Compelling Love

Minister Ailina Carona recently posted, “When we see the revelation of who Jesus is to us, our response cannot be anything but worship.”  To know Him and His calling for us is that inspiring and life giving!  Paul teaches extensively about this personal revelation of who Jesus is, as does Jesus himself in the Gospel of John.

Speaking to Timothy and other brethren, Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  He then declares in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began”.  His holy calling was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began!  Our calling is not given according to what we have done, but according to His own eternal purpose and grace.  By faith in Him, we receive both salvation and a holy calling that God intended for us before the world was made!

In  the next verse, 2 Timothy 1:10, Paul declares that this “has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”.  Through His life, atoning death and resurrection, Jesus abolished the power of death, and won eternal life for all who believe.  Paul, setting an example for every believer, gladly accepts his own holy calling even in the face of suffering, and is not ashamed.  He declares his unwavering faith in verse 12:

2 Timothy 1
Not Ashamed of the Gospel
⁸ Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, ⁹ who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, ¹⁰ but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, ¹¹ to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. ¹² For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

“That Day” refers to the day of our final victory in Christ, when he returns to judge the earth and raise up believers to immortality, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15:50-57.  He ends with a strong exhortation in verse 58 to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord”:

1 Corinthians 15
Our Final Victory
⁵⁰ Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

In Colossians 1:26-27, Paul refers to a mystery that God has now revealed, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”: “

Colossians 1
²⁶ the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. ²⁷ To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

In Ephesians 1:1-6, Paul describes the eternal blessings of being in Christ, including God’s adoption of believers as sons and daughters to Himself:

Ephesians 1
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Paul prays in Ephesians 1:17-21 that believers would receive wisdom, revelation and understanding to know the hope of God’s calling, His glory and His power, through which He raised Christ from the dead:

Ephesians 1
¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power ²⁰ which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

In John 17:3, Jesus prays, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

In John 17: 24, He prays, “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.”

In John 17:26, He prays that believers will enter into the eternal love relationship He shares with the Father, “that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

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