Because of Who You Are / Artist: Sandi Patti
One holy night you brought the promise from a virgin
And promise grew as he revealed to us your heart
Enduring love displayed throughout his Crucifixion
And in the dark, you tore the grave and death apart
The Lord also gave me an allegory (like a sermon illustration or a parable – to be taken symbolically) this morning to illustrate a practical application that he wanted me to receive and to share from the passage of scripture I read during my quiet time with him this morning from I Corinthians 13, which is often termed the “Love chapter” of the Bible.
The Allegory: I was standing outside. I saw two people riding down the street on bicycles, one in front of the other. Both of them were getting ready to go under a bridge overhead. They were on the other side of the bridge from me. The first person, who was on a normal size bicycle, went under the bridge.
The second person was riding on a bicycle that was very high up. I watched as this person started to ride underneath the bridge. His or her head was too high up and did not make it under the bridge, because the head of this person smacked right up against the side of the bridge. The impact of the head against the bridge knocked him or her off of the bicycle.
I ran over to the other side of the bridge to check on the individual. The person was hanging off the side of the bridge and his or her body was arched. I said, “Oh no! Are you dead? Are you alive?” He or she was just hanging there. The person showed no signs of life. So, I called 911. End
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read I Corinthians 12:31b-13:1-13:
Love
And now I will show you the most excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
My Understanding: In this allegory, I believe I am the personification of divine love; the bridge is the cross on which Jesus Christ died for our sins; and underneath the bridge is hell, death and sin. I am on the opposite side of the bridge as the two people riding on the bicycles and they are headed my direction. The first person to go under the bridge was Jesus Christ, i.e. he took upon himself our flesh (the bicycle), our sin, and the cross. He humbled himself by going underneath the weight of the cross, and he became obedient to death on a cross so that we might live. By going underneath and going from one side to the other, he rose from that death victorious and thus conquered death, hell and sin.
The second person to try to go under the bridge represents mankind (the flesh of man). In this case the individual represents those who have not humbled themselves under the cross of Christ via their deaths to sin so that they can be resurrected to new life in Jesus Christ. They are riding high off of the pleasures of this world. Their heads are too high up because they are filled with pride and human knowledge and understanding; and with man’s thinking and reasoning and evaluating of life and the things of this life, and they have reached their own conclusions apart from God and apart from his love. So, when these individuals try to follow Jesus Christ under the cross (the bridge), they bang their heads against the cross because they have not humbled themselves to become obedient to death to sin by way of the cross of Jesus Christ. They will always clash with the cross of Christ because they are living for their own pleasures and they are living by their own intellect and reasoning.
So, divine love reaches across to them and asks them the question, “Are you dead or are you alive?” The question is not for the benefit of the one asking the question but is rather for the benefit of the one just hanging there listless and lifeless, spiritually speaking, as he or she showed no evidence - no signs of life (life in Christ Jesus). The question is intended to wake the person up from his spiritual slumber and to make him have to evaluate and examine his own heart and mind to see if he is truly in Jesus Christ or not. Many people think they are because they have intellectual acceptance or knowledge of Jesus Christ, but they never humbled themselves and became obedient to death to sin and to take upon themselves the cross of Jesus Christ so that they could live in freedom from death, hell and sin; from judgment of God; and from the bondage to and the control of sin over their lives.
In this passage in I Corinthians, it, too, is asking the question, “Are you dead or are you alive?” If you are dead spiritually speaking and yet you think you are following Jesus, you will run up against his cross and knock your head (pride and intellect) against it just like this passage of scripture describes when it says that those who lack love are only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I saw this head banging up against the cross (the bridge) as a clanging cymbal. It makes a lot of noise, but it doesn’t produce anything useful. It is lifeless and listless from a spiritual perspective because it is puffed up with human knowledge and pride and is trying to gain access to heaven via good works, running its own life, and thinking it has attained great heights spiritually and/or intellectually. But, it will always bang into the side of the cross and will be in spiritual limbo like this person just hanging there but never humbling himself enough to come under the cross and then to have life everlasting.
So, it is possible to think you are headed to heaven (or your idea of heaven or eternal bliss) because of your knowledge or understanding of God, or because of your own superior intellect or reasoning, or because you are flying high off of your own flesh and the pleasures this world has to offer and you think that is life, but it is not life, it is death, but not death to sin, death to God and death to life everlasting with God. You may even preach great sermons, or do great things among men, or make great sacrifices, but still you will hit your head (knowledge and pride) up against the side of the cross (the bridge between man and God) and you will just make loud noises, but you will never reach the other side, and true love stands on the other side of the cross. True love does not operate in the flesh of man, but it operates in the power and authority of the Spirit of God within lives that are obedient to the cross, who have humbled themselves underneath the cross of Christ, and have been able to pass from death to life because Jesus went before us and prepared the way so that we, too, could have life everlasting and be free from sin and death (spiritual death).
True love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. True love (agape love) never fails. All the gifts of the Spirit of God and all knowledge will disappear one day, but love will always remain along with faith and hope, because these three things are what are eternal.
True love – the type that is kind, not self-seeking, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth – is the kind that will reach across that bridge to those on the other side and will ask the hard questions – “Are you dead or are you alive?” True love will grieve and mourn (Oh no!) over the sin, the selfishness, and the pride of those who are self-seeking and who are living for their own pleasures and will care enough to try to help the sinner come to the place of realizing his spiritual condition so that he can humble himself under that cross and pass from death to life in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ did that for us. He left heaven and took upon himself the flesh of man and ultimately he took upon himself all of our sins and died a painful death on the cross so that we could go free. He is true love! And, if we are truly followers of Jesus, his love dwells within us so that we can love others as he loved us.
The writer of I Corinthians said that when he was a child he talked like a child, he thought like a child, and he reasoned like a child. I believe this picture of this person, riding high on life (human life) with his head so high that he banged his head against the cross of Christ and the impact sounded like a gong or a clanging cymbal, is a picture of this kind of childish (immature) thinking and reasoning that does not take God into account nor does it humble itself and submit itself to the cross of Christ. It is puffed up with human knowledge. The writer said, instead of him being like a child in his thinking and reasoning, that when he became a man (maturity through faith in Christ) he put all those childish ways behind him. He now saw himself as God saw him, and by passing from death to life underneath the cross, he now had the life of Jesus Christ (perfection) living and dwelling within him, which was why he was able to stop behaving like a child and he could leave those childish ways behind him.
This passage in I Corinthians speaks of imperfection. As long as live in these fleshly bodies we will be imperfect people. Only when Jesus takes us home to be with him and he gives us glorified bodies will we know perfection in its fullness, for he is perfection. Right now we see but a poor reflection in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Right now we see Jesus - his works, his love, his compassion, and even his justice, yet we are limited in our knowledge and in our understanding by these human bodies, yet one day that will all change when we see Jesus face to face. We only know him in part right now, but when we see him one day face to face, we will know fully, even as we are fully known by Him. Yet, our knowledge must come from the one who created the universe and who made us, for he knows all things and he created each one of us for a purpose. And, we need to submit ourselves to his divine purpose for our lives if we are to truly live.
So, the question remains, “Are you dead or are you alive?” If you are spiritually dead, will you today humble yourself and become obedient to the cross of Christ Jesus by dying to your own self-will, self-gratification, self-importance, and self-pleasure so that you can live? And, will you place your trust and faith in him and in what he did for you in dying on the cross for your sins so that you could go free? Will you allow His Spirit reign, authority and rule over your heart and life so that you no longer are the one calling the shots? I guarantee you that you have never truly known what it means to live life until you have surrendered to the cross of Jesus Christ and have first of all died to yourself so that you can be raised to new life in Jesus Christ and to then walk in the Spirit of God, living to please God and not yourself any longer. This is living!! And, it brings with it the greatest joy and peace you will ever know!
Because of Who You Are - http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=11MCFNNU
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