Compelling Love

Jesus declares in John 14:19, “Because I live, you will live also.”  He had just promised that the Father would send the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth”, who “dwells with you and will be in you.”  Though the world would see Him no more, He promised that anyone who loves and obeys Him will see Him.  He promised to manifest Himself to him, and that “My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

John 14 (NKJV)
¹⁵ “If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

¹⁹ “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ²¹ 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.”

²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

²³ 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.

Jesus predicted His resurrection saying that as the good shepherd He would lay down his life for the sheep, and that He would take it up again.

John 10 (NKJV)
Jesus the Good Shepherd
⁷ Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. ⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  … ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. ¹⁵ As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶ And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

¹⁷ “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

In John 3, Jesus describes His mission and purpose in coming into the world:

John 3 (NKJV)
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

The song, “Because He Lives”, by William and Glory Gaither captures some of the wonder of Jesus’ birth, life and atoning death, culminating in His resurrection and gift of eternal life to all who believe.

Because He Lives

1. God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, All fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living just because He lives.

2. How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives.
But greater still the calm assurance,
This child can face uncertain days because He lives.

3. And then one day I’ll cross the river,
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives.

The life Jesus came to give is both eternal and abundant.  Believing and obeying Him liberates us from bondage to sin so that we are free to be the people God created us to be, as He explains in John 8:

John 8 (NKJV)
³¹ Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. ³² And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

³³ They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. ³⁵ And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. ³⁶ Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Knowing God’s loving kindness personified in Jesus Christ, we can sing as David did in Psalm 63:

³ Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
⁴ Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.

Seeing who Jesus is, what He has done for us, and who He is now in us, we rejoice with choirs of angels, as in  the song, “O Come All Ye Faithful”:

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
Jesus, to Thee be all glory giv’n;
Word of the Father, Now in flesh appearing;

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 12/23/2018, https://compellinglove.net/

Photo credits:

(1) https://www.cadillacfpc.org/i-am-coming/
(2) https://arizonachristian.edu/blog/2017/04/25/for-this-reason-the-father-loves-me/
(3) https://slideplayer.com/slide/2872957/
(4) https://twitter.com/calvaryssw/status/732080362747269120