Now These Three Remain (#KnowMore Part 10)
Welcome to the final post of this series! We have had the privilege of looking through Scripture to see what God has declared to be true about Himself, our own wrongdoings that have caused a separation from Him, and what He did through the Person of His Son, Jesus, to reconcile us back to Himself. We glimpsed at the effects of salvation, that is, regeneration, sanctification and justification, and the work of the Holy Spirit as our counsellor and comforter in our new life.
Previously, we saw how God is one, but exists as three distinct, co-equal Persons. Today, we look at three gifts of the Holy Spirit which ‘remain’. This will hopefully be the wrapping on the entire series, as it presents what our future expectations are, while giving reflection to all that we have seen earlier.
When we looked at the role of the Holy Spirit, I might have missed mentioning an important work He does in us. He grants to each believer a gift that enables each of us to be an ambassador to the world, glorifying His name and showing His grace. 1st Corinthians 12 outlines these gifts; prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, mercy, word of wisdom, faith, healing, working of miracles, distinguishing of spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of these tongues, and helps. Some of these gifts were temporary signs to aid in the apostles’ ministry and are no longer dispensed today; many others are still present with us that aid in promoting the teaching and interpretation of the truth.
The Corinthians to whom the letter was addressed were having problems with these gifts they were granted; they categorised some gifts as ‘better’ than others, therefore the church was in great disarray, with speakers of various languages (tongues), prophecy and other attention-getting gifts given the highest esteem and others with seemingly ‘lesser’ gifts like mercy were disregarded. Paul wrote to remind them (and us) that we are all one in Christ, and each one has been granted a different gift that helps build us all up in the preaching of the Gospel. As the eye needs the ear, so does one with the gift of giving need a person with the gift of teaching to build each other up.
Paul then concludes the chapter with these words;
To the Corinthians, this might have seemed like a revelation to some gift greater than those which were seen as great. Higher gifts than prophecy, miracle working and healing? What could they be? What follows in chapter 13 is one of the most beautiful discourses in the Bible, one that leads us back to what we would call foundational. Let’s look at the first, which is
Love
Paul begins the 13th chapter by showing how all the esteemed gifts, if applied without love, become meaningless. He then goes on to say what love is; patient, kind, never arrogant nor rude nor boastful. He then states that love is eternal; all the others such as prophecy, knowledge and tongues will cease and pass away, but love at the end will remain.
Love will last forever, indeed, as it is a part of God’s nature (1 John 4:16). We saw how the Trinity exists in a community of love, making us see even more clearly this God who is love in full. But what exactly is love? Is it just the feeling of a knotted stomach when you see your crush? Or is it the rush of blood to your cheeks when you see an irresistibly cute kitten or puppy?
The word used to speak about love in this passage is the Greek word agape. It is a word that describes an action, not a feeling; going out of one’s way to seek the wellbeing of another without expecting anything in return. The best evidence of this agape love is shown in Romans 5;
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8 ESV
While we were rebellious to God’s plan for us, and defining good and evil for ourselves and causing a great mess of things, God demonstrated His love for us by giving of Himself to die in our place, face the wrath reserved for us and be the ultimate atoning sacrifice. For a good person, one would dare to die, but for the ultimately good, sinless Person to die in the place of the wicked shows just how great this love God has for us is. Therefore, what is our part?
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:11 ESV
If God could show so much care for our own salvation by sending His Son, what more could be expected of us rather than to show the same kind of love to those around us? That is what Paul was encouraging the church at Corinth to do; instead of seeking for a gift that glorifies them, desire to love as God did so that the preaching of the Gospel would be evident.
Thus, love remains, because it is who God is, and because it is through self-sacrificial, others-focused love is God’s nature shown, enabling the Gospel to be greatly effective.
Ok, now two more remain, so let’s first take a look at
Faith
This is a belief in, trust in and devotion to God. Faith is belief in the one true God of the Bible without actually seeing Him. It is important because without faith, we have no place with Him and makes it impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is a gift from God, meaning we can do nothing on our part to earn it or deserve it (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is this faith granted to us that causes our sinful hearts to realize that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, made flesh and dwelt among us in order to die and take our sins upon Himself. It is this faith that, to say the least, saves us. That is why it is so much a precious gift to every believer everywhere.
Faith remains. How so? When we are finally resurrected and given new bodies that are uncorrupted, and finally see Jesus, does our faith in Him then stop? Not at all; in fact, it will be greater than it was while we were on earth. Seeing that all we had fully believed to be true revealed clearly before us will strengthen our trust in Him.
Our trust in Him will remain, even when the other gifts of splendour will be in distant memory. The apostle Peter beautifully says;
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV
Hope
Hope can be defined as the assurance that something good that will happen, as well as the state of anticipation in the outcome of this assurance. Biblical hope isn’t shaky, like I hope so, but rather has a sure foundation. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, meaning that both are closely knit together. Before we look at the tie between them, let’s look closely at what hope is.
When we say have hope, it means there is something we confidently expect and wait for, even though we cannot yet see it. Just like faith, hope is a great gift that is essential to our walk as Christians. We have our hope placed in God’s promises and Jesus’ words. We place our trust in Jesus’ promise of return (John 14:3), and we then hope to be reunited with Him (John 14:19); this is therefore our ‘blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13).
Hope is built upon faith. We trust in Jesus’ promises (faith) and are confident that they will come to pass, even though we can’t see them just yet (hope). To illustrate this further, I can give an example. Growing up, our parents would often promise to take us out for lunch the following day, or to a place where we could have the time of our lives. We then naturally trusted their words and believed that we would be taken out (faith) while at the same time filled with expectation of the promise being delivered (hope).
Hope is then a wonderful gift, but how does it remain? When our blessed hope, Jesus, appears, does it mean that our expectations, now come into fruition, will no longer exist? In the eternal state, our expectation of even greater things will continue. We will be drawn into the glories of God deeper and further, and as He is infinite, there is so much more to expect from Him that our hope cannot die. Hope remains grounded in the eternity of God, and the greater adventure that awaits us when we finally meet Him.
Faith, hope and love remain, both here on earth and when we are reunited with Christ. But, Paul says, the greatest of these is love. And rightly so.
Faith is wonderful, but how can we place our trust and belief in God if we do not love Him? Hope is glorious, but how can we expect His future return if we have not placed it in our trust in Him? Love is what crowns our hope and faith in God.
As we conclude this series, seeing as how much God loved us, and has thus granted us these gifts to show His goodness and grace, my prayer for all you who have followed till the end is this;
That’s it! The core of Christianity, by the help of the Holy Spirit, laid out in ten parts. This far we have come, much further still we have to go. If by any means this series has impacted you, big or small, we thank God for giving you the insight needed.
I’ll make a postscript in my next post, mainly because I’ve run out of white page. So, until then, may God keep you and sustain you. Peace.