Lesson 170. The Life of Love

God does nothing without a purpose. Every work of His has special significance and contains a profound meaning. The structure of our body is the best testimony to these words. There is nothing superfluous in it, and all the organs are harmoniously arranged, depend on one another, and serve one another. And if some illness enters the body, the whole body begins to fight it. God did not create me for infirmities, but they invade life like uninvited guests or as a consequence of my improper way of life.

Sin also came into our world as an uninvited guest and began to destroy the Divine harmony of the universe and defile the purity of the soul. Man entered into an alliance with Satan in this rebellion. This state of affairs had to be changed somehow. And He through Whom our entire world came into being offered His life for the sin of man. He decided to drink the cup of punishment of God’s wrath and become a sacrifice for sin. This is a great mystery into which the angels desire to look. God’s plan for the Salvation of humanity from the power of sin was announced to the entire Universe. The whole world was shaken by such love of the Creator for His creation.

The Son of God declared His intention to become a man, and not such a man as Adam was when he was created. Jesus was to be born into this world as a child and pass through the entire course of life that a human being lives, depending completely on the Father’s mercy and struggling against the influence of sin in the same way that is available to any of us. We know many examples of people who tried to make themselves gods, but there is something amazing and incomprehensible in the fact that God became man.

For example, I will share a thought. Why should Jesus not have become a grown man immediately, declared Himself the Messiah, and quickly died at the next Passover feast? In fact, the exchange would have taken place, and the law would have been satisfied. And if this event had also been recorded on video and shown to the entire population of the planet, everyone could have been informed very quickly. And why was it necessary to give people 4,000 years before coming into this world, which was extremely corrupted by sin? Why was it necessary to wait another 2,000 years after the redemption and allow Satan to mock God’s children? There are many questions that are difficult to answer. And when you comprehend God’s love and see how confidently it changes your heart, yet how gradually this takes place, you understand that there are things that cannot be hastened.

In Adam’s time, sin already existed, but there was no death yet. All the heavenly sinners were alive; Satan himself did not understand the full depth of his rebellion and what it would lead to. If his present condition had then been revealed to him, he and the entire Universe would have been horrified and perhaps would have desired to solve the problems immediately by putting an end to sin forever. But step by step, sin raised its ugly head and testified to all the heavenly beings what would have happened to them if Satan had been allowed to remain in Heaven and reign according to his own will. Our Earth, like a textbook, showed everyone what sin does and how dangerous it is.

And God’s love was able to reveal itself in all its power and beauty.

By becoming man, the Son of God revealed to the whole world the true character of God and what love is really like. He was the embodiment of the Creator’s love, which was manifested in limitless mercy and compassion for fallen people. It gave them hope for change for the better and strength for the struggle against sin.

Although the life of Jesus is described very briefly, and we know almost nothing about His life before His baptism in the Jordan, what has been revealed to us contains such depth that the whole world would not be large enough to contain all the books that will be written about it. And how much more will become known to us! All Eternity will constantly testify to us of new discoveries in the life of Jesus, Who was born into our world. God was manifest in the flesh! This is the miracle of miracles. For us, it has become a normal part of life, and we are not even amazed by it, but this event is beyond our understanding. And we will understand it only when we see God face to Face in all His glory. Our amazement will know no bounds. To allow Himself to be so humiliated! To risk His Eternal life in order to save even someone from the power of sin?! What kind of love is this?!

But Jesus was born. He became a man Who depended on His parents, on their care, and on their means. And He chose for His birth a stable where it smelled unpleasant and was dirty, and then He grew up in a poor family where there was no abundance and where everything obtained by the work of their own hands was valued. Jesus was trained in the carpenter’s trade, and by His labor He earned a living to support Himself and His widowed mother. We know nothing about the ministry in which He was engaged, but when the time came and the prophecies of Daniel pointed to it, the Lord left everything and everyone and went to fulfill God’s plan for the salvation of humanity from the power of sin.

And how unobtrusively He carried out God’s will! He came, was baptized, and went into the wilderness to be tested. He announced nothing to anyone. Returning after His victory over the devil, He quietly waited until people noticed Him and desired to learn what He had prepared for this world. A couple of people responded to His waiting. And He took them on distant journeys and was content with fellowship with them, leaving everyone else to wonder what mission would be carried out by the long-awaited Messiah. The attention of the whole world was focused on Christ, but He was in no hurry to change anything in politics or traditions and had absolutely no intention of declaring Himself to be Someone.

The miracles that Jesus performed confused everyone. It was evident that He performed them because of the great need and the inability of people to change anything, yet He did not seek glory for Himself, but avoided large gatherings and constantly changed the place where He stayed.

The Samaritans accepted Jesus as the Messiah through the testimony of the woman at the well and rejoiced in the truths that He proclaimed to them, while God’s chosen people awaited a king who would overthrow Roman rule and exalt the Jews above the whole world. The conduct and life of Jesus did not fit their ambitious plans at all, and they kept waiting for Him to declare Himself to be Who He was supposed to be and to lead a popular movement in order to fulfill their ambitious expectations. But Christ silently departed, and no one knew where He was, where He would appear next, or what He would do afterward.

But He was born to die. And that time was relentlessly approaching. This troubled the human nature of Jesus; His soul shuddered at the trials ahead, but His love for people was stronger than all fears and apprehensions. He relied on the Father’s will and fulfilled everything that had been foretold and planned concerning Him.

The love of God was revealed in all its fullness and beauty. In the person of Jesus, God showed His true attitude and forbearance toward the sinner, as well as His hatred of sin. The world lived differently, loving sin and hating the sinner.

But the death of Christ was to reveal the full depth of God’s love for people and His hatred of sin. Mercy and justice met at the cross. And by this event a very clear answer was given as to what love is. This quality of God’s soul should not be understood one-sidedly. The very same power and authority of love have been given to us. We cannot add anything to it, nor can we diminish it. Love exists even if it is not in me, and it awaits my consent to be born in my heart and lead me to perfection. This power is available to everyone because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

1. What new things did you learn from this lesson?

2. What did Jesus have to do in order to redeem humanity?

3. How does God the Father reveal His love to us?

4. Why did Jesus need to be born as a child?

5. Why did Jesus not begin His ministry earlier?

6. How was God’s love revealed at the cross?

7. What does Love expect from us?

8. Why was the cross specifically chosen by God as the place of Christ’s death?

9. Please read Genesis 3:15; John 3:16; Isaiah 9:6; 50:6; 53; Psalm 22:1–2, 17–19; Daniel 9:26–27; John 1:18; 14:23; Philippians 2:6–11; Colossians 2:15; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Isaiah 42:3–4 in the light of our lesson.