God Shows Us His Love Through His Son

(Here's some wisdom from the 2nd Century; and if it sounds a little but like the Apostle John, it is probably because it was written by a disciple of John's to a young Christian by the name of Diognetus.) 

No man has ever seen God or known him, but God has revealed himself to us through faith, by which alone it is possible to see him.  God, the Lord and maker of all things, who created the world and set it in order, not only loved man but was also patient with him.  So he has always been, and is, and will be: kind, good, free from anger, truthful; indeed, he and he alone is good.

He devised a plan, a great and wonderful plan, and shared it only with his Son.  As long as he preserved this secrecy and kept his own wise counsel he seemed to be neglecting us, to have no concern for us.  But when through his beloved Son he revealed and made public what he had prepared from the very beginning, he gave us all at once gifts such as we could never have dreamt of -- even sight and knowledge of himself.

When God had made all his plans in consultation with his Son, he waited until a later time, allowing us to follow our own whim, to be swept along by unruly passions, to be led astray by pleasure and desire.  Not that he was pleased by our sins: he only tolerated them.  Not that he approved of that time of sin: he was planning this era of holiness.  When we had been shown to be undeserving of life, his goodness was to make us worthy of it.  When we had made it clear that we could not enter God’s kingdom by our own power, we were to be enabled to do so by the power of God.

When our wickedness had reached its culmination, it became clear that retribution was at hand in the shape of suffering and death.  The time came then for God to make known his kindness and power (how immeasurable is God’s generosity and love!).  He did not show hatred for us or reject us or take vengeance; instead, he was patient with us, bore with us, and in compassion took our sins upon himself; he gave his own Son as the price of our redemption, the holy one to redeem the wicked, the sinless one to redeem sinners, the just one to redeem the unjust, the incorruptible one to redeem the corruptible, the immortal one to redeem mortals.  For what else could have covered our sins but his sinlessness?  Where else could we, wicked and sinful as we were, have found the means of holiness except in the Son of God alone?

How wonderful a transformation, how mysterious a design, how inconceivable a blessing!  The wickedness of the many is covered up in the holy One, and the holiness of One sanctifies many sinners.

Letter to Diognetus (2nd century)
   

A Few Quotes on Fruit and Fullness

“I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus.  Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy.  I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” ― Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas 

Fruit by the Spirit.  The Christian should resemble a fruit-tree, not a Christmas tree!  For the gaudy decorations of a Christmas tree are only *tied* on, whereas fruit *grows* on a fruit-tree.  In other words, Christian holiness is not an artificial human accretion, but a natural process of fruit-bearing by the power of the Holy Spirit. –- John R.W. Stott

We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world.  We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education.  We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.  -- A.W. Tower

Fruit and fullness.  For many years now I have recited to myself every day the ninefold fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, and have prayed for the fullness of the Spirit.  For the chief mark of the fullness of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.  As I meditate every day on these graces, on this fruit of the Spirit, I have noticed recently that the first is love and the last is temperance.  Now love is self-giving and temperance is self-control.  So holiness concerns what we do with ourselves.  It is seen in the mastery of self, and the giving of self.  -- John R.W. Stott

The only claim I make is that there is nothing original in these pages.  I present no revolutionary new ideas, no easy new way of salvation.  The road is still narrow (Matt. 7:14).  I do not have the gift of softening the sting of the Christian message, of making it seem light or easily borne or quickly assimilated into prevailing modern ideas.  -- Thomas Oden

A sign of authenticity.  Love is as much a sign of Christian authenticity as is righteousness.  -- John R. W. Stott