Tag: Hope

The love beyond all loves

Isaiah Chapter 43

(God is talking to Israel here, but Gentiles are grafted into Israel through Jesus Christ)

I really needed encouragement today, and God provided as I was reading his word. I hope this will give someone else encouragement as well.

FEAR NOT, FOR I HAVE REDEEMED YOU (verse 1)
Who redeems us? Do we redeem ourselves through our own works? NOPE. “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)
Can other people save us? NOPE. “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him–the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough, that he should live on forever and not see decay.” (Psalm 49:7-9)
Sounds like we’re up the creek, unless God himself is willing to do the deed. “But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.” (Psalm 49:15)

That is the best possible news! But I know what a horrible, wicked, ugly person I really am. Why would God be willing to redeem ME?

I HAVE SUMMONED YOU BY NAME, YOU ARE MINE (verse 1)
What is this telling me? Only that God knows me and you each personally, to him we are not just a blur in an ocean full of faces. He knows us each by name and says we belong to him. God in his omniscience knows every last detail about me — the good (not much) and the bad (tons). Yet he says I belong to him. I am his possession and he owns me spirit, soul, and body. People generally love the things that belong to them, so wouldn’t God love them even moreso?

YOU ARE PRECIOUS AND HONORED IN MY SIGHT (verse 4)
God is with us through all the hard trials of our lives, through flood and through fire (verse 2). Although in punishment God’s people were sent into exile, he never forsook them, never forgot them. It was all part of his long plan of redemption. He reminds Israel (and us) again in verse 3, “For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy one of Israel, your savior.” He’s trying to get it through our skulls that he alone is our savior, he wants to do it and he will do it. Ultimately in Jesus Christ he HAS done it. But why???

BECAUSE I LOVE YOU (verse 4)
Well, I know I am not lovable by nature, so God must have made a conscious choice to give me his love, anyway. That means his love is unconditional. We don’t earn the love he gives us, it is not dependent upon our performance or our natural charms. God won’t love you any better if you were a more holy person, or if you were prettier or smarter or stronger. He loves you completely, with everything he has to give, because it is his will to do so and he’s never going to take it away even if you screw up 100 times a day like I do. I don’t know about you, but that is a huge burden off my shoulders.

GOD IS MAKING A POINT AND WANTS US TO PAY ATTENTION
“I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.” (verse 11) Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” We don’t save ourselves, God alone saves us, and he does that through Jesus (for details read the Gospels).

GOD NOT ONLY FORGIVES OUR SINS, HE FORGETS THEM
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (verse 25)
We don’t deserve anything from God except his wrath and an eternity separated from him and everything good. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way,” (Isaiah 53:6), but God himself takes care of our sin problem. He paid a debt he did not owe in order to save us from a debt we could never repay. “The Lord has laid on him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6).

Why on earth would God save us? Because he loves us. Why does he love us? Because he made the choice to do so. Not only that, but God loves us with all of Himself, he holds nothing back. He gave us everything that he had to give. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son [Jesus], that whosoever 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.” (John 3:16-17). Jesus gave us everything he had to give us when he laid down his life to save us from the eternal death we bought for ourselves.

God doesn’t just love you, he loves you with all of himself. A love so big, so wide, so deep, so high, that our little human selves can’t even begin to comprehend it. But it is amazing! If you are a Christian, be encouraged and uplifted by remembering what God has done for you. If you do not yet belong to Christ, all you have to do is ask him in and all this forgiveness, new life, love, and joy can be yours right now.

“…if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for ‘Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’. ” (Romans 10:9-13)

Thank you, Jesus! Please come for us soon.

free thinking just like everyone else

What is one of the main differences between all of us and Jesus of Nazareth? He sought to do the will of God the Father while we by nature want to do whatever we want, however we want, whenever we want. That includes not just the seven deadlies like greed, gluttony, sloth, etc., but the little choices we make every day that affect others. Not tipping the waitress who just brought us lunch. Going to the boss behind a coworker’s back, making an accusation against them to make us look better. A husband telling his wife how he wishes he had married his high-school girlfriend instead. A wife telling everyone what an idiot her husband is. A parent telling a child they will never amount to anything. Yammering at our friends for an hour about our day and never once asking them about theirs.

I’ve written before that there are only two wills in the universe, “my will be done,” or “thy will be done.” The first one is what every religion there has ever been — save one — boils down to. Your reward, whether you believe in Heaven/Jannah/Nirvana/reincarnation/becoming the god of your own planet/enlightenment/eat drink and be merry for tomorrow ye die, whatever it is, you gain it through your own efforts. Each belief system has its own rules, but it all boils down to yourself, your choices, and how well you play the game.

The other will is God himself. Christ Jesus,

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and become obedient to death–even death on a cross! – Philippians 2:6-8

This wasn’t a cakewalk for Jesus. It really hit home for me reading through Matthew chapter 26 again. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples, after the Last Supper, and shortly before he is betrayed. It says,

He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Then, going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” – Matthew 26:38-39

I’ve always thought that Jesus said this because he knew what was coming and dreaded it. The trial, the mocking and beating, the dreadful scourging, and then being strung up naked on the cross to die in agonizing pain, slowly drowning in his own bodily fluids. That in itself is more than enough reason to plead the cup be taken away. But, reading what came just before it, I think what was even harder for him than that was feeling the weight of the sin of everyone in the world, from Adam to the last baby ever conceived, being placed upon him.

I know what the weight of my own sin feels like. If not for the blood of Christ cleansing me it would be unbearable. I also know that the sins of others close to me weigh heavy on my heart as well. Just seeing broken marriages and families, addictions, etc., and the pain they inflict, is also a heavy weight to carry. They cause me great sorrow. Don’t the destructive choices made by the people YOU love also cause you intense pain? Multiply that by however many billions of people have ever existed, and that was the sorrow that Jesus was feeling that night, the unimaginable heavy weight he was carrying.

He didn’t have to do it. He could have walked away at any moment and left us to rot in hell. None of us can honestly say we don’t deserve it. He had the freedom to just walk out of that garden and disappear, but he didn’t. Just a few verses later, when the soldiers come to arrest him and Peter makes a feeble attempt to protect him, it says:

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” – Matthew 26:52-53

A Roman legion at that time was about 6,000 men, so 12 legions = 72,000 fighting men. Jesus is saying he has endless resources at his disposal. But we see in these verses that he doesn’t just walk away, or destroy the people who want to destroy him, although he could easily do both. What he does do, is ask God the Father if there is another way. He’s suffering and not enjoying it one bit. “My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” …Don’t ever say that God has no idea what you’ve endured in your life. He knows better than anybody. He’s felt it, he’s LIVED IT. Literally he’s felt both your sins and the sins of the people who have hurt you.

Jesus next prays the same thing again, but with a slightly different tone, this time resigning himself to his task:

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” – Matthew 26:42

We see in these passages a glimpse of the pain Jesus was feeling, the overwhelming sorrow, and his desire for it all to be taken away. And he could have walked away. But he did not hold his own wishes as being of upmost importance. He knew what God the Father wanted him to do, and he knew that we are all doomed to an eternity of bearing the punishment for our own sins unless He paid the price that none of us can pay. It was him or no one. Only a firstborn male lamb, perfect in all its ways, without spot or blemish, could be sacrificed to cover sin (Read Exodus Chapter 12). None of us are perfect, we are all stained with sin. Jesus alone was perfect in all his ways, without spot or blemish. He alone could pay what we never can.

And it was possible because Jesus did not live to please himself and exert his own will. He loves us with all his heart, he lived to submit his will to God, and by his obedience all the world can be saved. We are saved not by our own actions or will, but by His.

The best we can do in our lives is to accept what Jesus did for us on the cross, and let him be the Lord of our lives. That means beating our own will down with a stick, and saying to our Lord Jesus what he said to God the Father: “Not my will be done, Lord, but yours.”

That is the difference between Christianity and every other religious or philosophical system that has ever been or ever will be. It wasn’t easy for Jesus, and it isn’t easy for us. But it is so worth it. Our will always leads to misery and destruction. His will leads to eternal life, freedom, and joy.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved…for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:9-13

Starting off 2021 with the best news in the whole world!

John 3:3. Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

While I was reading John Chapter 3 this fall, I kept going back to the verse where Jesus tells Nicodemus the Pharisee, “you must be born again.” Nicodemus was perplexed by these words. Even as a believer I had to ask myself what exactly was Jesus saying here? I’ve been exploring that for awhile now. So, finally, here is a brief recap and summary.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the ground.” – Genesis 1:26

God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. – Genesis 2:7

God said to the first man and woman, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17

About 5 minutes later, Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command and ate the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6). In that instant they became separated from God (spiritual death). They hid from God when he called them (Genesis 3:8). They tried to cover their sin by their own works, by the flimsy fig leaf coverings (Genesis 3:7). They tried to cast blame away from themselves. Eve accused the snake, and Adam had the audacity to accuse not only Eve but God himself for making her! (Genesis 3:12-13).

It did not take long for the first man and woman to make a royal mess out of everything. But right there, in the very beginning, God had already laid out the plan for redemption. He said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Notice God left Adam out of this scenario. He mentions Eve’s seed, not Adam’s. So the one who will crush the serpent will not follow the human line of being sired by a human father. Eve’s seed that crushes the serpent will have a different father.

We inherit our sin nature from Adam. We are born spiritually separated from God (spiritually dead) just as Adam and Eve were after the fall. We are born with a sin nature because of that separation from God. We can’t stop sinning, we do it every day of our lives in thought, word, or deed, and we can’t possibly atone for it by our own power because we keep digging our own grave a little deeper every day.

However — before God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, he made clothes for them out of animal skins (Genesis 3:21). What does this mean? It means that God took innocent animal life, shed its blood and its life, to cover the sin and shame of man. God is showing us in the very beginning his plan for salvation through sacrifice. He is pointing us toward the cross of Calvary. All the laws for sacrifice in the Books of Moses are pointing toward the cross.

Christ is the only way to get out of the prison of sin, death, and hell. There’s no point even trying to discuss any other religions or philosophies because they all, in some way or another, are about achieving salvation, nirvana, enlightenment, whatever, through our own works, by our own power. But that’s not possible. Just look where trying to fix things on our own power has got us. Look at the sick world we are living in today! We are not evolving into a higher species, we are not enlightened. We are getting worse every day and there’s no safe spaces left on the planet, if there ever were any in the first place.

Jesus Christ came into this world born of a woman, the Virgin Mary, and sired not from Adam’s seed but by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18, Luke 1:35). We may never fully understand how that happened, but somehow the second person of the Godhead came to earth as a human being. Fully God, because he IS God, and fully human because he is the son of Mary. He didn’t have any sin because he wasn’t born of man’s seed but rather by the power of the Holy Spirit.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22.

So what happened on the cross? Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. He could do that because He was God and only God is big enough to handle the job. Remember Psalm 49 one more time:

No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—that he should live on forever and not see decay. (v 7-9)

and then:

But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. (v 15)

Jesus redeemed our life from the grave! He came to do what we could never do for ourselves. And he did it. On the cross his blood was poured out as the sacrifice that would wash away our sins. He could carry the weight of our sin because He is God. He could die because he is human. Christ’s blood covers our sin. So if we call on Christ as our savior then when God looks at us he sees not our sin, but the righteousness of Christ.

We were dead in sin, but in Jesus we have NEW LIFE. We are a new creature. We are born again! In the beginning, Adam died spiritually instantly and then awhile later his body died as well. When we give our lives to Christ, our spirits are made alive again instantly because in that instant we are restored to a right relationship with God. And then one day our bodies, which are decaying now, will be made alive again forevermore. Jesus could die because he was human. The grave could not hold him because the wages of sin is death (as we saw with Adam and Eve) but Jesus never sinned. And now because He paid the price we could never afford to, we are free from bondage to sin and death. We are alive with Christ. He is the firstfruits of the resurrection and we will be like him.

Paul sums it up in 1 Corinthians 15:20-26: But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

So when Jesus was talking with Nicodemus that night and said, “you must be born again,” he was talking of the new birth of our dead spirits and the eventual resurrection of our dead bodies into eternal ones that will be like his — eternal, incorruptible, free from all stain. The broken relationship with God has been restored in Christ. Jesus endured the agonizing pain, humiliation and suffering of the cross because he wants us to be restored to him. God himself loves us so fully and completely that he holds nothing back from us. He gave everything he had to give in order to save us — he gave us Himself.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. …For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. – Romans 10:9-13

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”

The entire Bible, all 66 books of the Old and New covenants, are about how we got separated from God and what God has done to set things to rights. All I’ve put here is just a smattering of everything the Bible has to say. I encourage you, if you haven’t already, to pick up the Bible and read it from cover to cover and hear the whole story for yourself. Don’t rely on anybody else to tell you what it says.

We are living in scary times. But don’t be afraid! Jesus has won the victory over sin and death. What can any man or group or government do to us? If we are His, then we have a glorious, joyous, happy and free eternity in our future.

If you haven’t yet given your life to Christ, don’t delay! None of us are guaranteed that we will live out the rest of today, let alone see tomorrow. Don’t leave this planet without making your decision for Christ. We are already in hell. He is our only way out. The Lord Jesus Christ loves you more than you could ever imagine and He gave you Everything. He gave you Himself. All you have to do is accept Him.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” – Jeremiah 31:3

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” – Isaiah 43:1

Two Wills in the Universe

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One more tree will fall
How strong the growing vine
Turn the earth to sand
And still commit no crime
How one thought will live
Provide the others die . . .
– John Lodge

Trying to make sense of the madness around us today, we should ask what is at the root of it all. Is the anarchy evil, or actually good at its core?

The Bible (Galatians 5:22-23) describes the fruits of the Spirit (godliness) as:
LOVE
Joy
PEACE
Patience
KINDNESS
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
SELF CONTROL

On the flip side, the fruits of the sinful nature, or wickedness (Galatians 5:19-21) are:
Sexual immorality
Impurity
Debauchery
Idolatry
Witchcraft
HATRED
DISCORD
Jealousy
FITS OF RAGE
Selfish Ambition
DISSENSIONS
FACTIONS
Envy
Drunkenness
Orgies, etc.

We can meditate on these things and figure out the answer to today’s problems for ourselves.

The fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of wickedness showcase the two wills in the universe — the will of God and the will of the self.

Satan was the first to set his own will against the will of God. He said:
I WILL ascend to Heaven;
I WILL raise my throne above the stars of God.
I WILL sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost
heights of the sacred mountain.
I WILL ascend above the top of the clouds;
I WILL make myself like the Most High!
– Isaiah 14:13-14

In contrast, Jesus said, in the garden on the night he was betrayed:
Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; Yet not my will, but Thine be done.
– Luke 22:42

Satan, or Lucifer, beautiful cherub though he may once have been (see Ezekiel 28), is only a creature, made by the very Lord he wants to destroy. He is not God. He is a Creator of nothing. Yet he thinks he deserves to be God and wants to rule the universe. He cares for no one and nothing except himself.

Jesus IS God (John 1:1). He made us (John 1:3). He has the right to rule the universe and subjugate us to his will. Yet his attitude is the opposite of Satan’s:

[Jesus] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but rather emptied himself, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! – Philippians 2:6-8

There are only two wills in the universe. All of us are on one side or the other. There is no neutral ground. Our nature without Christ is the sin nature — rage, jealousy, hatred, envy, lust, etc. Whatever goodness we might know comes not from ourselves, but from God, whether we are believers or not:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” – James 1:17

“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteousness.” – Matthew 5:45

Once we belong to Christ, the Holy Spirit begins His work in us and we can know the joy of living in the gifts of the Spirit — Love. Joy. Peace. Kindness. Goodness. In Jesus alone is everything that our aching and dying hearts are crying out for and everything that this ugly, unhappy, violent world sorely lacks.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. – Romans 10:9-13