Love. God's Law. God's Nature. God's Plan for Mankind.

Love is God's Law, God's nature, and God's plan for man. Simple logic tells us this. God IS Love. He had His many writers declare this reality about Himself. And when He made His prime creation, He made them – us - in His own image and likeness! We were created to be lovers, not fighters! So what happened? 

The popular idea of the demi-god is a fleeting imaginary construct of the created being. God was making the real thing. Demi-gods are fallen or weaker god-like creatures, who are made in the image of fallen man, and generally born out of his corrupted imagination. Therefore they take on the petty, broken, defiled image of the sin-nature. They have a bit more power than mere mortals, as their story goes, but they are driven by lusts only, not love, making them deficient beings. (Besides the fact that they are imaginary in the first place).

We have dreamed them up, perhaps, because we sense our loss of true power and entertain a subconscious dream of regaining it through an allegiance with “other beings”. Or perhaps is isn't our dream at all, but a subliminal message from the one who thinks himself the god of this world? Whatever the origin of that dream, there is only ONE other being that can help us regain our God-like status! Only ONE, in fact, who yearns to help us at all. That "other being" out there, to whom I was alluding, only wants to use our lusts to annihilate us, if possible. But he is also only a created being, who could be considered to be, perhaps, by a stretch of the imagination, the first and only, the original, self-proclaimed “demi-god”. After all, he does sort of hold the lease on the place right now, doesn't he?

But God, the real God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and all it contains – that God – is driven by nothing, and motivated only by LOVE. His writers have written, “Out of the heart the mouth will speak....”, and, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he...” And God has revealed Himself to us as LOVE. And though it is inconceivable at times, we struggle to grasp that God has given us His creative bent, and the ability to produce whatever we put our faith in. The problem is what we believe. How our beliefs are formed. What we put into our creative processes. Because this will determine what comes out!

The writer of Galatians five states, “The whole Law of God (Torah) is fulfilled in one statement, you shall Love your neighbor as yourself...". That is quite a statement. One might be tempted to think one has misread something, if he had not continued to expound on that idea by saying, "But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh...But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the LAW”. So how can the Law be the only standard of righteousness by which we are made acceptable to God, and us not be under it, or accountable to it? Just wait. This gets really good! 

God made us in His image, but gave us authority over ourselves. So that obedience to His Law must be an act of free will, or it doesn't count! When sin came in, however, that authority was hi-jacked by the enemy of God. The enemy of God could not introduce sin without using our God ordained authority. In fact, he still can't get us to sin without first tricking us into relinquishing our authority to him! He could not break down God's design of Loving - mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually pure LOVE – without gaining access to man's gift of authority.

The enemy of God was an exile, and had no power, but he was cunning. And using that one gift he has gained himself a temporary empire. It doesn't seem temporary to us who are even more limited, thanks to him. But it is on the clock, which is winding down. The truth is, however, that he has deceived himself as badly as he has us, and that God's Law of Love overcomes his deceptive power. Truth really does "Make us free"! In every way possible.

But back to our original design. God did His best to describe it to us over and over again in His Word of Life, His Love letter to us which His many writers wrote down over the years of recorded history of life on this quarantined planet. One of the clearest descriptive passages is found in the fifth chapter of the letter to Galatians, to which I have already alluded. This writer goes to great lengths to distinguish between “The fruit, or produce, of the Spirit (of God, which is the character and likeness which we lost); and the resulting “Deeds of the Flesh” (that fallen nature which we inherited, which has been robbed of its God-likeness).

First we are given the discouraging and unfortunate state of the flesh which has been separated from God's likeness and character, and then the contrasting Fruit which comes from abandoning the flesh to crucifixion and going after the Holy Spirit (of God, and of the Anointed One – which are One - Echad). But the writer, before going into these descriptive passages, makes an astounding statement, which is often misconstrued by the believing world at large, which I have stated but feel led to reiterate, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” Of course, he is speaking of THE Spirit of the living and holy God, which manifests His holy character IN those being led by Him – not just any spiritual force out there!

I see many who take this verse, and those like it, as a loop-hole to get around God's righteous standard! I see verses like this more often used as a license for pursuing the whims of the flesh, which the writer had just spent a copious amount of words discouraging - than as an impetus for forsaking known sin! I see those who are under spiritual deception, who believe they are “using great discernment”, and yet the fruit they continually produce is clearly "flesh" (if compared to the two lists given), and is NOT the produce of the HOLY Spirit! So deception becomes obvious. This Law, we then conclude, must be spiritually discerned, and properly obeyed to work for us rather than against us. It must be allowed to change our very nature. Not in legalistic, resentful observance, but in a total change of heart! It must become our singular heart motivation.

He records for us, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, socery, enmities, strife, jealously, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissentions, factions, envying, carousing, drunkenness, and things like these (the list is virtually endless), of which I forewarn you, and have forewarned you, that those who practice (make it a habit of doing) such things will NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.” That's the bad news! Here's the good news: “But (in contrast) the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (!) Meaning that these things do not bring judgment.

Again he seems to put those who believe above, or outside the Law of God, the Torah. However, what is usually missed are the conditions! Which were stated before and after these lists! The writer continues, “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus (Yeshua the Messiah/Anointed One) have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”

So what he is saying is not that believers are exempt from the Law of God, but that by inherently partaking of His nature through His Spirit we are already keeping it! We become inherently obedient to it, through a profound change of nature. What the writer of Romans referred to as “being Transformed into His image....by the entire renewing of our minds (both conscious and subconscious). It becomes our subconscious motivation, in other words. We are so changed by His transformation process that His Law of Love becomes our ruling motivational structure, as we willingly, with His help, forsake the desires of the flesh. This happens by a daily practice of judging them by the Law, and condemning them to death, with Messiah, on the cross. He did take our sin to the cross, remember?! That is what Salvation is about - getting that corrosive mess out of here! So we can see by this that we need not fear legalism if we are operating in His LOVE!

Logically, then, can it be right that we take hold of His Name, and His Salvation, and His gifts to us, and still go on protecting that which He went to such lengths to annihilate on our behalf!? He had no sin of His own for which He would've had to endure such punishment! It was for our freedom – from the grasp of sin - that He went to such measures! So why would we want to pet and cuddle sin? Why would we spend so much time and money supporting its deadly addictions and playing its deceptive games? We are a complex and confusing people.

But it should not be so of us who claim to believe! We should be becoming less complicated every day! It comes down to choosing whom we will serve. We must choose between the Spirit, Nature and Character of our LOVING GOD, or the fallen nature of the craven, sinful flesh which we've inherited “in the natural”!

But we can not expect to dance between the two, as most seem to do! We can not even hope to comply with the Law in the flesh, much less aspire to rise above it! It is utter cooperation with the Wonderful Spirit of God that causes us to follow our Messiah in “fulfilling all the Law”. His Love alone is what accomplishes that perfect obedience in and through us. Our Love for Him, which is the only proper response to His Love for us is what motivates that cooperation. We must let His Spirit work that love into our character, one choice at a time. Then we will keep His Law, the Perfect Law of LOVE – which is what effectively casts out fear, and brings true Liberty – Life, more abundantly – as our Messiah put it.

Shabbot Shalom Chavarim! L'Chaim, and L'Ahavah!

Sabbath Peace, My friends! To Life, and To Love!

SCD 9/13/14