14/10/2023 - THE GREATEST EXPRESSION OF LOVE

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By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3.16

There is no other way to know the One who is Love, other than this method given in the Scriptures. To understand Who the Lord is, let us remember the Father’s frustration when seeing man disregard His Word when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit. The prohibitions were as a test of obedience, and after God had examined and seen that man was good in every way, the created being committed the great betrayal in the Garden of Eden!

From then on, the divine plan was hindered. Everything that the Lord had planned for us to be and to do fell apart, and all that left to do was to cast man from the Kingdom of Perfection, so that he would realize how bad he had been. So, the first couple was excluded from Paradise and started to wander in a world full of filth and sadness. Thus, they would no longer have God’s love by their side, and would experience the hard struggle for survival!

However, at that very moment the Father looked at the Son, and the Son understood the meaning of that happy look: The Most High had made the decision to send Him into the world to redeem mankind from the Fall. Then, after the work of Christ, man would return to fellowship with the powerful and merciful God. The decision was made, and the Son accepted the sacrifice, coming to Earth as man and letting the devil in, but soon man would be restored!

The Father and the Son did not find anyone righteous, not even one capable of offering the salvation needed for the human race to return to divine fellowship. Soon the preparation took place, and at the right time, everything happened as foreseen. Christ was born to bring us back to God, but first he would pay the price by suffering our punishment. So, in a clean way, as God always does, the great restoration became a reality.

The Master would have to suffer at the hands of sinners, who, mocked at Him and told Him to save Himself (Matthew 27.40). After being abandoned by the Father, Christ died physically and alone – He triumphed over Hell (Matthew 27.46-50; Colossians 2.15). It is likely that Satan and his demons rejoiced, believing that they would have the Son of God with them forever. Jesus is the Life, and so they rejoiced. But they soon realized how wrong they were, because the Savior overcame them!

Yes, Jesus stripped them of the authority they had taken from Adam. With that prerogative, they attacked men, putting into them everything bad they could produce. The unclean being tried to get some power, but they were totally defeated and finally, the Lord took from them even the key to death and hell (Revelation 1.18). From the Savior’s victory, they became a bunch of beings stripped of the ability to make us suffer. That was the reality there!

After Christ successfully accomplished His mission, the Holy Spirit descended into the house of wickedness and quickened Jesus, reconnecting the Son to the Father. So, God has quickened us in Jesus, so we have upon our lives the sentence that has set us free from the empire of wickedness. Whoever accepts the Lord will never die again, but will have eternal life!

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares