The Super-Naturalness of Union With Christ: Love

 J. Rufus Moseley was a scholar and university professor who left the accolades of academia and ministered to the down-and-outs of society while living a life in the Holy Spirit which he described as "Life as Love," a simple life of joy that one rarely encounters.  His life consisted of gratitude, of "littleness," and above all, love.

The following is from his analysis of the apostle Paul as recorded in the book Ineffable Union With Christ:  Living in the Kingdom (Selected Writings of J. Rufus Moseley, 1927-1937) compiled and edited by Gregory S. Camp:

"By not being under the law, St. Paul evidently meant that through union with Christ and through living in the Spirit one is lifted into a new world and given a new nature so that all of the virtues flow out from the union with the same kind of naturalness that flowers bloom.  

"In his own experience, what he struggled after and could not attain to under legalism was given to him through union with Christ and a life lived in the Spirit.  By making the tree good, the fruit became good.  By the creation of a new heart, a heart that is tender and compassionate, pure and loving, one finds it easy and spiritually natural to fulfill all the righteousness of the law.

"Those who are in union with Christ and led by the Spirit are not under the law.   Of course, the abuse of this great truth is to claim to be free and at the same time be living in the desires of the flesh.  St. Paul gives much attention to seeking to guard against this abuse.

"By election, as Professor Wernle [Paul Wernle, a Swiss theologian] observes, St. Paul, out of experience, came to the consciousness that he had been called of God from the beginning of his mission to the world, and that all things worked together to this end.

"The consiousness of election, that one is predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus and that all things are working together to this end [Romans 8:28-29], is one of the happiest attainments of Christian experience.  Of course, its abuse is the feeling that one has to do nothing and can do nothing to aid in his own salvation and in the salvation of others.

"While, as St. Paul said, the Cross was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews, it was to him and to believers the power of God [1 Corinthians 1:23-24].  It was a revelation not only of the unspeakable love of Jesus, but also a revelation that God is just as loving as Jesus, that He not only gave His Son, but gives Himself to the utmost limits of love.

"The revelation given in and through St. Paul in common with the revelation given to and through St.  Peter and St. John, and all the others who have really known God as love, is that higher than all other gifts and the condition of knowing God and abiding in God, is the gift of love.  To use the Apostle Paul's own words, 'Now the aim of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, with a good conscience and with faith unfeigned.' (1 Timothy 1:5)

"Perfect love is the greatest and best of the gifts of God, because it works no ill to any and all possible good to all and fulfills both Law and Gospel."