John 3:16-17 (NIV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
In this verse, John explains in the Greek language that God loved the world with “agape” love. Agape is the Greek word used for unconditional love. God’s love is unconditional, as a matter of fact God is love, and His love is very different from human love. God's unconditional love is not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son (who also willingly died for us) to restore that relationship. Additionally, God’s love was not just for a select few, or for the saved. God’s unconditional love is for the “world” and all of us who have ever lived in it. Again in 2 Cor 5:19, the Bible tells us that “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” He reconciled everyone to God by his death. Not just the elect, nobody was to be left out, the entire world is included. But not everyone in the world understands they are included or chooses to receive the reconciliation with God that belongs to them if they choose to embrace it.
Can anyone really comprehend "unconditional" love? It seems that the love parents have for their children is a close comparison to God’s unconditional love, or as close as we can get to it without the help of God's love in our lives. Parents continue to love our children through good times and bad times, and we don't stop loving them if they don't meet our expectations that we put on them. We choose to love our children even when they are pretty much unlovable. Our love doesn't stop when we don't "feel" love for them. In this way a parent’s love is similar to God's love for us, but actually God's love transcends our human definition of love to a point that is nearly impossible for us to comprehend. In Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In this verse and in John 3:16, we find no conditions placed on God's love for us. God doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you" nor does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." In fact, in Romans 5:8, we find just the opposite. God wants us to know that His love is unconditional, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us while we were still unlovable sinners.
Give some examples of God's unconditional love that you have experienced in your own life? Compare your examples of God's love and the differences between them and human love?
Showing posts with label Reconcilation to the World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reconcilation to the World. Show all posts
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Romans 8:30-34
Rom 8:30-34 (NLT) "And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. Nothing Can Separate Us from God's Love. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us?"
I believe that from the moment Christ died for us, God's predestination came running to each of us. In the story of the prodigal son, in Luke 15:11-32, the Father of the prodigal son waited for his son to come home, not to use the situation as an opportunity to scold his son but the Father waited in anticipation so that he could run with forgiveness in his heart out to his son. In Romans 8, first God calls us home to his kingdom. Some translations say in this verse that we were predestined rather than called. I say yes, the cross did predestine all the world back into the family of God so that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We walk home expecting to ask the Father to take us back and become a hired worker. But no, God predestined us to be His sons and daughters and not a hired worker, he runs to us, takes us in his arms and holds us close to his chest then before we can even make our plea that we are unworthy to be his son. The Father tells us we are already in right standing with him, because of the cross, nothing can separate us from his love.
Then even beyond that God gives us his Glory! We are Glorified? Yes, we are even glorified. By faith the glorification we are to receive in the next life is ours now to claim as if we were already there because the promise that he will receive it is as good as literally having it. Likewise, in a sense, at the beginning of our quest back home we are already at the destination and the destination is at every step of our journey. Because the promise that we will arrive is as good as literally being there, because God ran and gave it to us while we were yet still a far way off.
I heard Max Lucado say not long ago, that in the Hebrew culture there is one thing that an elderly Jewish man will never do. He will never run. It has been recorded that even in situations where a building was collapsing the elderly Jewish men would rather die in the rubble than run out of the building to save their own lives. The act of running is humiliating for them. In the same way as Christ’s death, hanging naked on a cross, tortured and beaten, laughed at, ridiculed and spit upon was a humiliation for God. At the cross is when God ran.
"And the only time, the only time I ever saw Him run
Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
It caught me by surprise
When God ran
The day I left home, I knew I'd broken His heart
I wondered if things could ever be the same,
Then one night, I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road, ahead I could see
It's the only time, the only time I ever saw Him run
Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
It caught me by surprise, He brought me to my knees
When God ran
I saw Him run to me
And then I ran to Him"
Share your own personal "prodigal son" story? What does it feel like to be like the Father, waiting for your prodigal to return home? Share an experience in your life when you know that God was running to you?
*lyrics taken from the song "When God Ran" by Benny Hester
**Originally posted as a comment by Dan and Karl on Kingdom Quest Blog on July 9, 2009 3:45 PM
I believe that from the moment Christ died for us, God's predestination came running to each of us. In the story of the prodigal son, in Luke 15:11-32, the Father of the prodigal son waited for his son to come home, not to use the situation as an opportunity to scold his son but the Father waited in anticipation so that he could run with forgiveness in his heart out to his son. In Romans 8, first God calls us home to his kingdom. Some translations say in this verse that we were predestined rather than called. I say yes, the cross did predestine all the world back into the family of God so that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We walk home expecting to ask the Father to take us back and become a hired worker. But no, God predestined us to be His sons and daughters and not a hired worker, he runs to us, takes us in his arms and holds us close to his chest then before we can even make our plea that we are unworthy to be his son. The Father tells us we are already in right standing with him, because of the cross, nothing can separate us from his love.
Then even beyond that God gives us his Glory! We are Glorified? Yes, we are even glorified. By faith the glorification we are to receive in the next life is ours now to claim as if we were already there because the promise that he will receive it is as good as literally having it. Likewise, in a sense, at the beginning of our quest back home we are already at the destination and the destination is at every step of our journey. Because the promise that we will arrive is as good as literally being there, because God ran and gave it to us while we were yet still a far way off.
I heard Max Lucado say not long ago, that in the Hebrew culture there is one thing that an elderly Jewish man will never do. He will never run. It has been recorded that even in situations where a building was collapsing the elderly Jewish men would rather die in the rubble than run out of the building to save their own lives. The act of running is humiliating for them. In the same way as Christ’s death, hanging naked on a cross, tortured and beaten, laughed at, ridiculed and spit upon was a humiliation for God. At the cross is when God ran.
"And the only time, the only time I ever saw Him run
Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
It caught me by surprise
When God ran
The day I left home, I knew I'd broken His heart
I wondered if things could ever be the same,
Then one night, I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road, ahead I could see
It's the only time, the only time I ever saw Him run
Was when He ran to me,
Took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
And said "My son's come home again".
Looked in my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said "Son, do you know I still love you?"
It caught me by surprise, He brought me to my knees
When God ran
I saw Him run to me
And then I ran to Him"
Share your own personal "prodigal son" story? What does it feel like to be like the Father, waiting for your prodigal to return home? Share an experience in your life when you know that God was running to you?
*lyrics taken from the song "When God Ran" by Benny Hester
**Originally posted as a comment by Dan and Karl on Kingdom Quest Blog on July 9, 2009 3:45 PM
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