What is dear to God? What does he admire? He can be judged on the answers, but not by you.
How can we know what is dear to God? How can we know what he admires? He can be judged by the fruit he bears.
Jesus is the Word of God. What did he live for? What did he die for? To know the answers is to know what is dear to God and what he admires.
Did Jesus ask to be baptized to be filled with knowledge and power? Did he do it to be wise or righteous? He was filled with the Spirit and the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Jesus resisted temptation. He then began his ministry. He was sinless, yet he washed the feet of sinners. He was blameless yet he was tried, convicted and executed. His last words were, “It is finished.”
Jesus was quickened by the Spirit. Take heed: It was not the Father who brought the Son back to life. It was the Spirit… that led him into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.
Why? Why did the Spirit lead Jesus into temptation?
Jesus asked to be baptized to be filled with the Spirit, to give the Spirit life that it would live among men as a man. Alas, the life would not be accepted lest it proved itself. The blood is the life of the body. The life of the Spirit was that of Jesus himself. How Jesus lived would decide everything. He lived to the satisfaction of the Spirit. He then laid down his life, for the sake of those whom the Spirit had condemned. The sincerity of Jesus to do such a thing, to forsake himself for those who needed him, moved the Spirit to save him.
It was not the death of Jesus that saved you. It was his resurrection. His death paid for your sins but death is doom, not salvation. Jesus did not merely come back to life. He conquered death! You cannot be doomed lest he say so.
The spirit of God is the spirit of Jesus, the Holy
Spirit. It is what the Word of God lived for to his very last breath. It became
the first breath of Man. Your soul was born of it. To know what is dear to God
and what he admires is to understand your own humanity.
