resurrection
Love vs. In Love, part II
Philippians 3:7-11: But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians reads, “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.” Knowledge of Christ is only attainable through loss – total loss. There is nothing more valuable in this universe. One can only know Christ Jesus through death just as it was for Adam. To know, in the deepest sense of the word, is for someone to immerse completely into something or someone. Comparing it to human relationships, when a person falls deeply in love, we can say that they die to themselves or they lose themselves in the other person.
The person in love will do anything to get the object of their affection to reciprocate their love. Being in love is often referred to as painful. “Love hurts,” people say. It is painful because those who were once very independent become dependent on the other person reciprocating their love. People have been known to commit literal suicide when their love is not returned. Human love pales in comparison to the pure love of the Savior. We need to be dependent upon Him and independent of self.
God doesn’t just say, “Love Me.” He says, “I love My people so entirely that I died for you so that I can extend to you My perfect love in order for you to be able to love Me back with My love.” Giving up self is a tiny price to pay in comparison to knowing God and possessing an intimate friendship and fellowship with Him and His unshakable Kingdom.
In the first edition of What Was God Thinking? Why Adam Had To Die, I stated, “one could say that Jesus loved us so much that He committed suicide for us that we might live…I call that intentional act of death suicide.” In this, my second edition, I am amending that. Yes, He gave His life, but suicide depicts taking or removing a life exclusively leaving nothing but death.
What Christ did was give life through His death; therefore, the word “suicide” doesn’t aptly depict what He did. After all, He did rise from the dead! We are to give our lives to Christ just as Christ gave His life for us, but we are to do it in a spiritual sense. When we do, we arise from our spiritually dead, fleshly condition while remaining in the physical body. We are to consign self completely which is quite a task given the magnitude of the pull of fleshly desires. Only those completely dedicated to the life of Christ and knowledge of who He is can accomplish such a task. It is supernatural at it’s core.
The latter part of the above Scriptures in Philippians reads, “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. You want to know Christ? Be conformed unto His death and supernatural life stemming from the Kingdom of God will overtake you!
We’ll pick up here next week as we continue with Love vs. In Love. If you are interested in reading more, check out my website to order my books, or go to my Facebook ministry page where I post regularly. Blessings!
Alexys V. Wolf
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fiery-Sword-Global-Ministries/185299884822251
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