Love That's Better Than Life
by Sarah-Beth Löewen
Song of Solomon 8:6&7
“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is as
strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of
fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the
floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house,
it would be utterly despised.”
Being a “Christian” is in its essence an invitation to death. Galatians
2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” To know
death in this age, so as to know it not in the age to come! To be rejected
and hated and persecuted, completely cast out and exiled from the spirit of
this age, for the promise of a better and eternal inheritance that will not
corrupt or fade away. His love is so much better than life! This is our
high, high calling, to die that we may truly live! For so before us the
prophets, the apostles, and saints of old and all ages, and Jesus Himself
were treated. These of whom the world was not worthy, they were rejected
and hated by all men. John 15:18-21 “If the world hates you, you know that
it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would
love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of
the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to
you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me,
they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours
also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because
they do not know Him who sent Me…”
I Thessalonians 3:3 “that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for
you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.” This is so NOT
American! So not the wisdom of this world! Truly, truly as Jesus said, “He
who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:25 Suffering, testing, and fiery
trial come to all…for some it is the fire of love, being refined, tested and
proven true as gold in a furnace, while for the rest it is the very fiery
torment of judgment and death, preceding the eternal death to come. This
life will always be a valley of shadow. For some the shadow of life, for
some the shadow of death. God has in His great mercy and love chosen us and
appointed us to fill up in our flesh the sufferings of Jesus!… What could
ever be lacking in the sufferings of Jesus? He, who knew no sin, became sin
for the sake of love. The Romans didn’t kill Jesus, Pilate didn’t kill
Jesus, Herod didn’t kill Jesus, the Jews didn’t kill Jesus, only the
relentless, jealous love of the God held Jesus up on that cross. His zeal
for a bride required Him to pay the highest cost. Love costs everything…
“If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be
utterly despised.” John 10:17&18 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I
lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I
lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” So what can
ever be lacking in the perfect sacrifice of love poured out to the depths?
Only this…
Day after day in His earthly life Jesus lived totally surrendered to the
will of His Father, speaking only what He heard, doing only what the Father
willed. John 5 “Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I
say to you, the Son can do NOTHING of Himself, but what He sees the Father
do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. I can of Myself
do NOTHING. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do
not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. If I bear
witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears
witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is
true…” Oh my goodness! This is Jesus, THE fullness of God in bodily form!
The exact representation of the Father, the image of the invisible God, the
Word of God became flesh, the entirety of the power and beauty of God hidden
in an earthen vessel! The man Jesus from Nazareth, God wrapped in garments
of skin! He can no NOTHING without the Father! What?!!! This is
ridiculous!… And can only be explained by this: God IS Love (I John 4:16)
The nature of love is that it must pour itself out. The greater the love,
the greater pouring out. The greatest had to become the least, for His love
is of that magnitude! Jesus’ life is the epitome of love; sacrificial love
poured out. The end, on that cross was the climax! By this we know love…
His love required for Him to pay the highest price. Death. His love is so
great that it wasn’t enough to live totally surrendered to His Father every
moment of His earthly life, dying daily for the sake of a love better than
life. Jesus, Himself, desires to choose the way of death, actually INSIDE of
us, for the reward of inheriting a love better than life! Jesus IN us, day
by day again is embracing the cross as the fragrance of sacrificial love
rises to the throne. We are filling up in our flesh what is lacking in His
sufferings… He wants to love His Father through His saints, as only a woman
can love, as only a very old man can love. He wants to choose the love that
is better than life, as only an American executive can and as only a widow
in Saudi Arabia can, as only a person on their death bed in old age can. It
wasn’t enough to choose to love and trust His Father in the shadow of His
sufferings…He desires to lay down His life once again and again, over and
over through us. Our voluntary choice to love in the face of suffering in a
thousand different circumstances and in a million different faces, is the
same fragrance of love that arose to the Father’s throne that day two
thousand years ago. “We are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who
are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one we are the aroma
of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to
life.” Truly, truly His Love suffers long. There is a sweet, sweet
fragrance of suffering love. At the end of all things He is going to
receive the greatest reward of His sufferings, the travail of His soul, His
great harvest, the greatest amount of voluntary sacrificial love in the face
of the greatest darkness. For what is love that doesn’t cost? His great
reward is a generation looking just like Him, loving just like Him, in the
face of the greatest darkness and doubt. “Where is the promise of His
coming?” In the hearing of the greatest accusation. “He is slack
concerning His promises!” Love is measured by this…Trust…
A great, great invitation to trust has already come to us and will come in
the days to come. When we are tested in the heat of the fire and the cold
dark of night, who do we say He is? He is raising up a generation who will
LOVE WHOLEHEARTIDLY and TRUST UNRESERVIDLY! In the middle of the night,
just before dawn, He is birthing faith. We will love Him and He will come!
He cannot deny Himself and it is His very own spirit within us crying out!
Christ dwelling within, through faith…He will return only to the lovesick
cry from deep within His beloved. We will overcome because he has overcome!
“They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death!!!!!!”
Revelation 12:11
This is our great testimony! “Love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel
as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many
waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give
for love ALL the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised!” His
love is better than this life! I am determined not to know ANYTHING among
you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified! We will know Him in His death
and His resurrection, being conformed into His image. As we have borne the
image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man!
Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
ourselves but in God who raises the dead…
“Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are
Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the
rivers, they shall not overflow you, when you walk through the fire, you
shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your
God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
Set this love as a seal upon my heart, even unto death…for Your love is
better than life!…