Virtue Gone from Jesus: What and Where?

We don't fully understand the nature of God whether it be the Father, Jesus or the Holy Ghost. God is a mystery and he wants to keep it that way! However, we do know that only God is "good"; all others have sinned. Jesus, being God, is good! The Holy Ghost, being the spirit of God, is good. "Goodness" has about as many definitions as any word! Good is highly subjective and different for each person. Therefore, we must stay away from secular definitions of good and use the theological definition.

"Good" is completely meeting the standards set by God. Since only God is good, then whatever standards set by God are what's good. God has Ten Standards written on stone, which to me, makes them very important, but Jesus summarized the ten by The Greatest Commandment: Love God. Loving God implies that if one does, in order to love Him one must love others. (That's the going out of virtue from Jesus as shall be seen).The two loves don't stand alone. Loving others is dependent on loving God because without the love of God we have no love within us! The emotion of "love" is also an essence. Let's look into that!

Luke 8:45 "And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me."

When the woman with the blood disorder touched Jesus virtue went out of him. Virtue "flowed forth", having some type of essence. That virtue can be thought of as living water:

 John 4:10 "Jesus answered and said unto her (the woman at the well), If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is (Jesus) that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."

"Living water" flows from Jesus. That too has essence! Is the flow of "living water" the same as "virtue flowing"?

 John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

It would appear that the living water flowing from Jesus is love! His mercy is demonstrated by his love. That's grace, and by grace, Jesus, tells us, we are saved; saved from eternal death. That's everlasting life of which Jesus tells us that living water provides.

Being touched is not the only way to tap into the virtue of Jesus. Here we see that some only "sought" to touch him. That's hope which is an emotion of faith. It doesn't require that a seeker actually touch Jesus, but that their own heart will provide the touch:

Luke 6:18  "And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all." 

From this we see that's how we touch Jesus today. We seek him! That's just as those who "sought to touch him". By seeking they found and when they found "virtue went out of him". Jesus tells us straightforwardly about the "power of sought":

 Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

Therefore to receive the flow of virtue from Jesus, we don't have to touch him, but seek to find him! That's how we're saved; by seeking him out, his virtue flows from him to us, and then we're saved! How can virtue flow? We must understand what virtue really is.

Virtue is excellence in righteousness. Scripture speaks of three virtues and philosophy has added four more "cardinal virtues". These virtues are called The Seven Virtues". The philosophical virtues are prudence, justice, restraint, and courage.  However, I believe these are encompassed in the three from the Bible.
 Let's look at the three of which Paul speaks:

1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Faith is trust in Christ and reliance upon him; that he is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do. That is Jesus saves... and only Jesus! Hope is that we shall be rewarded for our faith. That hope we have is eternal life. From hope springs joy and peace!  Charity is "love" and is from the Greek word agape.  It's not just caring for, but an entire devotion to God. It's a response we have for him creating us, sacrificing himself for us and making great promises for our eternal well-being. That is our weak attempt at agape, but God's is the optimal. He puts up with our rebellion, he enjoys communing with us and he even died for us. You see, we have agape love because of what HE DID for us, but his love was more profound because he did those things for us that we don't have to suffer.

Scripture says this of charity (or love):

1 Corinthians 13:4  "Charity suffereth long (dedicated), and is kind; charity envieth not (genuine); charity vaunteth not itself (sincere), is not puffed up (humble), 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly (obedient), seeketh not her own (unselfish), is not easily provoked (patience), thinketh no evil (righteous);"

In my words "love" is dedication, kindness, genuineness, sincerity, humbleness, obedience, unselfishness,  patience, and righteousness. This love is what flows from God into us! We can't be these things without faith, hope and love flowing from God. Scripture tells us that the faith we have which we think is from us; it's a gift of God. The hope we have in our own eternal life too is a gift of God. It's his grace imparted to us. Lastly, love is the living water (grace) that leads to salvation exemplified by God's dedication, kindness, sincerity, etc. (We're saved by grace through faith).

When Jesus felt virtue going from him he was providing living water. That water flowing is virtue being faith, hope and love. Love is the greatest, we're told and truly the faith and hope is also love. Love left Christ and entered the woman who touched him and the others who sought him.That flow of love didn't  diminish the love Jesus has, but did increase the love the recipient gets. God's love is bountiful and without end. His love is not obedient to the laws of conservation. He can distribute love yet not lose any of his own!

When we seek Jesus truly we shall truly find him. He tells us that! Once the sinner seeks, Jesus will provide a flow of living water (virtue) of which we partake. That virtue changes us!  It has essence. It washes our heart from sin and our own hearts are changed because virtue goes out from Christ and lands squarely on our own heart. We love because we have the love of God in us. It's transferred from Jesus to us!

That virtue going out from Jesus is living water which changes us and saves us. It's stored in our hearts and is used toward God and others. We can think of our hearts as a storage reservoir for virtue so that we always have what it takes to love God and others. (We misuse that reservoir sometimes, but that's Satan's attempting to stop the flow!)  It's not truly our love which is stored there, but agape love... God's love!