Love is Expressed in Grace - Prideful Love of Self is Basis of Self Imposed Punishment

Submitted by M Tovey (United States), May 5, 2021 at 13:36

As complimentary as your post was and is appreciated, let us be clear as to what the Hebrew Holy Writ records the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, as declaring: when approached by the religious ruler in the late evening for fear of being discovered in the company of the Nazarene Rabbi, Yeshua made clear that a choice is made to believe beyond what the religious establishment attempts to impose. The True Most High LORD is the God of all grace; all others are religiously imposed humanistic beliefs. Salvation comes when believing in the love of the Father through HaMashiach. It cannot be imposed or it is not love.
At the risk of being dogmatic here, if a choice is not made in the belief of the love of God demonstrated in the sacrifice of the Savior and answering that love in faith, it is that choice of turning that love away that brings consequences; the Most High did not force that choice like so any try to imply and outright accuse the Messiah of not being authentic as does the Adversary. This is where the message of the Quran gets its need to attempt replacing truth with an alternate theosophy. It does not stand the test of love. Instead, it becomes the excuse for the Quran to impose and dominate.
Now, to the more delicate point, there is, in fact, a punishment in Judeo/Christian doctrine; in mankind's natural state in what virtually all humanity finds itself in, not believing in making that choice of love has the default punishment for not believing in the offer of salvation; that in so believing in the love of salvation, punishment is averted. Trying to make that a reason for relationships at the human level is where so many get trapped since one is not dependent on the other.
Getting married is not contingent on salvation; neither is the other way around. But being a believer in the love of God does give example of how love is shared in sacrifice one to another, something lost in humanistic and empty religious terms, especially when considering marriage. Making the choice of love requires that sacrificial mindset; for without it, it's about serving the self like in one-sided relationships; and that never works out. Then the punishment is self-evident; self-imposed for reasons of pride. (Pride of self is every one's own worst enemy.)

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