you are to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22 : 37 , 38 , 39 ;
Deuteronomy 6 : 5 )
We are also capable of doing what God commands, which is the same
as loving God and being loved by God, as the following words show:
Jesus said, “The people who love me are those who have my command-
ments and follow them. Those who love me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love them and manifest myself to them.” (John 14 : 21 )
[ 3 ] In fact, what else is faith but a partnership with God by means of
truths that shape our understanding and thought? What else is love but a
partnership with God through goodness that shapes our intentions and
desires? God’s connection to us is a spiritual connection that comes to an
earthly plane; our connection to God is an earthly connection that comes
from a spiritual plane.
The ultimate purpose in creating us citizens of heaven and also citi-
zens of the world was this partnership. As citizens of heaven we are spiri-
tual and as citizens of the world we are earthly. Therefore if we become
spiritual-and-rational and also spiritual-and-moral, we forge a partnership
with God. Through this partnership we have salvation and eternal life.
On the other hand, if we are only earthly-and-rational and earthly-
and-moral, God is indeed connected to us but we are not connected to
him. The result of this is spiritual death (which by definition is earthly
life without spiritual life), because spirituality, in which the life of God
exists, has been extinguished in us.
(b) It is impossible for us to have a partnership with God the Father. 370
What is possible is a partnership with the Lord, and through the Lord, with
God the Father.Scripture teaches this and reason sees it. Scripture teaches
that God the Father never has been seen or heard, and never could be. As
a result, nothing from him such as he is in his own essential underlying
reality could have an effect on us. The Lord says,
No one has seen God except the One who is with the Father. He has
seen the Father. (John 6 : 46 )
No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son is
willing to reveal him. (Matthew 11 : 27 )
You have never heard the voice of the Father or seen what he looks like.
(John 5 : 37 )
The reason for this is that God the Father is in the first principles
and beginnings of all things. Therefore he transcends the entire reach of
§370 faith 441