Doing vs Being

Doing is binding and enslaving. Being is freeing. If a positive sense of who we are (our identity) is based on what we do, we will never achieve enough to gain the long-term sense of well-being that we need and were designed for.

We need perfect and infinite love because, as bearers of God's image, we were designed to be loved perfectly and infinitely, by the perfect, infinite God of love. We can never secure this for (or by) ourselves because we will never live perfectly enough to earn His approval and love. Nor does any other creature offer this kind of love, so we ¹should not seek it from them. Only the Creator loves in this way.

The good news is we don't have to because Christ did this for us. As His infinitely cherished children, we are called to simply abide, dwell, or live in this reality. Only as we abide in God's love, perfectly secured for us by Christ, do we become loving. The more we abide in His perfect love (by faith), the more loving we become.

What is the nature of being or abiding? It is believing and receiving (claiming) the offer of a perfect standing with and before God, earned for us by Christ's efforts, not ours.

Being (abiding) in His love leads to doing. Doing can never lead to being; i.e., being loving never leads to being fully loved. Being fully loved leads to being loving. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit (gets much done), for apart from me you can do nothing... As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love" i.e. claim this reality (truth) and own it - Jesus speaking to his disciples at the last supper. John 15:4-6,9

Where the confusion comes in is faithful obedience (i.e. doing) does result in - is the fruit of - our experiencing God's love more fully. But this is on our side of the relationship. Our doing - obedience - does not cause God to love us more. His love for us is no greater or less because of what we do, simply because it's based on who we are as a bearer of God's image and released on us because of what Christ did for us by bearing our condemnation and removing it from us and also assigning His righteous life to us as if we lived it.

Because we are in Christ, the Fathers love is fixed and set upon us. It never stops or subsides. Own this! Stand on it! Abide in it!

This is not only for our sake but for Christ's as well. For God to love us in this way honors Christ and the infinite pain He submitted to in order to reconcile and unit us to His Father. Live - dwell, abide - in this reality.

For a further discussion, click here

For a discussion on bearing much fruit, click here For a discussion on acting before being, click here

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Footnotes:

¹this does not mean that God cannot demonstrate His love to us through another creature or by His creation. It is a main way He does. However, we must recognize that it is only because of His love that others can love us the way He does, i.e., to give love, not to receive it.

Do you want more of God?

Do you want more of God in your life? Then you must attempt great things for Him. 

We will not fully engage with God and all that He is until we fully engage with what God does and is doing. 

What kind of things? The things God has stirred in your heart through his word that honor Him.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ” - John 15:7-8 ESV

Doing great things requires great strength. Great strength requires great faith in God who gives us the strength necessary to accomplish things we could never do on our own. We engage God by faith and experience Him more as a result.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” - Romans 10:17 

Great (i.e. supernatural) strength comes only from God. We are merely jars of clay that hold great treasure. But also the only jars that can display that treasure in a way that only we can and were made to.

If you want more of God, pursue great things for Him.

“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit (who empowers us to live for God) to those who ask him!”” - Luke 11:9-11, 13 ESV

“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” - Proverbs 8:17 ESV

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

Exposing our distrust

Jesus seeks to root out distrust from our heart. How? By exposing it and showing us where we don't trust Him.

But this is a painful process. Why would He do this and allow us to go through the pain of seeing our flaws and failures? Doesn't He love us?

God is not trying to make us feel bad, shame us, or condemn us for not being faithful or not loving Him more. He is seeking to get us to abandon our distrust of Him so we will experience even more of His love. Our distrust clouds our ability to see Him and enter into His infinite love more fully.

He is not exposing us because he's mad or upset with us; just the opposite. It is so we will draw nearer to him to experience more of Him.

God's love is already perfectly set upon us and determined by Christ's faithfulness, not ours. But experiencing His love more fully depends on us and how faithfully we pursue Him.

Peter denying Christ three times and then Christ engaging him to feed His sheep after, is a classic example of this process of exposing our distrust of God so we might follow Him more faithfully.

It helps us to more clearly see how much we need Him and how dependent we are on Him to be more faithful.

For a discussion on how we must first see God's love to acknowledge our unfaithfulness, click here

Does God send people to hell?

What makes heaven a place of bliss? It is the delight we will experience in God and by being in His presence. But if we do not delight in Him and His presence now, what makes us think we will in ¹eternity?

It is not as if a switch suddenly flips on, filling us with delight the moment we stand before Him, after a lifetime spent with that switch turned off.  

For those who wanted nothing to do with God—and even despised Him—all their lives, being in His presence will not be a delight. It will be a shock, fearfully dreadful. This will be especially true when they realize that God gave ²clear indication of His desire for a loving relationship with them and did everything necessary to extend His love, yet they rejected both it and Him by rejecting Christ.

Requiring someone who spent a lifetime rejecting God to remain in His presence would be a greater hell than hell itself.

Imagine living in a house with someone you distrusted, ignored, and avoided all your life; not exactly my idea of fun. And not because your assessment was correct but because you believed it was and refused to believe otherwise. 

So how have we rejected God?

We reject Him when we live our lives as if He does not matter, even though all we are and all we have is a gift from Him—when, in effect, we simply couldn’t care less about Him. If we thought of Him at all, it was only briefly in our most ³desperate moments, and even then not for the purpose of knowing Him, but merely in order to find relief from our suffering.

If God does not matter to us and we avoid Him now, He will not force Himself upon us. Instead, He will honor our wish to live without Him.

The reality is that God does not send people to hell. They choose it themselves, day by day, by living as if God is insignificant or does not exist at all—when the truth is ⁴exactly the opposite.

To live this way is to live a lie. It runs contrary to who God is, to who we were created to be, to our very design, and to God’s loving desire for us.

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Footnotes:

¹The more we come to delight in God in this life the more we will delight in Him throughout eternity. The reward of our faithfulness to God in this life is God himself. 

https://thotsaboutgod.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-necessity-of-dependence.html

²By sending His Son and by giving us all the blessings of creation.

³But this usually passes quickly because He didn't give us the relief we demanded on our terms.

⁴Every good thing that we have and are comes from God. Nothing that is would be if there was not God. God is the source of life, love, and all things. 

Every breath we take or receive?

All of life - our own and the planets' - requires energy to operate. Where there is no energy, there is no life.

Some of the main sources of energy are the sun, wind (air), fire, electricity, magnetism, atoms, flowing water, food (for our personal energy), etc. Without these, there is no energy or life, much less the pleasures or conveniences of life.

But more importantly is understanding that we are not the cause of any of these. 

Yet we have complete access to - if not regular use - of virtually all of them. They are always available for our use and benefit. And this reveals the heart of our true condition. 

Are we the cause of these or the means by which they exist? If not, then ²who or what is? Since there is no life without these, wouldn't it be important to know what or who is, and acknowledge this, and be grateful to the ²provider of them?

Are we grateful for these resources, or do we take them for granted because they are always available or accessible? 

Do we assume they are ours to use whenever, wherever, and however we want or see fit? Do we ⁴demand to have them without interruption and ⁴become angry when we don't and are cut off from them or they from us?

Because we always have use of or access to these, we live life as if we ¹always will. But will we?

Why do we approach life this way? 

If we take these resources for granted, this is due to not recognizing that all we are and have are gifts; i.e., they are available to us because something or ²someone other than us provides and sustains them (and could also rightfully and easily not provide them or even remove them).

Would it be wrong for a parent to deny their teenage child the use of their valuable car or beach house for some reason? 

Easy access or use of something is not the same as ownership no matter how easily or long that use has occurred or continues. We forget over time, use of these only continues because of love, not as a right.  

If we truly understood and believed that everything is a gift - vs a right - we would wake up every day grateful for all we are and have down to our very breath. These are all gifts! But most don't wake up grateful. Many (maybe most) whine and complain about what they don't have or have lost. Many live in a perpetual state of victimhood, having a pity party.

Most assume all we have is rightfully ours merely because we have ongoing use of them. They are not gifts on loan but the fruit of time plus chance and ours to use as I see fit. They may even get upset if you suggest otherwise.

Instead, if we lose these blessings of life, we get angry and even bitter as if it's our right to have them. And if others have greater access to or use of them, we become envious.

To pray before we eat and say "thank you for the bounty we are about to receive" should be our approach to all of life. When we wake up, we should ³thank God for the very breath we take in and for the use and enjoyment of everything else we depend on to sustain our life. And also grateful for our 5 senses that allow us to take in and experience all the good things around us, instead of being angry if we lose them.

Why? We are not the cause or the one who maintains these things (or could even if we wanted to), but simply the recipients and beneficiaries. We should be grateful!

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Footnotes:

¹which is why death is such a shock and blow to us. We simply take life for granted until we or someone else we care about no longer has it.

The fact that death is such a shock indicates how much we take all we are and have for granted. Life is not a given but a gift which is owned, controlled, and maintained ultimately by someone else, not us. We may be able to manipulate things to go the way we want, but only to a limited time or degree -  never fully. We are ultimately not in charge and are dependent on these for our very existence. 

Because we do not constantly ponder and appreciate the gifts of life, it shows how resistant (rebellious) and arrogant we are to seeing the true nature of things.

²Contrary to the consensus of much of the scientific community, I propose there is a Creator. Granted, this is a posture or position of faith. But so is a materialistic worldview, which requires more faith than believing in intelligent design, i.e., the things we observe align more with the existence of a Designer than their happening by random chance. For more on this, click here. 

³like David, we should say, "...this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

And if, like Job, we experience loss we should say, "...the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

When we truly recognize this, we will be full of gratitude every morning when we rise and take another breath.

When we see things correctly and as they truly are we will wake up saying...

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Psalm 118:24 ESV

⁴To whom are we making these demands to and becoming angry with? Isn't it curious that most of us blame God when things go wrong, while at the same time ignore Him most of our lives or when things go well. Or we deny He exists at all? This reveals how arrogant and ungrateful we are!

The absence of God's presence

The absence of God's presence is the essence of hell. ¹Hell is anywhere God's presence (and provision) is not.

People live in ³rebellion to God every day. How? They do not acknowledge God as the Source of love and life (breath); the Creator and Sustainer of everything! 

Instead, they live as if God is irrelevant; that the blessings of life are their right to have and do with as they please, as if someone owed it to them; i.e., they are entitled to these blessings. And if they don't get what they believe they deserve, they become disillusioned, angry, or bitter. This is the approach to life many ²choose to take and live by daily.

And if they never come to the place where they acknowledge His relevance, value, and significance, they will continue on that same trajectory and path throughout their lives.

As a result, God will honor that choice throughout eternity as well. God doesn't send people to hell. They are already on that path unless and until they choose to put their trust in Him.

If the absence of God's presence is hell, then what is the fullness of God's presence? Bliss, paradise, a continual feast, i.e., heaven.

For a further discussion on why many are disillusioned with God, click here

For a discussion on the key to answered prayer, click here

For a discussion on whether hell is literal, click here. 

For a further discussion on how hell is a continuation of our current path, click here

For a discussion of whether we are rebels to God, click here.

For a discussion on whether God's wrath is reasonable, click here

For a discussion on how death and hell are totally defeated, click here 

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Footnotes:

¹this is not necessarily a specific location - though it may be. But it is a disposition or attitude of rebellious distrust (all distrust of God is rebellion to Him. It is asserting that God is a liar and not who He claims to be as all-loving, wise, powerful, and everywhere present). 

Objectively, God is everywhere present. Nothing functions or even exists without Him. But if we willfully turn away from God, then for us, God does not exist and is not present. God is not dead, but to us He is.

In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, notice the rich man did not regret his rejection of God, nor did he resent God for his being in his present state or desire to turn to Him even in his torment. He only wanted water to relieve his thirst - he only wanted God's gift - not God Himself.

Is this not also true of humanity in general when we go through great pain? God is not our end, but the means to another end...relief. This is often the reason we pray. We don't want God; we only want the gifts (blessings) of God to comfort us in a time of need. 

"...You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." - Jas 4:2b-3 ESV

Luke 16:23-26, 28, 30-31 ESV

"...and in Hades, being in torment, he (the previously rich man) lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’

And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

²this choice is laid out in Rom 1:18-23 (emphasis added).

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness (i.e., which springs forth from rebellious distrust of God) suppress the truth. 

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God (He is irrelevant) or give thanks to him (their choice), but they became futile in their thinking (they thought they could make life work on their terms, not God's terms i.e. they thought they could be their own god, like Adam and Eve) and their foolish hearts were darkened. 

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images (their choice) resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." 

³The following passage lays out the nature of our rebellion. These are comments made to Job by Elihu in Job 35:6-16. The fourth and only "friend" of Job whom God did not rebuke, unlike the other 3, suggesting that his comments to Job were on point.

Elihu talking to Job:

"If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him (God)? And if your transgressions are multiplied (many), what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? (This is also quoted by Paul in Rom 11:35). Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man - i.e., your bad or good deeds affect only men, not God. You can not give to Him or take away from Him anything He is or has by your actions.

Because of the multitude of oppressions, people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty (those stronger than us, who oppress us).

But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’ - i.e., there is no gratitude to God for all the gifts we receive or trust in God when we go through challenges. We don't want God. We only want relief from our pain by using all the gifts He gives and enjoy daily without giving Him thanks or acknowledging Him as the giver.

There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men (who believe God is not there or is irrelevant, until we are suffering). Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it - Why? Because we don't really want God; we only want His blessings - the comfort and relief from pain His blessings bring us.

How much less when you say that you *do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him! - i.e. we demand He respond the way we think He should when we are in pain - but our complaining does not impress God or cause Him to respond. 

*People don't see or acknowledge God because of their arrogance, not because He's not there.

When we approach God this way, we will always be waiting for a response, because He will not respond to our arrogant demands. Only He is God, and best knows what we need, not us. Humility is more important then relief.

And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression - i.e., because God has not dropped the hammer on Job for his complaining and demands - Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.”

To Job's credit, at the end he responded correctly...

Job 42:1-6

Then Job answered the Lord and said: 

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  

‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ 

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 

‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes - (I change my view of you and my attitude towards you).”

For a discussion on how all things in life are a gift click here.

How are we able to admit our unfaithfulness

We can only acknowledge the depth of our brokenness to the extent that we recognize God's perfect acceptance, embrace, and love for us in and through Christ. 

If our understanding and trust in His total acceptance and love is incomplete, so will be our ¹ability to see and acknowledge our distrust of God, i.e., the essence of our sinful condition. 

And what is the full extent of God's acceptance and embrace of us? It is the same as His loving embrace of His Son, i.e., it is perfect-complete-total! 

"The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." - Jesus, praying to His Father right before he was betrayed by Judas and crucified the next day - John 17:22-23 ESV

How much does the Father love the Son? However much that is, is how much he loves us!! i.e., it is the ⁵same as His love for His Son!!! It is equal to His love for Jesus!!! Total and infinite!! Selah (reflect on this and let it sink in. Ask God to reveal this to you more fully).

The only way to grasp this is to ask God to reveal this to you. Otherwise, you (we) will not see it.

Jesus- 

"All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." - Matthew 11:27 ESV

The apostle Paul -

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (i.e., bears His image) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength (that comes to us through faith) to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." - Eph 3:14-19 ESV

For a closer look at the above passage, click here. You may wish to bookmark it to read later after you are done with this article.

Why does God love us this way?

Because...

1. We are like God - i.e. in His image - and if we are in Christ, we are His beloved child, not unlike Christ, who is in the image of God and His only begotten Son. 

2. Christ lived a life of perfect faithfulness to His Father - the life that God designed and intended us to ²live (but failed to live and still fail now). He lived His life to honor His Father but also to honor (share His glory with) us. 

Through our faith in Christ, God credits Christ's perfectly righteous life to us as if we lived it. In Christ we are now perfect in the eyes of God. We will never be more acceptable or embraced by God than we are right now! 

Do you believe this? Paul in his letter to the church in Rome says to ³"reckon" (consider) it so.

And we won't experience the depth of God's love until we ⁴acknowledge the depth of our distrust in Him i.e., our lack of faith in this infinite provision.

And we won't admit that distrust until we grasp (by faith) His total acceptance and loving embrace of us. 

These go hand in hand. We must see both to fully know and partake of God in the fullness of His love. 

We must acknowledge our distrust of God and turn from it, so we might more clearly and fully see "...the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

For a fuller discussion of the love the Father and Son have for each other, click here

For a fuller discussion on why God values us as bearers of His image, click here

For a fuller discussion of Christ being the only begotten Son, click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹We will only admit the extent of our brokenness to others (and ourselves) to the extent we believe we will still be accepted and not rejected when we do. 

We all want to be fully seen but also fully accepted. But to be fully seen usually means we will be rejected because of our brokenness, except with God, who fully sees us and still totally embraces us, warts and all.  

²as well as died the death we should have died.

³ Rom 6:11 - reckon, consider, count...

English Standard Version
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible
So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Berean Literal Bible
So also you⁺, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus.

King James Bible
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 6:11 is not saying we are dead to the allure (temptation) of sin, but to its legal claim of condemnation on us. That claim is forever gone because our judgment was totally laid on Christ. Jesus paid it all!!! It is finished!!!

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..." - Isa 1:18a ESV

must count - λογίζεσθε (logizesthe)
Verb - Present Imperative Middle or Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 3049: To reckon, count, charge with; reason, decide, conclude; think, suppose.

⁴the more we grasp how great our distrust of God is, the more we realize and appreciate how great his love must be to still love us in light of this distrust.

⁵ the Son's love for us is usually assumed and taken for granted since He clearly demonstrated it by coming to earth to suffer and die for us. Nevertheless it is equal to the Father's love for us.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ” - John 15:9

The key takeaway is the Father and Son's love for each other is infinite and eternal i.e. non-stop. Which is the same exact love they have for us. There is never a time that it's not fully set upon us as well, no matter what we are going through i.e. the same infinite non-stop love they have for each other they also have for us - even though there are times we may not feel that love just as Christ didn't for a moment while on the cross. 

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ”

Matthew 27:46 

Even though we may feel totally forsaken, we are not no more than Christ was.