If love is the primary metaphysical reality - and love is a relation between persons (or beings) - then the way that Jesus saved Men must (presumably) have been by means of love.
Jesus created this world, and Men inhabit it (Men being, like Jesus, children of God). Love, in this world, made possible what Jesus did.
And that is why Jesus lived, as a child and adult; to build loving relationships. Jesus loved particular people: his mother, Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and the disciples. Jesus needed to build this loving group before he died - this was a major part of his ministry.
For example in John:13 Jesus addresses the disciples establishes a confirms and reinforces the mutual love between himself and the disciples, linked with salvation: 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
And in John:15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
So, Jesus made a world, in which loving relationships were present. Jesus was then incarnated into this world. He became bound to some people in this world by love, and these ('Christians') who loved Jesus were also bound by love to each other.
He died, was resurrected, and went to Heaven to live the life everlasting; and the love he established with Men in this world was what enabled us to follow him, through death and into Heaven.
This is not abstract; it was-and-is a matter of actual loving personal relationships between Christians and Jesus, and among Christians.
And it is the love for Jesus that makes us (after we have died) trust in him, and then want to follow him through death into life everlasting.
And love between Men that reached-out from the circle of disciples, and drew others into this family of mutual love.
1 comment:
It's funny that such a wonderful post should attract no comments.
But of course, what is there to add? Jesus loved us, and thus for our sake has offered us the chance to love Him, that we might through love of Christ become worthy to receive a portion of what He for love of us wishes to bestow. We can compress this essential truth further only by the expedient of assigning it a special term, "the Gospel".
But compression isn't the goal, we study the gospel to expand our practical and experienced understanding of what it means to love Christ, how that love can inform our lives and relationships.
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