John 14:15-17, 21-24 NIV “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you….Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.14.15-24.NIV
The Jews have always rejected Jesus as Messiah because the Messiah they wanted would come and make them visible before the world as powerful, blessed, and great. The Scripture does record God’s desire to bless, much like parents long to bless their children. The rebellious, disobedient, dishonoring, and self-centered child loses the blessing intended for them because they cannot steward it properly. Israel was this child and remains so, for they refuse the Messiah Who came to save the world. When God came to earth as the Messiah, it was to make people more visible to God by empowering them to obey God always. The Holy Spirit makes it possible to please God always, which is an impossibility in the flesh, for our nature is corrupt at birth and incapable of pleasing God on its own. While God has always ‘seen’ us, we have remained children of wrath because of our disregard and disobedience to God, even as Israel remains today. True Israel, the children of God whom He loves, are all those from every tribe and tongue, from every nation, who humble themselves before the Messiah, confessing their sin against God, acknowledging the righteousness of God in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, and living by the Holy Spirit lives pleasing to God for the glory of God on earth as it is in heaven. The Lord rejoices in His people who live to please Him, not looking from Him to make them great before men, but to make great before men Jesus through them by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit living in them. All glory, honor, and praise are due to Jesus and not us, for He alone is good, He alone is God, and He alone is righteous in all His ways.
RUN TODAY’S PLAY BY Loving Jesus through obeying Him in the power of the Holy Spirit, for His glory, not our own.
