What the Bible says about A Pre Passover Look
(From Forerunner Commentary)

2 Corinthians 3:14-16 This passage is very important to us in regard to God's revelation of Himself. The apostle Paul refers to when Moses came down off the mount, and his face was shining, reflecting the glory of God, and he put a veil over his face. Paul is using the veil Moses put over his face as a metaphor. However, the veil represents something different to us spiritually. We are in this condition because we are all spiritual Gentiles when God calls us. He initiates contact with us, beginning a process of revealing Himself, and as we turn to Him, we begin to be able to "see" Him, to understand God. But even after conversion, some of that veil, the lack of understanding, remains. Because of our former blindness, it takes a long time to come to the place where we really "see" God in a great deal more of His glory. Jesus says in John 17:3 that eternal life is to know God. How can we have faith in someone that we do not know? The relationship with God, once He begins the revelation, has to be developed. He does not reveal Himself fully all at once. We could not take it, so He reveals His glory little by little. He takes the veil away from our eyes, and as time passes, we see increasingly more of Him. Do we see God? Do we see Him working in our lives? Do we see Him working in the world? Those who see Him most clearly are those who have the closest, most intimate relationship with Him. Such people will also be the ones who have the highest, greatest degree of faith in Him. Because they know Him, they trust Him because to know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to submit to Him. It is a cycle; we keep coming around to the same spiritual concepts. God has called us. He has opened our minds, and so when we turn to Him, He will remove the veil, taking away the blindness so that the relationship can be more intense, pure, and trusting. That is His promise: He will remove the blindness. Yet, all of us still have blind spots. We do not understand God completely, so we should not feel that we alone in the world really do not see God well. None of us see Him as completely as we will see Him someday, but our understanding of Him should be growing. We should be evaluating how well we respond to God because we will respond to Him to the degree that we "see" Him, know Him, and trust Him. John W. Ritenbaugh A Pre-Passover Look Related Topics: A Pre Passover Look | Disclosure, Revelation as | Drawing Close to God | Eternal Life as Knowing the Father and Christ | God Adds Understanding as We Can Use It | Metaphor of Veil | Moses Seeing God in His Glory | Seeing God | Submission to God | Trusting God | Veil

Galatians 5:5-6 The last phrase, "but faith working through love [is everything]." It is contrasted to circumcision, which avails nothing. Faith works through or by love. This is a two-sided statement. The love of God produces faith in us for Him because, without His revelation of Himself, we would never have faith in Him since, before conversion, we do not know the true God. We do not know what He is like. We do not know where to look for Him, and until He reveals the truth about Himself, we are behind the proverbial eight ball. So, faith works by love in the sense that in God's revelation of Himself, He opens knowledge and understanding to us that was not previously available to us. God's love begins by building faith in us in Him. The other side of the coin is, in return for God's love given to us to produce faith, faith reveals itself to God by returning love to God. We give it back to Him in submission. "If you love Me," Jesus says in John 15:14, "keep My commandments." A living faith will do that. Suppose a husband asks his wife, "Do you believe that I love you?" and the wife answers, "Yes, I know that you exist." Do we get the point? If our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, said to us, "Do you know that I love you?" how does He expect us to reply? Does He want to hear, "Yes, I know that You exist?" This answer is faith at its lowest form, merely a belief. If we really love Christ, our faith in Him, our future Husband, will respond, not by merely acknowledging that He is, but by loving Him back. Faith works by or through love. In this way, God can tell how much faith we have. He learns this not merely by testing us through trials, but by seeing if and how we give the love of God back to Him through submission. We understand by experience that we can return love, an intimate love, only to someone we trust—faith. If one's spouse, the one to whom we should be giving such love, disregards us and commits a horrible sin that destroys our trust, it is quite difficult to return real love or even feign love to him or her. This understanding is a way we can test our faith, and it is probably the one that God will evaluate us on most thoroughly. The first of the great commandments is whether we love God with all our heart, soul, being, might, strength, etc. If we love Him, we will submit to Him and keep His commandments. That is where faith works—in submission and obedience, revealing our love for God. How well have we done in this area? John W. Ritenbaugh A Pre-Passover Look Related Topics: Loving God | Loving God is Keeping Commandments | Loving God with All Our Heart | Loving God with all our strength

 

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