Life in The Spirit Newsletter
August 2024
Jesus' Prayer Request
The Father’s Manner of Love
John said, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us” (I Jn. 1:1-3). In his epistle, John was addressing issues far beyond the reconciling of sinners. The manner of love that John was declaring speaks of the wonder of having been brought into the family of God through means of union with the Son. This love has surpassed the work of reconciliation and brought us into oneness. John did not ask the reader to behold a love that had saved us from going to hell and kept us from the wrath of a holy God. Certainly that is a scriptural reality that is plainly described in John 3:16. Reconciling love can be seen in that verse, which declares, “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” But he does not talk about all the things that we would think are so important to us being reconciled to God.
John is speaking from a place that has seen the furthest reaches of God’s love, which has made us His own sons through oneness with Christ. The old apostle is declaring the heart of the Father toward His Beloved Son and asking us to consider this kind of love in relation to ourselves in light of being sons and not just reconciled sinners. We must be awakened to at least consider such things, for they are mostly unknown to many hearts. Our considerations run mostly along the line of the love of God that has reconciled the ungodly unto Himself, but how much dearer is it to comprehend the love of God that has brought us into oneness with Himself?
Another Love Besides Reconciling Love
Take note once again of I John 3:1-2, and how he was trying to communicate the intimacy of God’s love. First, he says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God” and then goes on to exhort them to behold the manner of the love that gave us such a place of privilege. The love that John was declaring here is not the love of reconciliation. There is a reconciling love, but there is another love described in Ephesians 5 concerning the Lord who loved the church and gave Himself for her. That death, that giving of Himself for the church, is not the same as giving Himself for sinners. In Ephesians chapter five, Paul defines the intent of God’s heart more fully by showing how He gave Himself through His death to gain a bride. Beyond shedding His blood to forgive sinners, His death was to bring about union and one who would be after His kind.
Do you hear the tender words as John is reaching out to draw us to behold the heart of God? John is putting the emphasis on the word “behold” as he asks those who are beloved of God to look at this love more deeply. John is not drawing us to himself or his ministry or the congregation he pastors, for he desires rather that we truly see the manner of love that God has had towards us all and to follow it out to its full extent. As we know this great love that has made us one, then we will receive of His fullness rather than working to maintain a reconciled condition with Him. We have become partakers of the divine nature through union into Christ; therefore He cannot become separated from Himself.
We Do Not Perceive His Manner of Love
We see then that in reconciliation, God broke down the middle wall of partition and reconciled us while we were yet sinners (cf. Eph. 2:14-16). He accomplished the work that brought us back together, and now we are no longer enemies. But that does not necessarily imply that we are friends. It may imply that we are in good graces, but it does not have to carry with it the concept of being close or carrying on any form of intimacy.
Because many believers today have also not seen the depth in which God has chosen to love us, we, too, call on believers to behold the manner of love He has bestowed upon us. Too many settle for a lesser understanding of our relationship in Him and with Him. Certainly any relationship with the living God is wonderful, but even the closeness found in friendship is a far cry from what God the Father had in His heart when He purposed to love us in the manner of placing us in His Beloved Son. Spending our time defending lesser relationships proves that we have yet to behold the manner of love Jesus had in His heart when He desired a Bride.
It is possible to experience His love but to misapply it. The misapplication could be in the form of not relating to Him in the fullest manner that is in His heart. An example of this is found in Ezekiel chapter 16, where Israel is compared to one who has gone out into the world. The nations had beaten and abused her and thrown her by the wayside, where she lay bleeding in her own vomit and filth. The Lord finds her in this awful state and begins to clean her up and wash her. He takes her in and begins to say things to her that bring more than outward healing; He begins to say things that heal her on the inside. But it is at this point where the Bride of Christ misunderstands His actions and does not relate fully in the manner He desired.
The problem is that she does not fully comprehend the heart behind His actions and therefore fails to perceive the meaning behind His advances. She does not understand that He is more than a compassionate helper applying care to her wounds, but that through joining Himself to her, He is applying Himself to her and causing her to live. Because of lack of knowing His heart, she lives her life forever thankful for this great and wonderful man of means who came by and pulled her out of a bad situation. All of her life she will respond in thanksgiving and possibly try to live in such a manner that will keep her from failing in His eyes so that He would not be saddened by her course after that. It becomes obvious that Israel missed it back in the Old Covenant, and the Church today is also able to miss perceiving the real thing that took place both in God’s heart and through His Cross. Rather than beholding the manner of love that God has loved us with in making us one with Himself through His death, burial, and resurrection, we live in a state of thankfulness that He cared enough to help us get back on our feet and live a respectable life.
The Intimacy of Union
Enemies are reconciled, but lovers are made one. It is possible to be reconciled to God without living as if you were one with Him. How can a person be reconciled to God and have no idea of the reality of oneness through union in Christ? It must be because we believers have failed to perceive the love that motivated Him to make us one. The key to oneness is to understand that we are no longer independent beings but are now joined to God in Christ.
There is a care on God’s part that desires a relationship with us that goes beyond reconciliation but makes us one with Himself. If we look closely at the Scriptures, we will notice that God’s actions have always moved to ultimately bring us into this kind of union with Himself. To truly comprehend this may require further explanation because we have many thoughts of what that means. Adam in the garden illustrates this point perfectly. The intimacy of what Adam had in the garden was not the intimacy of a Father with His son. Adam did not have God as his father. And so, even though he related to God as one that was reconciled, Adam’s relationship with God still fell short of the love in the Father’s heart that He desired for His sons to behold. Remember what John said: “Beloved now are we the sons of God” (I Jn. 3:1). In the same sense, we miss the intimacy found in the heart of Jesus concerning how He relates to His Bride. Both the relationship of being God’s son and Jesus’ bride are highly intimate relationships that literally bring us into His family through union!
Our Reconciler Is Our Husband
The Lord, the reconciler, is also your husband. Ephesians 5:29 tells us, “No man ever yet hated His own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” A reconciled viewpoint of what chastisement and correction accomplishes cannot be fitted into the realm of a man caring for His own self. In the sense of a reconciled comprehension, chastisement is the anger of God because we have failed. That understanding is based on the concept of two separate beings that are seeking to maintain a good relationship.
Isaiah 53 describes a great work that includes reconciliation. But do we comprehend the heart behind that work so we see more than a Reconciler? This chapter also describes the great travail of Christ to bear our sin and bring forth a bride. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”
But once the description of this great death that has been sown and His travail is over, the Scriptures continue to say in Isaiah chapter 54, “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child.” This verse commands those who were once separate, barren, and out of relationship to sing aloud, because fruitfulness will come through union and not through doctrine. The theme of these verses is clearly defined in verse five, which declares, “For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name.” The identity of the One who did the work in Isaiah 53 is shown in Isaiah 54 to be Him to Whom we are now joined.
These two chapters of Isaiah clearly reveal that although reconciliation was part of the work of His Cross, intimate oneness with us was His ultimate end. Many of us understand Jesus as a husband only in terms of Him providing for our needs and giving us a nice car. But the depth of discovering Him as our husband comes when we lose our earth identity and allow His full image to be established in us because He made us one with Himself through His death and resurrection. Every external blessing God has ever given to us can be taken away and become “un-reconciled.” Only that which is one with the Son will abide forever. He has joined to us so that He might impart all that He is, all the resources of His mind, nature, peace, and joy into us through such a union. Such blessings would be impossible to receive from a God who only reconciled you. The true riches of our inheritance are only found IN Christ, and are therefore only accessible through union.
Learning to Relate to God Differently
Living as reconciled is not the same as living as one. To abide in oneness would cause our attitudes and our approach to become completely different than they are at present. Consider two friends who are involved in an argument. In the case of two friends whose connection is based on reconciliation, if the disagreement is not resolved, then their entire relationship could be in jeopardy of dissolving. And if we understand our relationship with God to be based on this kind of a union, then when we are faced with a situation that needs correction or help we may stand in fear of being cut off and rejected. Instead, our understanding should be that the same One who is correcting us has died to marry and become one with us, that He may correct us by washing us with the water of His Word. If we are aware of reconciliation and not union, then fear could arise when we feel confronted with a situation that we believe could ruin our union with Him. This will cause us to live on the edge and wonder when we are going to mess up and cause God to forsake us.
Now we will look at an example of how the difference between relating by reconciliation or union might cause us to react to God in different ways. Imagine two people standing before God. He speaks in the same manner to each of them, yet one relates to Him by reconciliation and the other by union. Consider the reaction of both as God speaks equally to each of them in firm words, or maybe even with harsh words. Because the words were harsh, the person relating by reconciliation will fear a breakdown in the relationship, thinking that God’s motive is one of trying to straighten him up lest he perish. The same harsh words spoken to the other person who relates in oneness understands them in the intimacy of One Who loves the church and is washing her with the Word in order to bring her into His understanding and life. This washing of the water of the Word is dealing with her mind and views. He is washing her old identity away with the reality that she is now joined to Him. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is to know His mind and to receive His view of who we are in His heart. Though both individuals heard the same exhortation, they responded in two different ways, depending upon how they related to God.
It becomes apparent that the manner in which we view His love will determine how we relate to Him. If we relate to God on the basis of maintaining our reconciliation, then we will always have to work for it, which is foolishness. Yet this mentality would be eliminated if we realized that God has done something so that we would never have to worry about separation because He went so far beyond what was needed to settle it. Please understand that the purpose in Jesus’ heart was not just to settle the reconciliation issue, but to bring forth a bride who was one with Him and after His kind. In God’s mind there is no more thought of two that can be divided, for she is now bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. His desire was to have her in oneness with Himself. That is what His heart desired and what Jesus died to bring forth.
God meant for there to be an intimacy between Jesus and His bride that goes beyond her adoring Him from afar. Although we may experience an incredible worship service full of His presence and praise, we must consider whether during these times we are yet relating to Him from a position outside of oneness. The bride in the Song of Solomon did not need a worship service to find intimacy with her Beloved. An event of worship does not bring her close to Him since oneness defines her constant state, causing her to ever be with Him. If she did go to a worship service, she would be with Him before, during, and after that time. The service is an event, but the intimacy that she dwells in with God is not what she feels, but the intimacy that she always has because she is in Him.
The Knowledge of the Lord
You may have noticed that the difference between a mindset of being reconciled and a viewpoint of oneness is founded on what we perceive our identity to be. When we lose the reconciled mentality and start to come into the Bride mentality of oneness, we have changed our identity. The knowledge of the Lord is not supposed to be deep philosophical explanations of godly things, but that which changes our identity. An identity change is the effect of the knowledge of the Lord, and if it does not change our identity, then it is just a heap of information, which Paul called dung (cf. Phil. 3:8).
Reread Philippians chapter three and take note of exactly what Paul was referring to when he called his own righteousness with his own religious heritage dung. He was talking about all the things that he had obtained by his own good works, and called it a big pile of cow manure. Paul realized that these things are not worth anything in God’s economy.
Because Paul did not know this information before coming to the true knowledge of the Lord, he spent his life up to that point earning those things. When he comprehended the true riches of Christ, he gave up all things, saying, “I count them but dung that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:8). Grabbing hold of, embracing, believing, and loving Jesus and His life, mind, view, and way persuaded Paul to never see himself as an individual outside of Christ except as a member of His expression. Greatness and satisfaction now are not bound up in the wonderful achievements of what one individual can do for God, but that a particular member of the Body expresses Christ. Paul, therefore, was merely functioning as a member of the Body of Christ, which is purposed to manifest His life. This is not special activity but the Body merely doing what it is supposed to do. Christ becomes the treasure to someone who has truly entered into this knowledge of the Lord.***
