Excerpt from Sustainable Love® by Joseph M Cross

The New Testament contains a daring and dramatic rescue of God’s people. Via the supreme act of divine love, the covenant’s mediator, the Son of God, obediently and sacrificially offers himself as human-divine payment for the forgiveness of every human being on the planet’s sins for all-time.  And at the same time, as God’s Son is offering his life as an atonement for sin, the Greatest Change Agent in history, the third person of the triune Godhead, God the Spirit, is also breathing upon the sons of man the truth and self-realization of their own sinful disobedience before a holy and perfect God, as well as, a desperate need for His divine help in obtaining sustainable relief and forgiveness from their sins, so that when they do hear the truth about the God the Son’s atonement for their sins, they now Spiritually trust his offer of forgiveness, become God’s eternal children and receive His Spirit.

Now, because these Spiritually-reborn children of God are forever safe within their Father’s love and mercy, they begin–along with many other Spiritual siblings, as well as, with the dynamic help and love of their Holy Tutor, the Spirit himself—to Spiritually grow up. And as they begin to Spiritually grow up, gradually, over time and via lots of sin-atoned-for trial and error mistakes, they also begin to take upon themselves their adoptive Father’s divine values, truths, thoughts, motivations and approach to loving or attracting others (John 13-17; 1 John; Romans 8; Col. 3; Eph. 5).

Thus, having the Spirit of God involved, intertwined and inspiring their new approach to living and decision-making, the newly-reborn child of God begins a renewed effort at learning how to loyally, insightfully and accountably love or be attracted to another human being. Because without the Spirit, man’s attempt at loving is nothing more than a cheap, fake, easily exposed and fragile imitation of heaven’s love. It’s NOT real love, not God’s love, not true love, not redeeming love and certainly NOT divine love. But with the Spirit of God, human love, over time, and via thousands upon thousands of daily interactions, can be, is and will be eventually transformed into something much more resembling the Godhead’s divine love, not only for each other, i.e. the Father and Son for one another, but their love for man himself.

And, in the end, this is mankind’s only hope against evil’s deadly and destructive terrors. In fact, I would make the case that the opposite of evil is not just good, but love—divine love, a love of the Spirit, a love or attracting that the Spirit of God births, teaches and inspires, a love like no other–Spiritual love. Thus Good or God’s greatest weapon against evil is in fact, in the end, divine love itself—the love the divine seeks to equip every child of God with in order that they might successful  wage Spiritual warfare against evil, just as their Savior and God’s Son waged for our redemption from sin.

Joe Cross