“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for saints according to the will of God.”
“And we know that for those who “agape” love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those who he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
The Arizona sky this evening was heavily dotted with light clouds reflecting a western sunset of colors, mostly orange. It is one of the things Arizona provides in addition to a summer heat! It was a glorious sight, reminding one that God’s plan and purpose is current and in effect; He is in charge; you and I are His sons and daughters! This is exactly what our scripture is telling us; His purpose is established; it is in effect and on schedule! We are “the firstborn of many brothers” and our sunset is a reminder!
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
In our last GraceNotes, verses 26 & 27, we saw the deeper side of the Holy Spirit’s activity within our body, soul and spirit. God’s agape love is faithfully manifested into the lives of His children. Part of God’s work in us is vesting us with His Spiritual power, so that, we may grow by grace in the knowledge of Himself. His work equips us to be filled with the Holy Spirit but this requires our vitality, so that, we can consume and use His power to overcome this clay flesh in which we currently dwell!
In this next verse, 28, qualifiers are stipulated. Only those people “who love God,” and those “who are called according to His purpose,” are the ones who receive the focus of God’s Spiritual power and His agape Love!
Three very important issues require our understanding here! The kind of love the Greek text is referring to, (2) knowing what is implied by being “called” and (3) what is His purpose!
The first qualifier, stipulated in the opening phrase of verse 28, is “those who love God.” It is important for us to realize the Greek text in this passage uses the word agape “love” and not phileo “love.” Jesus made a huge issue of this distinction with Peter in John 21.
After His resurrection, Jesus took Peter for a walk on the beach having provided a fish-fry breakfast with some of the disciples. Jesus asked Peter, as John was following behind, “Simon, son of John, do you Love me more than these?” Jesus is using the Greek word agape for “love.” Peter responds: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you.” Peter responds three times using the Greek word phileo for love rather than agape. When Jesus asks Peter the third time, He switches from agape for love to phileo: “Simon, son of John, do you (phileo) love me?”
Jesus doesn’t rebuke Peter directly, rather, He instructs him all three times to: (1) Feed my lambs, (2) Tend my sheep, (3) Feed my sheep.
Peter was extra sensitive to the Lord Jesus at this time because he had just denied him three times a few days earlier, before Jesus was crucified, and now, here Peter is, one on one with Jesus in a private conversation after He had risen from the dead. Jesus is obviously making the point at Peter’s expense that (phileo) love is not enough. The Greek word agape is love on the divine level while phileo is affectionate love on a human level.
You and I, like Peter, need to grow into divine agape love through the Holy Spirit. Peter knew within himself what Jesus was saying! For you and me, this is impossible without the “workmanship” of Jesus and the participation of the Holy Spirit by providing God’s inward grace toward us. We must learn to consume His grace!
Like Peter, learning to discern and switch from our human source of phileo love requires the resurrection power of Jesus within us, it is originating from God’s grace culture and agape love itself …. Spiritually in Jesus. God is now our source since we have been created new in Christ Jesus. The old is past and the new has arrived! We are now a Spiritual person. It is part of our process of being “sanctified completely;” it is part of being “conformed to the image of His Son.” This is our task, being whom we are called to be; it is our task, just as it was Peter’s.
This totally changes the meaning of this verse from our common perception of what this verse is saying. Love on a human level (phileo) is, as illustrated by Peter’s confession to Jesus, not the subject of this verse. A human kind of love, phileo, does not lead to “all things working together for good” and phileo people are not those who are being “called according to His purpose” without first receiving agape love from and in Jesus Himself. Only a person created with a new living Spirit in Jesus is qualified as the subject of this verse, a Spiritual person created new in Jesus’ agape love!
Our ability to make this switch from phileo love to agape love requires not only our knowledge but our walking in the light as He is in the light; we must be walking and living in His resurrection power, in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and in prayer! This requires not just being a Spiritual person but working out our salvation also because it is God who is working in us showing us the way. God has equipped us with Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is agape love. But they all require our resolve and grit!
This leads us to consider our capacity as a person created Spiritually in Christ Jesus. We have absorbed certain human qualities out from our worldly culture before being created new in Jesus. These worldly habits go deep within our person and become unconscious behavior. Being created alive Spiritually opens our eyes and ears Spiritually and we quickly become equipped to be Spiritually discerning. Making Spiritual choices is new and contrary to our natural habits; it becomes very challenging. These daily choices requires questioning our own selves and searching for God’s righteous truth applied into our personal living. Making these Spiritual choices builds our agape Love in Christ Jesus as well as our Faith, and our Hope in our Christ Jesus.
One way to understand who we now are in Christ Jesus is to realize we do have the mind of Jesus Himself. I recently heard a Sunday School teacher tell the class that they did not have the mind of Christ! A direct contradiction to the truth of scripture. It is a natural assumption for a human mindset experiencing our limited capacity in daily living without operational grace. But we must submit to the infallibility of scripture itself and use our Spiritual eyes and ears to believe, to have faith adding structure to our hope. We are born babes in Christ Jesus with much to learn Spiritually.
The scripture tells us in Philippians: Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.” One of the interesting things about this verse is that it appears to be saying, allow this mind to be in you as the King James says it. I grew up thinking this way but this was merely the KJ version’s way of expressing a command. As it turns out, the Greek grammar is expressing this as an imperative. In other words, we are instructed to possess the mind of Jesus Christ, it is a command! We have this verified by Paul in his letter to Corinth: “For who has understood the mind of the Lord to instruct him! but we have the mind of Christ.”
We do have inside access to the mind of Jesus! We too often do not know it in our experience because we are busy living in the flesh and not in the Spirit. We are now in Christ Jesus; we are a Spiritual person! Growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus, as Peter instructs us to do, is a Spiritual mission, a “holy calling” within our temporal, worldly body. We must learn to consume grace and take on the image of our resurrected Jesus Himself, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, ‘let us’ also bear the image of the man of heaven.” It is a heavenly calling!
This leads us directly to the second qualifier. All things work together for good to them who are called according to His purpose. These two things are both joined and separated. All people are called to accept God’s gift of Life in Jesus since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and God is not willing that any should perish but have eternal life. Once a person has accepted God’s call into salvation, they are created new in Jesus, so that there is no condemnation to them, the law of the Spirit has set them free form the law of sin and death. These newly created Spiritual persons are now being continually called to live Spiritually in agape love while living in conflict with the world of darkness and sin. We are now called to separate (sanctify) ourselves into God’s purpose.
“And those whom he predestined he also called,
and those whom he called he also justified,
and those whom he justified he also glorified.” -Romans 8:30.
We are now called to glorify Him, expressing His glory in us! Grace is being provided in us to be His light in this world of darkness. God has done His part, He has reconciled Himself to us and now He is wooing us to Himself with His agape love. We have been called and we are still being called. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
God’s purpose may include calling a special person for a specific task like Moses, Joseph or Paul. But that does not mean we are not being called to glorify our Lord Jesus also. Our calling is on a personal basis just as it was for Elijah, Elisha and Peter. Our salvation is not complete until we are called home to heaven or He comes and takes us out of this world!
We are being called according to His purpose! We hear His call as we are using our Spiritual ears; we are using our Spiritual ears as we are agape loving Him!
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he surely will do it. -1Thessalonians 5:23-24.
Paul gives us this additional clarification in his letter to the Thessalonians. We will be sanctified completely, He who calls us is faithful and He will surely do it! Paul, in this same letter to the Thessalonians, reminds them that it is God who is calling them into God’s “own Kingdom and glory.”
Romans 8 is a commentary concerning the Holy Spirit’s role in continually accomplishing, within each believer, the task of our sanctification until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our sanctification includes growing in grace by way of agape love, faith, and hope! This is our active calling because we are being called according to God’s own purpose.
“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”