If our understanding of - 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's 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 same 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-
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
Why does God love us this way?
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 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 is in the image of God and His only begotten Son.
1. We are like God - i.e. in His image - and if we are in Christ we are His beloved child, not unlike Christ 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.
³Rom 6:11
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.
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.
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.
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Grace to you
Jim Deal