A Love I Would Die For
By
Robert O. Miller
When last we spoke I told you that our Heavenly Father had a name and His name is Yahweh. Now that we established the first step toward intimacy let’s go further.
Most religious people equate their spirituality by whether they are saved are not. What does that mean? Are you talking about, saved from Hell? Are you using Yahweh as a fire escape? Isn’t that pretty superficial?
I believe that what the Heavenly Father wants from each one of us is intimacy. To do that He has established something called “Covenant.” A covenant is a promise between at least two entities and has to have at least two parties in order to be ratified. If Yahweh gives commands, and no one agrees to keep them, there can be no covenant. A covenant is not a contract for that protects, “what is in it for me.” A covenant, rather, states. “What I can do for you.” A CONTRACT is an agreement made in suspicion. The parties do not trust each other, and they set “limits” to their own responsibility. A COVENANT is an agreement made in trust. The parties love each other and put no limits on their own responsibility.
Yahweh created man with the potential to have a relationship with Him (Genesis 1:26-27). “Covenant” is primarily an act of Yahweh’s grace (Genesis 6:8). Therefore, He has initiated many agreements with man–some conditional, some unconditional; some limited, some eternal. Since Yahweh wants us to obey Him, many of these covenants stress the necessity of obedience as a condition to receiving what He promises, intimacy.
The first covenant was made by Yahweh and it was the heart of the Eternal Plan; “Yahweh’s Own Covenant.” Yahweh’s Own Covenant contained several agreements. One of these agreements was that Messiah YahShua the Son (Remember, the Messiah real name means, “Yahweh is my Salvation) would have the primary role in creating everything.
“All things were made through Him (Torah = YahShua); and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1.3, KJV)
Originally Yahweh created man and woman to be with him in His Garden, Eden. There He could walk with mankind in the cool of the day and share with them His wants, dreams, and desires. Yahweh wanted so much to be close to His creation.
“For through Him (Messiah YahShua) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible…” (Col 1.16a, NKJV)
“What were the Lord’s PURPOSES in creating angels and people?”
The Holy Scripture identifies many (probably not all) of Yahweh’s purposes. Let’s look at just five of the most important of those purposes. Namely, YahShua created angels and humans so that they could…Receive Yahweh’s love; Love Yahweh; Be Yahweh’s children and fellowship with Him; Be Yahweh’s “glory” – – Yahweh’s special *treasure* and Worship Yahweh!
“In this the love of Yahweh was manifested toward us…” (1 John 4.9a, NKJV)
“You shall love Yahweh your Almighty with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deu 6.5, NKJV)
“Yahweh is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Messiah YahShua our King.” (1 Cor 1.9, NKJV)
“…everyone who is called by My (Yahweh’s) name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” (Isa 43.7, NKJV)
(YahShua said:) “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” (John 4.23, NKJV)
Yahweh’s purposes called for making creatures with the ability to love Him, be His friends, and worship Him.
Those purposes mandated that Yahweh endows angels and humans with the innate freedom to make moral, emotional, and rational CHOICES. Without such freedom, angels and humans would be no more than talking computers. Yahweh’s “programming” would determine everything they said and did.
Unless freely given, love is not love; lacking choice, relationship is a sham and without freedom, worship is a mockery!
And who can love – TRULY love (Yahweh said:) “…choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…that you may love Yahweh your Almighty; that you may obey His voice and that you may cling to Him…” (Deu 30.19b, 30.20a; NKJV)
Before time began the Heavenly Father ALWAYS knew that problems would arise from giving free will to angels and humans. Yahweh always knew that there is an unavoidable “dark side” to freedom.
For creatures to be free to love, they must be equally free to dislike or even hate. For creatures to be free to become friends, they must be equally free to become enemies. For creatures to be free to choose good, they must be equally free to choose evil.
There is no such thing as crisis theology. Nothing takes the Father by surprise. Nothing! Even before Yahweh created everything through the Messiah, He knew Satan would rebel. Even before time began, Yahweh knew that the human race would sin. Yes, Yahweh knew there would be sin, but that is not ALL that Yahweh knew.
Yahweh also knew — INTIMATELY! — every angel and every human who would ever be. Throughout all eternity, Yahweh knew and loved them before ever they were created.
Before time began, Yahweh knew YOU…He knew everything about you. Everything you would ever do. Every thought you would ever think. Every word you would ever speak. With sorrow Yahweh foresaw the dreadful sin in you. And yet — and yet — for reasons known ONLY to Yahweh, He loved you. Yahweh hated your sin, but YOU He loved. He always has. He always will.
“…Yahweh is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” (1 John 3.20b, NKJV)
(A prayer unto Yahweh –) “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” (Ps 139.16, NKJV)
“Yahweh has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting (eternal) love…’” (Jer 31.3a, NKJV)
Knowing that the entire human race would be sinners, Yahweh set out to provide a Way for dealing with that sin. In so doing, Yahweh had to satisfy His own law, the absolute truth, that a sinner MUST die the death of separation from Yahweh’s presence. This law is not optional with Yahweh. By His very nature, Yahweh is holy. Yahweh CANNOT change or go against His own nature. Separation from sin is at the very heart of Yahweh’s holiness. How then could Yahweh preserve a sinful human race from the death penalty of sin?
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Yahweh.” (Rom 3.23, NKJV)
“For the wages of sin is death…” (Rom 6.23a, NKJV)
“These (sinners) shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of Yahweh and from the glory of His power” (2 Thes 1.9, NKJV)
Before time began, the Father conceived a Way of JUSTLY saving humans from the law’s death penalty for sin. Yahweh’s Way of salvation was founded on the fact that one man, Adam, had brought sin into the entire human race. Accordingly, one Man could represent the entire human race in paying the death penalty for that sin. One Man could be the Savior for all people. One Man could be The Way!
However, That One Man — that Savior — must Himself be SINLESS, else He would have to die for His own sins and could not die for the sins of others.
“…by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin…” (Rom 5.12a, KJV)
“Therefore, as through one man’s (Adam’s) offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act (dying for the sins of the human race) the free gift (salvation from sin’s death penalty) came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” (Rom 5.18, NKJV)
Yahweh’s Way of salvation…must be a man; must be sinless; must die for all. Yahweh foreknew that all humans would be sinners. Accordingly, the Father agreed…He would provide Himself as the Lamb to be sacrificed for human sins. Yahweh Himself would become a man and die. Yahweh Himself was the only Way to save mankind. And YahShua the Son, knowing full well the agony and humiliation He would endure on the Tree, said, “Here I am. I am the Way.” Why did our beloved Savior so readily agree to suffer and die? YahShua did so for the JOY that was set before Him (Heb 12.2). The joy set before Him was YOU!
“…Yahweh will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering…” (Gen 22.8b, KJV)
(YahShua said:) “Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, O Yahweh.” (Heb 10.7, NIV)
“YahShua said to him, ‘I am the way…’ (John 14.6a, NKJV)
“…for the joy that was set before Him (Messiah YahShua) endured the Tree, despising the shame…” (Heb 12.2b, NKJV)
By the terms of Yahweh’s Own Covenant, made before time began, you who receive Messiah YahShua have eternal life, BY THE GRACE OF Yahweh! By the terms of Yahweh’s own Covenant, conceived
before the world was founded, Messiah YahShua was foreordained to be the Lamb to die for your sins. Yahweh found a Way. Halleluyah!
“…in hope of eternal life which Yahweh, who cannot lie, promised before time began” (Titus 1.2, NKJV)
“(Yahweh…) has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Messiah YahShua before time began” (2 Tim 1.9, NKJV)
“(Believers have been saved by…) the precious blood of Messiah, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world…” (1 Pet 1.19-20a, NKJV)
“(Messiah YahShua is) …the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev 13.8c, NKJV)
By the terms of Yahweh’s Own Covenant, made before time began, the Father gave Messiah YahShua a treasure…a very special treasure; an eternal, everlasting treasure; that treasure was an innumerable group of people. People who were as yet unborn, who would live on a world not yet created. People whom the Father had chosen in Messiah YahShua to be His very own children. People who, by virtue of the Messiah YahShua’s atonement for their sins, would one day stand holy and without blame before Yahweh in love.
But there was a long and agonizing road that SIN had charted – a road that Messiah YahShua had to walk if He wished to obtain His Father’s precious treasure. Along that road, high atop the Mount, at the place of the skull, stood a hangman’s tree and, in the fullness of time, YahShua would set His face like flint, and walk that road of sorrows… For the treasure! For you!
And now your journey to eternity past is over. You have learned that Yahweh foreknew and loved you — even before you existed; even before time began. You have witnessed the Father as He shaped His Eternal Plan — a plan whereby King YahShua would…make a world for you to live on; bring you into existence; save you from your sins; receive you from the Father as His very own treasure; present you holy and without blame before Yahweh in heaven; and on the sixth day of the foundation of the world, King YahShua commanded…Let there be YOU!
“Ultimately, all is understood: fear Yahweh and observe His commandments, for this is the completion of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13
Originally written by Rabbi Robert O. Miller on Nov. 24th, 2006
(Robert Owen Miller 1957-2021)
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