Dear Fellow Believers in Christ, (Christ in you is the Person, Life, & Expression of Genuine Love)
The Father demonstrated a heart of genuine love to send His Son to save us. Is it not Christ the Son, the Person who manifests the full and genuine love of God in this world? Whose fruit actually is the fruit of the Spirit? How is abiding in Christ associated with abiding in genuine love? How is genuine love the greatest manifestation of Christ in and through us? How does knowing Christ's genuine love fill us with al the fullness of God? What is the unity of the faith that the church needs to know? What is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that should be expressed by the church? Holy Spirit teach and reveal Christ as the genuine love-life Person in us as us.
GENUINE LOVE"Beloved let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4:7-9).
First, The Father’s Out of a Heart of Genuine Love Sent His Son to Save Us
In the beginning of beginnings, our Heavenly Father had a heart of genuine love. He wanted to have birthed sons that He could genuinely love, and that could genuinely and freely love Him. Before anything in this visible universe was created and even before God created the angels, our Heavenly Father chose us to be in Christ (Eph. 1:4). Our Father knew that we could be eternally birthed sons and would have a secured life of love and fellowship with Him in Christ. In our Father’s foreknowledge, He knew that He would create a man of flesh who would sin and need a Savior. Yes, even before God created Adam, He chose us to be in Christ (Eph. 1:4), and His Son became the Lamb slain to pay for the penalty of sin (Rev. 13:8, I Pet. 1:20). The Father out of heart of genuine love sent His Son to pay for our sins with His shed blood on the cross. We stand justified before God by the precious blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins (Rom. 5:9, Eph. 1:7). Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have received justification with the Father and liberation from the penalty of sin.
Second, The Father's Power Raised Jesus to Manifest His Genuine Love
Jesus Christ came to manifest the Father to mankind with the genuine love of the Father working in and through Him. Then, the Son came to be put to a physical death on the cross to pay for our sins. Jesus was a spotless lamb. Jesus knew no sin, but our Father made Him to be sin for us on the cross (II Cor. 5:21). Christ was totally righteous and totally holy as a spotless lamb, when He was put to death on the cross. The Father was justified in raising Him from the dead by His His omnipotence because of He was an eternal spotless sacrifice (Eph. 1:20-21; Hebr. 9:12,14). Our Father has put all things under the authority of Christ, His risen Son (Eph. 1:22). Our Father placed Christ as the head over all things of the church (Eph. 1:23). Jesus Christ, the Son, is the Person of God in flesh through whom He manifests His genuine love in tangible form.
Third, Christ lives in Us to Manifest His Genuine Love-for-Others Spirit
The Son manifested the Father’s genuine love before the cross in the Jesus of Nazareth, Mary body. Now, the Son is placed in fullness in every Spirit birthed son, to manifest His genuine love (Eph. 1:23, 3:17-20). We are justified by the shed blood of His Son. The Son now lives in us to manifest His righteousness with His love-for-others Spirit flowing in us to and for others. The Son now lives in us to manifest His holiness with His love-for-the Father Spirit flowing in us with a love fellowship to and for the Father. The fruit of the Spirit is not my fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is the divine nature of Christ living in me with His genuine love, joy, and peace (Gal. 5:22-23). Genuine love is manifested from the Son in us.
Fourth, We Need to Abide in His Genuine Life and Love in and through Us
"God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4:9b). John declares that "this life is in His Son" (I John 5:11b). When we were born again by the incorruptible word and Seed (I Pet. 1:23), we have all of Christ, including His eternal life and nature. The Omnipresent Christ now lives in totality in every Spirit birthed believer. The Father’s eternal plan and purpose is that we would live in and through Christ for His eternal fellowship and good pleasure (Eph. 1:9-10). The Father’s eternal plan and purpose is that Christ would also live in and through us for his genuine love-for-others to be manifested in this temporal life here in this earth (Col. 1:27). We need to abide in His genuine life and love, and let His genuine life and love abide in us (I John 4:16).
Fifth, Christ Expresses Himself in a Life of Genuine Love-for-Others
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (I John 4:7,8). Do not be deceived. God is love and if we know God and are born again, Christ is going to express Himself through us with His genuine love-for-others Spirit and nature to our brothers, sisters, and others. Genuine love is the eternal life and nature of Christ. Genuine love is the highest and greatest manifestation of Christ in and through us. Christ suffers long and is kind. Christ rejoices in the truth. Christ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Christ never fails (I Cor. 13:4-8a). The genuine Christ-life is Christ expressing Himself in us and through us, in a genuine love-for-others Spirit and nature as us.
Sixth, Knowing Christ’s Genuine Love Fills Us With All the Fullness of God
Paul’s prayer and desire for the church is that the Father would grant us His Spirit in the inner man (Eph. 3:14-16). Paul prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts and that we would be rooted and grounded in His genuine love (Eph. 3:17). More than anything else, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to so renew our minds to "determine not to know anything. . .except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2). Christians need to stop independent thinking and living, aside from Christ as their life, and in reality their only life. He that is joined to the Lord is on spirit with Him (I Cor. 6:17). There is only one Christian life, and that is the life of Christ. Christ is the only one who can live the Christian life in and through us as us. We need to know the genuine love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we "may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19).
Seventh, We are Vessels of Christ for Him to Live His Genuine Love-Life
We received a complete Christ with a complete mind when we were Spirit-birthed. Why then do we attempt to live by our old mind and thinking out of the knowledge of good and evil? We need the Holy Spirit to transform us to let Christ live and operate through the fullness of His life, mind, nature, and fullness in us. It needs to be just His life – the Christ life. It needs to be just His love – genuine love, as a fully functioning Body of Christ in His unity. Every office, gift, ministry, and calling should lead and equip us to "once then arrive into the unity of the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a complete man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-13). We are the vessels of Christ, for Him to live His genuine love-life in His unity and purpose.