This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
Ignorance makes what is lawful appear miraculous, and demands the unlawful as evidence of miracles.
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We continue with our discussion about the unity of God’s Will and His Love, first highlighted in “Is His Love Blind?” and further discussed in “Will vs Love: A Divine Quantum Entanglement“.
In “A Divine Quantum Entanglement” we examined the outcomes of trying to understand God’s Will while ignoring His Love. This error was common amongst the Jews at the time of Christ.
Having explored the nature of God’s Love in subsequent essays, we now examine a modern problem: demanding God’s Love without reference to His Will.
No Love Without The Will
God’s Love and God’s Will are two sides of the same coin, as explained in “Is His Love Blind?“.
As discussed in “We Don’t Understand Love“, we have developed a concept of love that, in part, presents it as something that supports rule-bending.
Having made this error, we extend it to our concept of God’s Love through anthropomorphic thinking habits (ref. “God Is Neither Superman Nor Santa“).
We end up investing God’s Love with attributes that are incompatible with the Nature of the Father, the Son, or His Will (ref. “The Nature of God’s Laws“). For example: being soft and weak; acting randomly; prioritizing convenience and comfort; etc…
God’s Love expresses itself in spiritual upliftment and protection, and is One with His Will:
He that hath my commandments,
— KJV, John 14:21
and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him
Mercy Is A Feature of Creation
The separation of The Will and The Love results in misinterpretation of “divine favour”, “mercy”, “grace”, etc. as rule-bending or favouritism. This is wrong.
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Favour, mercy, etc. are real. But there is no need for the Almighty to do anything “extra-judicial” to grant them. They have already been provided for in Creation, because the Laws of Creation express His Love (ref. “The Nature of God’s Laws“).
The Omniscience of the Creator ensures that Creation provides infinite possibilities of help in any situation.
To receive this help consistently we must live according to God’s Laws, which is the same as living in love for God and our neighbour. This presupposes we know this Will, which presupposes we have studied it, which is only possible when we try to live The Word (ref. “Act To Experience To Know“).
Consider trying to operate a machine without reading the user manual: sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t. We will get seemingly random and unpredictable results. When we sometimes get a good result we will ascribe it to “luck” or call it a “miracle”.
It is because of our ignorance of the Laws of Creation (which are revealed in The Word) that we misrepresent their constant loving help as special favour or special grace. It is indeed favour and grace, but not favouritism or randomness, and it is accessible to all who seek Him in spirit and truth.
We should praise God for the Wisdom and Love embedded in His Laws, which ensure that His Power is available to all who act in love and humility.
This is a better orientation than the perspective that presents our Creator as a rule-bending Father-Christmas-in-the-sky (ref. “God Is Neither Superman Nor Santa“).
The Special Grace of God
And of his fulness have all we received,
— John 1:16-17
and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The real special grace is Christ’s Word.
The Word is Truth (ref. “What Is Truth?“) and It revealed the “spirit” of the law: the Love that is in God’s Will.
It is the bringing of this Truth by Christ that is the special act of grace, because we did not deserve Christ’s coming.
The using of The Word (i.e. the living by It) is equivalent to living in a spirit of true love. This means obeying the Laws of Creation, and this grants continuous access to grace.
Today’s Resolution
- We shall hold to the truth that God’s Will for us expresses His Love for us. Therefore we shall seek His Will and not ours, particularly when His Will appears uncomfortable and inconvenient to us.
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