' (Refer to the book The Measure of Faith).
To achieve this level of the 'completion of whole spirit,' you must understand both the love of God and His justice clearly. Then, you should combine them perfectly with no partiality. It is to accomplish justice based on love, and the level of fulfilling the law with love.
1. The Dimension of Love in God's Sight
Genesis 13 records an incident that happened between Abraham and his nephew Lot. Their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. Then, Abraham said to Lot, "Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left." He gave his nephew the choice of the better land. To seek others' benefits other than one's own and to rejoice with seeking others' benefits itself without wanting anything in return as Abraham did is spiritual love.
The higher level of love is the love included as the first fruit in the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Only when you add 'sacrifices that even can give one's own life' to the meaning of 'spiritual love' written in 1 Corinthians 13 can you give your life for the kingdom and righteousness of God and even for brothers in Christ. Then, you can also achieve the highest level of love that can give your life even for your enemies that hate you.
Though such love is in the highest level in the sight of people, the love of God is at an even higher level. Now let's delve into this love of God.
1) Love to Sacrifice Oneself and Give Everything
1 John 4:10 says, "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." God, who is Love itself, prepared everything for us first. He sacrificed Himself and gave up everything for us (1 John 4:16, 19; Romans 5:8).
God the Origin existed in the form of light that contains the original voice, and He alone filled the whole universe (Exodus 3:14; John 1:1; 1 John 1:5). At a certain point, He wanted to share His love and conceived the plan for human cultivation to gain His true children.
First, God the Origin divided the whole universe into a coupe of different dimensions of spaces. Nehemiah 9:6 reads, "You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You."
And, God came to exist as God the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 5:5; John 15:26; Galatians 4:6). God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are originally one with God the Father, but they proceeded from God the Origin to exist independently. They have different roles, but their hearts, thoughts and power are one. That is why we refer to the three of Them as "God the Trinity" or the "Triune God" (Refer to Thunder the Original Voice). God the Trinity made all things necessary for human cultivation.
God made spiritual beings such as angels and cherubim to assist in His work. He also let Lucifer exist and allowed the rebellion to happen though He knew the betrayal would cause great pain to Him. From the beginning, He knew everything that would happen, but still He gave great love to Lucifer. He had to watch her betray Him and fall into destruction. It happened because it was necessary for human cultivation according to the justice. God's pain was vastly beyond what people can even imagine (Genesis 1:2).
After all was prepared, God created man in His image. The first man Adam enjoyed limitless authority and power as the one loved by God. But he also betrayed God, and God suffered great pain from it. Adam and Eve were sent out to the earth and human cultivation began in earnest. From that time on, God had to show more dedication and effort to gain true children.
As human cultivation started on the earth, mankind was quickly stained with sin. Now God the Trinity had to endure greater sacrifices for mankind. That is, Jesus, who is God the Son, came to the earth in flesh and became the propitiation for mankind by the love of the cross. It gave inexpressibly great pain to God the Father as well as to Jesus who took the cross and died.
Nevertheless, God endured it because His love for people was greater than the excruciating pain from which He suffered. Although He experienced many betrayals of people, He didn't destroy all of them with rage. But He endured sorrow again and again and finally gave up the life of His only begotten Son to save them. Nevertheless, the only thing He wants from us is to believe Jesus Christ and reach salvation. He just wants us to become His true children, enjoy all He has together with Him, and live in His glory forever.
2) The Love that Gives Opportunity Until the End and Gives Better Things
The love of God is revealed to people again through the ministry of Jesus. Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot would betray Him even when He called twelve disciples. But He called him as His disciple and wanted him to firmly hold on to the opportunities for renewal.
He did not treat him differently than the other disciples although He knew his heart. He even entrusted the money box to him. Judas Iscariot was not renewed even after the passage of time with Jesus. He even stole money from the money box. But Jesus did not rebuke him nor tell him to go away. It was because He knew that if he left Him, there would be no more chance for him. But Judas finally chose evil. Even after he decided to sell out Jesus, he appeared at the Last Supper and shared time with Jesus as before. Jesus tried to help him realize his evil in a way the other disciples could not notice. That is, He gave him opportunities until the end (Matthew 26:21-25).
Jesus did not worry about the pain He would suffer on the cross because of Judas Iscariot. But He lamented with mercy on him who would go to destruction. The Lord's love was to bear, believe, and endure even the one who would betray Him as long as he had the slightest chance of renewal although it meant His own sacrifices and pains. Even when such people end up choosing the way of destruction, He does not hate or consider them negatively. He just feels merciful and takes pity on them.
The heart that gives everything and hopes for souls' renewal despite anticipation of nothing being received; the heart that holds no grudge or discomfort though no one recognizes the love; the heart that gives opportunities until the end and helps people gain better things, such is the heart of the love of God and the Lord. We must achieve this love to complete the 'level of whole spirit'.
2. God's Justice that Perfects Love
Just as love is the heart of God, so is justice. Isaiah 30:18 says, "…For the LORD is a God of justice." Justice refers to the rules and standard that God made. He not only set the justice but also abides by it Himself.
Psalm 37:6 states, "He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday." It means that nothing can be hidden or covered in the face of God's justice as everything is revealed and seen under the noonday sun.
Thus, those who act in lawlessness are afraid of His justice because their evil acts will be unveiled under His Justice. On the other hand, the Justice of God is strong protection for those who live in the Light.
1) The Rules Set When God Created the Heavens, the Earth, and All Things
On the first day of Creation, the original light surrounded all things and the orders and rules were set among all creations and creatures (Genesis 1:3).
For instance, such rules as "the earth rotates once a day and revolves around the sun once a year" were set. Other orders and rules among the sun, the moon, other planets, and countless stars that would be created were all set on the first day. The earth as well as the universe has its natural laws such as "Water flows down hill, it freezes below zero and boils above 100 degrees Celsius" and "The season changes in the order of spring, summer, fall, and winter." All these are among the laws of justice.
When God created man on the sixth day, He also established the order and rules in His justice so that the body of men can operate according to consistent rules. Such rules are: 'people can function only when provided with energy through food, they should sleep, and they must not use their body beyond the limits set'. That is why people ought to live according to the justice of the physical world to stay healthy.
2) Justice Necessary for Human Cultivation
Salvation, judgment, answers, blessing, punishment, and disasters are necessary for human cultivation. They are wrought according to the justice set by God. Even unbelievers say, "As one sows, so shall he reap." The rules of the justice in the truth were more clearly set than any other rule and they apply without any error. The law of justice concerning the consequence of sin is written in the Bible such as in Proverbs 16:18 that says, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling" and James 1:15 that reads, "Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death."
There are also some rules in the justice that people of the world may not understand such as Matthew 10:39 that says, "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it."
What the worldly people might have thought truth may change over time, but the justice of God never changes. To the extent that we understand the justice of God, we can more easily receive His answers and blessing and solution to problems. The justice is like formulations of mathematics, so when you apply the justice to a cause, you can guess its consequence. You also can find a cause of a problem when you apply the justice to its consequence.
Of course, the justice of God is the combination of many rules entangled like the warp and weft of fabric. To the extent that you go into deeper levels of spirit, you can unravel the rules more exactly. Suppose several people each committed a murder, and it was a capital offense. But their intentions and situations might be all different. If the judge knew their inner hearts and found factors that mitigate the crime's gravity in the case of one of them, he might try to find the way he could avoid the death penalty within the boundary of the law.
This is also applicable in a spiritual sense. Different people solve a problem in different ways respectively depending on the level of their love and goodness. To the extent that they know the justice they can find a way to give life to others better.
In order to know about justice well, you must arm yourselves with the knowledge of the truth. That is, you must diligently read, listen to, hear and understand the Scriptures in order to put the rules of God's justice written in the Bible in your hearts. Only when there is justice can love be perfected, and the combination of love and justice leads to perfect love, which is the fulfillment of the law.
To be continued in the next edition
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