Happy Easter

I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very [a]Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them. John 17:26

For the last several days we have studied why Jesus came and allowed Himself to be sacrificed. John 17:26 sums all of the reasons up in one verse. Jesus sacrificed Himself so that He could always be in us and so that we could always have His Love.

And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31

There is really only one commandment any longer and it is Love, because Love covers a multitude of sins, 1 Peter 4:8. Jesus was raised from the dead to live within us so that we could Love. He lives so that we can now bless those who curse us. So that we can pray for those who despitefully use us. So that we can intercede for those who hate us. So that we can forgive those who wrong us, even if they do it thousands of times. Because Jesus now lives within us we can forgive those who lie about us, who beat us, and even those who kill us. This is why Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could Love as He Loves. Our love no longer depends on others loving us back. Our Love no longer is based on actions, it is based on Grace. So our Love is always just freely given to all. 

There is no fear in Love and Jesus’ perfect Love has casted all fear our from us, 1 John 4:18. We now have the Holy Spirit within us plainly showing us things to come. He gives us peace that our Father is Great within us. He gives us the strength, the courage, the hope, faith, and wisdom that all things work out for good. Jesus came so that we could have and enjoy the exact same abundant and glorious life that He has. This is why there is Easter.