What is the good news?

The essence of the gospel is God's love, acceptance, and embrace of us are secured solely by Christ's efforts, not ours. 

Because Christ was and is perfect in every way - and credits or assigns his perfect "track record" or status and relationship with the Father to us - God's love and embrace of us is perfect in every way. He loves us in the same way He loves the Son of His eternal affection; as if we were faithful to him exactly the same way Christ was, when we are (and were) not. 

This indeed is good news because we are not required to achieve this status through our efforts and can not mess it up by the lack of effort either! Hard to believe, but true. 

If we truly believe this good news (gospel) - i.e. that God is now totally for us, and no longer against us (even in our current imperfect state) - the more we see it, the more it will galvanize us in the face of adversity and empower us to become unstoppable for God. If we are not unstoppable for God we have not yet fully grasped the good news of his relentless and boundless love immovably fixed upon us. The more we grasp this good news the more unstoppable we become.

This gospel isn't simply about entering the Kingdom of God but living and walking in it, i.e. being empowered by God's love to live for Him today and every day!! This is fully and freely extended to us because of Christ's efforts alone.

The 2 key elements needed for this to occur...

1. The good news (gospel) itself - God's part, i.e. he has already fully taken care of this.

 and

2. The extent to which we believe (fully grasp) this good news - which is our part, ongoing and always increasing if we are truly His child.

The first element - the good news - is accomplished only by God in and through Christ and is complete. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. It is what God did (and does) through Christ and has nothing to do with our efforts, good behavior (or bad for that matter). It is 100% legally ours but ours practically (i.e. experientially) on a day-to-day basis, to the extent we receive and believe it.

The second element - our faith (trust) in this good news - is our "work" or our part in our relationship with God. 

It is work in the sense it requires us to humble ourselves and take up our cross daily. This is not easy and is ongoing until we go to be with Him eternally. It is the key to the maturing process, i.e. our spiritual formation (sometimes referred to as sanctification). 

As our trust in God and His perfect and infinite love (extended to us freely by grace) increases, our living for God's honor increases, i.e. the good news increasingly manifests itself through our words and actions as our trust in Him grows.

The effect this good news has on our day-to-day actions and conduct is small if our grasp (belief) of it is small and great if it is great.

So how do we increase our faith or remedy our unbelief? 

God must first reveal to us the desperateness of our condition without Christ, i.e. how short we come in recognizing the goodness and love of God. Until we see our need for this good news (that there is no hope of being received by God without Christ) we will not desire or seek it. The more we see our desperation, the greater the impact this good news has on us and the more it changes us. 

But God must also reveal himself to us in all his beauty and glory.  The more of his beauty we see the greater our desire for him grows. The greater our desire, the greater our pursuit. 

As God reveals to us both our desperate need and His glorious beauty, our faith ¹grows. Our faith in God is only as good as our view of God (and ourselves) is clear and accurate.

And what is the condition or state we must enter into for God to reveal Himself to us most?

Humility, i.e. recognizing our desperate need of God. 

*Humility is key to seeing God.

*Seeing God is key to great faith.

*Great faith is key to great pursuit of God.

God's strength manifests itself in us most the more we acknowledge our weakness. The essence of the gospel practically is strength in and through weakness.

This is bad news before it is good news.

How do we not change?

If we change ("obey") because we  we think we must to be accepted by God - i.e. because of external pressure or reasons - it never lasts. True and lasting change only occurs because we want to change, i.e. it comes from self-imposed internal "pressure" i.e. motivation. A genuine desire to change. 

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." - Phil 2:12-13.

Change that comes about from external pressure is not true change, but merely external conformity, which results in self-righteousness, not humility. This is the essence of legalism which unfortunately is common within the Christian community. 

For a discussion on: 

How we are inclined to try and earn God's love click here.

The difference between "Cultural Christians" and grace-driven followers of Christ, click here.

The essence of God's Kingdom click here.

How God's love is conditional and unconditional click here.

Should our focus be on morality or Jesus? click here.

 

What is righteousness click here

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¹to the extent our trust in ourselves diminishes and our trust in him increases, we change.

Seeing God's love in our pain

"that I may know him (Christ) and the fellowship of his suffering's…" - Phil 3:10

What is the "fellowship" of Christ's sufferings, that Paul desires to take part in - and we, by his example, are also invited to partake in? Whatever it is, we must participate in (experience) the "fellowship of his sufferings" to have a deeper understanding of Christ, i.e. Who he is, what he did, and why did it. This is directly connected to knowing him better as indicated by the leading comment in the above"...that I may know him..."

What about our suffering? How does our suffering help us to see and know Christ better?

Stated simply, if we are to know and appreciate Christ more fully and the depth of His love, we must see and enter into Christ's suffering through our own, i.e. we share in (fellowship with) His pain through ours. The more we suffer the greater opportunity we have to understand and appreciate Christ's suffering.

But how are our pain and experiencing Christ's love connected?

Our pain helps us to more fully understand, appreciate, and sympathize with Christ's pain. The greater our pain, the greater our potential understanding of Christ's, i.e. we can relate to Christ's pain better because of our own. 

Whenever we are in pain, we should reflect on Christ's ³struggles and all the spiritual, emotional, and physical pain he went through for us. The more pain we experience the more deeply we can "enter into" and partake of His if we choose to and let it.

The more we see and enter into His pain through our own, the more we can also see the depth of his love that moved Christ to suffer on our behalf. 

Seeing the depths of his love in turn causes us to love him more.  

If you wish to love him more, be grateful for your pain, if only because of how it reveals to you Christ and the immense depth of His love for you more fully by his embracing the pain you and I deserved - that He did not deserve.

To expand this further, the more we see His pain, (ultimately caused by us choosing to be "gods" when we are not) the more fully and deeply we see the ¹greatness of His love that moved Him to embrace our pain (and the consequences of the pain we cause others) so He might free us from condemnation rightfully due us for the harm/pain we cause others. 

Grasping the depth of Christ's pain rarely happens without us first going through our own pain. The greater ²our pain, the more fully - and the greater the opportunity for us to - appreciate ²His i.e. we are better able to understand and "fellowship" with Him in His sufferings through our own suffering, and thereby also more fully enter His love. 

Pain is a two-way street for both Christ and us

We are also reminded that because of his pain, he understands and appreciates ours better as well. He can better fellowship with us in our pain because of His own i.e. We are united with Christ in and through our mutual suffering. 

Amazingly, Christ chose to identify with us in this way! We will have this in common with Him throughout eternity and will be reminded of this - of His immense love for us - every time we look upon Him and behold the scars He carries and embraced for us.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Heb 4:15-16

Pain can help produce two overriding positive outcomes if we let it. 

1. It can humble us by revealing the depths of our need and inability to cope with the pain alone, i.e. without God.

2. It can cause us to more fully appreciate the sufferings of Christ and the greatness of his love that moved him to suffer on our behalf.

These are two vital reasons we should never shrink back from pain and suffering, but instead be thankful for it. In doing so, this enables us to more fully see and take part in his great love.

If you want to know your level of trust in Christ and the strength of your love for Him, ask how much pain are you willing to go through for His sake? 

This is a question Christ asked of himself while suffering for us and he answered with a resounding "whatever it takes." His willingly going to the cross for you and me was the result of His saying yes to pain. 

How much pain am I willing to go through for His sake is a question we may wish to ask ourselves. One I ask myself often.     

Christ asked that question and answered by giving up his life, and allowing this to disrupt His eternal union with his Father. 

"“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.."

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here. 

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/ grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job click here.

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¹When people question the goodness and love of God because of all the pain in the world (including their own) they miss the bigger picture and cannot see that Christ took on the pain of the world and let it kill him so he might ultimately free the world and us from it. Pain is not the final word regarding evil. Christ is!

 

The big question isn't why is there suffering and why God allows good people to suffer, but why He allowed Christ - the best and only perfect person - to suffer. 

And maybe a more important question... what is the Father saying to us and about us by allowing it? Hint...He loves us that much.

Until we answer these questions, we can never fully understand, accept, and willingly (gratefully) embrace our own pain and the world's pain. 

We are so jaded towards God that we forget that God so loved the world he gave. The greatness of love is measured by the greatness of the gift. 

And what did God give? His very own Son (think of Abraham being asked and being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac). The Son of his infinite and eternal affections. Christ's death was not barbaric, it was an expression of extreme love and a willingness to take on our suffering so we might be forever free from it...if we accept His offer.

If we do not, there is no other solution!

The whole notion that the infinite and all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of everything would take on human form and even consider going through undeserved pain for our benefit is mind-boggling if we stop and reflect deeply on this. 

After reading this, I encourage you to do just that. Think deeply about these things often. Let them seep deeply into your very being and transform you and your love for God. 

The Father and Son fully understand pain because they fully embraced and experienced it themselves. The Father embraced the pain of giving up the Son of His eternal affections and the Son embraced His greatest pain by allowing it to separate him from the eternal affection of His Father for a time. This "severing" of their relationship was a far greater pain than any physical suffering.

The only reason that people continue in pain after this life is because they refuse to see God's remedy, which is Christ and all He suffered (willingly) at the hands of ungrateful and wicked men for our sake.

²Particularly for condemnation, persecution, and rejection.

³Has someone closest to you ever betrayed you? Have you ever had anyone twist your words, misrepresent you, and speak ill of you or not come through on their commitments or promises to you? Have you ever been unappreciated for a sacrificial service to others? Have you ever had anybody forsake you in your greatest hour of need? Christ experienced these and far more with one big difference. He never complained and did nothing to deserve it. And He did all this for us and the honor of His Father.