If our understanding of (and trust in) His total acceptance (love) is incomplete, so will be our ability to see and acknowledge our rebellious distrust of God i.e., our sin.
And what is the 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.
"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." - John 17:22-23 ESV
How much does God the Father love God the Son? However much that is, is how much he loves us i.e. it is the same as His love for His son!!! Selah (reflect on this and ask God to reveal this to you more fully).
The only way to grasp this is to ask God to reveal Himself to you. Otherwise, you (we) will not see it.
"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
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 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 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
Why does He love us in this way? Because
1. Christ lived a perfect life of faithfulness to His Father that He designed us to ¹live (but always fail to live) and credited this perfectly righteous life to us as if we lived it. Now we are perfectly righteous in the eyes of God.
2. We are like God,- i.e. in His image - and His beloved sons and daughters.
And we won't experience the depth of God's love until we acknowledge the depth of our distrust of Him. And we won't admit that distrust until we grasp His total acceptance and loving embrace of us.
We must acknowledge our distrust of God and turn from it, so you 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."
"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
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 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 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, click here and bookmark it to read when you are done with this article.
Why does He love us in this way? Because
1. Christ lived a perfect life of faithfulness to His Father that He designed us to ¹live (but always fail to live) and credited this perfectly righteous life to us as if we lived it. Now we are perfectly righteous in the eyes of God.
2. We are like God,- i.e. in His image - and His beloved sons and daughters.
And we won't experience the depth of God's love until we acknowledge the depth of our distrust of Him. And we won't admit that distrust until we grasp His total acceptance and loving embrace of us.
We must acknowledge our distrust of God and turn from it, so you 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."
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Footnotes:
¹as well as died the death we should have died.
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Grace to you
Jim Deal