Compelling Love

For those seeking God, He is our light, our salvation, our strength and our glory.  As Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  David, who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, exuberantly declares his hope and faith in Psalm 27, where he describes how he seeks the Lord wholeheartedly, desiring to be in His presence continually, and encourages others to do the same.

Psalm 27 (NKJV)
An Exuberant Declaration of Faith
¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

⁴ One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.

⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

¹³ I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!

The writer of Psalm 43 exemplifies enduring faith by commanding his soul to “hope in God”.

Psalm 43 (NKJV)
Prayer to God in Time of Trouble
⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

Isaiah 12:2 declares with this same hope and faith, “For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.” The Hebrew word translated “salvation” in this verse is “Yeshua”, which is also the Hebrew name of Jesus.  Understanding this sheds a deeper light on the account of the naming of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1, where an angel of the Lord directs Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, to name his son Yeshua (Jesus), meaning “salvation”, “for He will save His people from their sins”.

Matthew 1
¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. ²⁰ But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

In John 8:12, Jesus gives an enduring promise to those who follow him: “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’”

In Matthew 5, Jesus commands believers to let their light shine, so that people “may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

In John 17, Jesus prays that believers will share the love and the glory that he shared with the Father before the world was.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Paul and the other Apostles took the good news of Christ to the world.  As mentioned, in 2 Corinthians 4:6, he describes how God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  He then explains the promise of the Resurrection, and in verse 17 declares, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”.

2 Corinthians 4
⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

¹⁴ knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

In 2 Timothy 2;1, Paul urges Timothy to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”, and in verse 10 gives this testimony of his own endurance and its glorious results: “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/
10/9/2016