“God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, NKJV).
God had SO much love in His heart that He had to do something with it. God came to us with the greatest love. His compassion gave us the gift of His Son. He didn’t have to do anything for us, but He did. God always moves toward us—never away from us.
God doesn’t stand back with His arms crossed, shaking his head and saying, “Now you do better. I'll love you when you do good enough to please me."
The enemy tells us that the love of God has to be earned and then kept by still earning God's acceptance. Religion says that if we don’t do certain things, we won’t receive God's blessings. But God says that He loved us so much while we were still sinners, He came to save us. He didn't ask us to earn anything. He offered His life for ours. He gave us His righteousness and the gift of everlasting life.
Have you ever looked at everlasting life as being yours now?
You received the promise of eternal life when you were saved. You became joined to God in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), and your soul became one with His. Christ came to live in you, the hope of God’s glory. God has made known the riches of His glory to you through His Son (Colossians 1:27). Jesus gave His life so you could experience the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Your Kingdom come,” Jesus prayed to His Father, “and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Jesus always prayed His Father’s will. He wouldn’t have prayed that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven if it wasn’t God’s will. What is God’s will in heaven?
The peace and joy and healing of heaven are found in God’s gift of abundant life now—that abundant life the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). All the fullness of God lives inside of us (Colossians 2:9-10, and we have the power to rebuke the enemy’s lies that tell us we will never have God’s abundant life now. We have the power to walk by faith in God’s promises.
We walk by faith in Jesus. We can’t prove our righteousness and our love for Him by anything we do. We can’t hold on to His gift of righteousness by our holiness. It is His holiness living in us—not us trying to prove we are holy. When we try to prove the holiness that Christ has given us (2 Corinthians 5:21), it frustrates us. We not only frustrate His grace. We hinder its ability to work in our lives. We make His love for us worth nothing (Galatians 2:21). We remain double-minded and unstable and unable to receive from God (James 1:7-8).
God loves us, and we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). While we were still sinners, He loved us enough to give His life for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus came to reveal the love of God to us. It was His love on the Cross that destroyed sin and death and the separation between God and us. Jesus didn’t save us to have the abundance of His love stolen and destroyed by the lies of the enemy. We have overcoming victory in the love of God in Jesus Christ.
To comprehend the width and length and depth and height of God's love (Ephesians 3:18), we need to know what His love is—what it looks like—how to receive it—and how to walk in it. A revelation of God’s love unlocks the Word of God. The Bible is His love letter filled with His promises.
Do you realize that He loves you so much that the promises in the Word are yours personally?
Perhaps, you are a "someday" person. Someday, I'm going to have that peace the Bible promises. Someday, I'm going to experience healing. Someday, I'll have no more fear and no more pain. And your list of “somedays” goes on. God’s promises are real for you now. The fullness of God’s love breathes within you now. You have a thriving everlasting relationship with Jesus now.
The Bible is not a “someday” Word. If it is, then you have to work for peace and joy and healing. But you can’t manufacture those in your life. They are products of the righteousness that is yours in Christ.
If the Bible is a “someday” book, then “someday” Jesus will save you, and “someday” victory will be yours. But when you have a revelation of God’s love and grace for you, you realize that your someday is now.
When the love of Jesus tells you that you have received abundant life, trying to earn what you already have is torturous. But when you have a spiritual revelation of how much God loves you, you receive understanding of the peace, joy, and healing that are yours in Christ. The truth is there is nothing you can do to earn God's love. That frustrates you, and it frustrates His grace working in you. There is nothing you can do to earn His peace and joy and healing. You can never be good enough to receive. These are produced in your life by His grace at work in you.
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has given us everlasting life now. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). "My love for you is manifested through my Son," He declares (1 John 4:9). When you spiritually understand the love of God that was manifested for you, you live the victory of His abundant life. You live His revealed peace and joy and healing through the finished work of the Cross.
Would God give you all His love on the Cross and then hold back His abundant life from you? That isn’t love. And He doesn’t hold back. He freely gives us all things (Romans 8:32). He paid the price. Not you. He earned it. Not you. That is His love for you now and not just “someday” in the future.
Nothing you do buys you anything from God. When you realize how much God loves you right now—how deep His love for you is—you are free to receive what He died for you to have. You know that He can do exceedingly and abundantly more than you ask or think, through His power working in you (Ephesians 2:20).
© 2023 Lynn Lacher
No comments:
Post a Comment