“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
Paul tells us the law of the Spirit has set us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. This is the light shining out of darkness to which Paul refers in the above passage. It is the agape love we discussed from John 21 sometime ago.
After a breakfast on the beach with some of the disciples, the resurrected Jesus takes a walk with Peter, the apostle John following close behind. This short dialogue in John 21 is very revealing about agape love. The Greek word Jesus uses for love is very different from the Greek word Peter uses responding to Jesus in this short dialogue.
Three times Jesus asks Peter, succinctly, if He loves Him. The first two times Jesus uses the Greek word agape for love while Peter responds each time, not with agape, but rather the Greek word phileo. Phileo conveys a physical affection and compatibility rather than the deep agape love Jesus uses.
The third time Jesus asks Peter if he loves him but He switches to Peter’s Greek word, Phileo. Here, Jesus is reminding Peter, and us, that there are differences in our levels of affection; Jesus’ plea to Peter is much more than affection, it is who God is: divine agape love. In his frustration, Peter stays with the word phileo, “Lord, you know everything: you know I (phileo) love you.”
The law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus is agape love expressed through redemption and the resurrection of Jesus within us because we are born-again! God is agape love and we are born-again within, Jesus being in us!!!
We have been discussing The Way because Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus said He is not only THE WAY, He said also He is THE TRUTH; He also said He is THE LIFE!
The whole point for us is to be born-again, made righteous while living in our fleshly jar of clay, is to know THE TRUTH, is to know JESUS, is to know HIS LIFE!
For this to happen, we require the Spiritual capacity of our Father God within us, so that, we can discern and understand the righteousness of Jesus within our own fleshly self! God creates the Spiritual capacity within us to relate to Him by birthing us in Him, so that, He is alive within us and we are alive in Him. It is our job to apply His righteousness into our jar of flesh making His Light visible within earth’s worldly darkness!
The seed for our faith is thus planted within us, so that, we can grow in HIS grace and experience His resurrection power within our own jar of flesh. Living in our redeemed condition of grace, we will find Jesus, if we seek Him. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is shinning within our heart if we are “born-again.”
The eminence of God’s agape love within us is fundamental. We are children of God and His agape love pervades our being even within our own insensitive callousness of flesh. His agape faithfulness to us, in our unfaithfulness to Him, is both mercy and grace. In fact, our Faith comes through Jesus dwelling in our hearts! We are His “dwelling place” but our self-ness hinders His righteousness, so that, our faith suffers loss if, while in our jar of clay, we remain self-motivated! This dichotomy provides our opportunity! Our flesh is God’s dwelling place; we are holy because Jesus is in us! His agape love outstrips our knowledge!
In his prayer for Ephesus, Paul connects God’s agape love into our faith:
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father in heaven, from whom every family on earth and heaven is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power from his spirit within your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in (agape) love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.”
How can we know something that surpasses knowledge? It’s a God thing!
God’s absolute agape love surpasses our knowledge and generates His faithful grace. We cannot come to Him without Him drawing us to Himself! God’s faithfulness flowing from His agape love into His born-again children is forever and ever! Faith is our response to God’s grace, yes, but it is active, intention action!
The scripture sometimes uses the same Greek root word (πιστοs) to translate both “faith” and “believe.” Believing can also be read as “faith.” The intensity of our “believing” can be regarded as the level of our faith. Walking in His Spirit is walking in our believing or walking in our Faith!
God has done what the law and flesh could not do, so that, God’s righteousness is fulfilled in us since God has already done what the law and the flesh could not do! It is our FAITH, our believing, that brings His righteousness to maturity within our jar of flesh. We are to be strengthened by His Spirit in our “inner being,”
We have access to God’s throne of grace as our family resource. He is our total source; we cannot use our humanity to acquire His Spiritual strength. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Spiritual strength is the opposite of temporal strength! Believing in God, believing in our Lord Jesus and trusting in our Loving Holy Spirit is what our Faith is all about! It is quietly receiving THE Truth in God’s holy word; it is being vulnerable to the living culture of agape love within us; it is submission to the active work of the Holy Spirit alive in our fleshly jar of clay! It is being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus!
So now faith, hope and agape love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is agape love.