Advancing in pain

The age-old question is if God is good, why is there so much pain. 

But maybe the answer is not what we usually think. Maybe God allows pain to remain to humble us and help us see our need for Him, with the long-term goal of our spiritual advancement. 

While pain is ultimately the fruit of our rebellious distrust of God, He uses it. If God could not bring good out of evil, evil would not exist. Christ's death would be the ultimate example of this profound paradox. 

Acts 2:23 "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."

Therefore, we must not allow it to discourage or shame us, or ¹cause us to fall into self-pity e.g. "You're a loser! Why keep trying? Just quit!..." etc. 

But we must embrace pain and embrace God and His love for us in our pain and failures for our advancement to occur (God is for us, not against us. Nothing separates us from God's love...Rom 8:31-39). 

"...Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us..." - Romans 5:2-5 ESV 

As long as we look at failure and mistakes as losing and not stepping stones to winning, we will not embrace them with thanks, learn from them, and let them advance our maturity and walk with God. When we recognize or failures and mistakes are a key to our spiritual advancement, we embrace them with gratitude and experience more of God's grace, mercy, and love. 

Having our identity/value rooted in God as the bedrock of our existence - and the very Source of love itself - frees us from seeing failure as losing. The whole mindset of the Bible is that ²failure is a necessary stepping stone to progress and maturity. 

"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence..." - Jas 1: 2-8. J B Phillips translation. 

This is foundational to understanding and embracing pain instead of a avoiding it. 

The importance of humility

Another vital key to the value of failure is humility. To understand we will never reach the maximum potential we were created for without God (which failure helps us to see) causes us to look to Him in greater dependence. Greater dependence on God as the Source of life, love, and all things is the essence of humility. Only through humility can we reach the potential God intends for us and designed us for.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

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.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹nor let pain embitter us. At the root of anger is the belief that we know better than God what is best for us and/or the world. Yet we are finite, not all-knowing or all-powerful. Only God is infinite in all things. 

And not only so, but he is also all-loving. He not only knows what's best (all-knowing) and does what's best (all-powerful) but wants it for us also (all-loving).

But many object and say, "how can God be all-loving and continue to allow all the pain in the world?" What's our proof that He is all-loving? He became a man just like us and fully embraced our pain so that we might ultimately be free of it forever.

²This is contingent on our seeing failure as a means by which God can advance us. If we do not, it will embitter us.

Free will or free choice?

While our choices are ¹free and 100% ours (i.e. we freely choose to do what we want), our ³wills are not. Our wills are tied to our desires. 

To say it another way, our "chooser" is not broken but our "wanter" is.

²And our wants (desires) dictate what we ¹choose to pursue. 

If we desire (want) the wrong things we we choose to pursue the wrong things. 

And our desires are tied to what we value. The more we value something, the more we desire it and the harder we pursue it. 

And we value only what we ⁴see as valuable. 

If ⁴we are blind to seeing God's true value, worth, beauty, wisdom, glory, majesty, and power as our infinite loving Creator - the Source of life, love, and all things - we will never pursue Him as the infinitely valuable and significant being that He is. We will desire and pursue created things and beings instead. 

Why? ⁵We are like God and created to enjoy Him who is most valuable, beautiful, intelligent, glorious, majestic, and loving. Absent a personal relationship with Him - who is the Source of life, love, and all things - we go after His creation (the next best thing) to fill the void of His absence. Particularly other image bearers (you and I) who by design are most like God and have the greatest capacity to love and reflect him most when in union with Him through Christ.

Scripture tells us God is all valuable (glorious) but what about our value and our feeling significant, important? Does it matter? If so, why?

Because God is significant, important, and valuable, we are and must be like Him in order to be able to appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him. 

We are told in Jas 4: 

[5] "...Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”"?  

What kind of spirit has God put within us? A spirit that longs (is passionate) for infinite love, worth, and glory. Love that can only be satisfied fully by the Source of love - our Creator; not by creation.  

He will not share in (is jealous over) our pursuit or loyalty to any other "lover" because He knows our capacity to value and enjoy Him is unparalleled to all the rest of creation and there is no other true lover who can fill this need and desire in us for love that He designed to be filled only by Him. This is "the spirit He has made to dwell in us."

Not because He needs our love but because we need His. Our being in His image wasn't happenstance. He designed us this way. He is the Creator, we are created...but unlike the rest of creation we are created in His image. Therefore He loves us and desires we experience Him to the maximum of His true worth and our capacity as bearers of His image. 

Everything in creation we seek for life outside of God is temporary. Therefore it comes up short of filling our need for and sense of value-worth (glory). GOD alone is the Source of infinite love. To experience His love to the maximum of our capacity, we must give Him all our loyalty and faithfulness (i.e. have no other "gods" before Him). Otherwise we will never experience His love as it truly is and as we were designed to, but instead we will pursue created things for love outside of and instead of Him.  

Where does this need/desire for significance (glory) come from? Click here. 

For a discussion on the necessity of choice click here.

For a further discussion on how our "wanter" is broken and not our "chooser" click here. 

For a discussion on ability vs responsibility click here

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¹And our choices are ours alone. No one else's, including God. Therefore we are fully accountable for what we value and chose to pursue. 

²Note the progression of the "ands" above. Each deals with a significant shift, but also a vital connection to the previous and following "and" statement. To get to the 2nd "and" you must acknowledge the 1st. And to get to the 3rd we must see the 2nd. 

*our wants-desires dictate what we ¹choose to pursue. 

*our desires-wants are tied to what we value

*we value only what we ⁴see as valuable. 

³Is God free to do whatever he wants? 100%!  But because God is holy He only wants (desires-wills) what is good and best and freely choses righteousness i.e. His character or nature dictates His will/desires, as does ours.

 For a fuller discussion click here.

⁴To see truly, the Spirit of God must reside in us. And that only occurs after we've been "born again" i.e. after we are spiritually regenerated. 

"Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (1st) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” " John 3:30

Before we are born again we are blind to spiritual things - i.e. things pertaining to God's kingdom. The Bible says we are dead to God. Last I checked dead people don't see very well 😉! 

⁵Why does our feeling and desire for significance, importance, and value matter? 

We are like God who is significant, important, or valuable. We must be like Him so we can appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him. That which is most like God is most able to appreciate and enjoy Him as He is.

God's  significance, importance, and value (glory) are the foundation for ours. Our recognizing this about God is essential to experiencing our own value. The more we see his glory the more we experience our glory in and through Him. 

being righteous, living righteously

Is there a difference between being righteous (our legal status before God) and living righteously i.e. our daily conduct? 

Even though God grants us total righteousness (perfect legal standing) before Him in Christ, he still desires us to ¹live righteously. 

It is only through ¹righteous living we are most aligned and in tune with God ⁵practically. We love others as we are designed to, and best put Him on display - i.e. honor and glorify Him - through loving actions toward others. But these actions do not save us. 

He designed us to be aligned with his will in our everyday conduct, so we might 

1. experience more of Him and His love and 

2. best honor and glorify Him before others. 

3. Advance His ⁵kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

These are the desired outcomes of the good standing He has fully secured for us and assigned to us in Christ. 

God grants us right legal standing, so we might live right. We don't live right to enhance our legal standing with Him (this has already been perfectly settled in and by Christ), but so we might partake of Him more fully in our everyday lives. 

He wants us to live righteously so that we might more fully partake of and participate in His love, life, and joy, and pass it on to others more effectively. This brings more attention (honor) to Him, so others might be drawn to Him through us and thereby also find in Him fullness of life by means of our righteous conduct. This advances and establishes His righteous ⁵reign on earth.

The idea of being made right so we would live right is expressed in several places in scripture, but most often and clearly in Paul's letter to the Romans.

‭‭Romans 6:4 ESV‬‬

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

‭‭Romans 7:4 ESV‬‬

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (i.e. we are perfectly right with God in Christ). For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us..." - Rom ‭8:1‭-‬5‬

Each of the above 3 passages shows that the desired outcome of God making us right with Him (i.e., righteous before Him legally) is that we might live righteously. 

In fact, in several of Paul's letters (Ephesians, Colossians, ³Hebrews and Romans) the first part of these letters lays out what God has done for us regarding our unrighteous status - i.e. He has made us righteous in and through Christ.  The remaining part of each letter addresses how we are to conduct our lives in light of this and in response to it.

This is clearest in the entire book of Romans, where the first 11 chapters elaborate on our alienation from God and what He has done to restore us in Christ - i.e., the explanation of the good news (gospel). Then, from chapter 12 on, it shifts to how we conduct ourselves in light of this good news. 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, (i.e. in light of what I have said up to this point regarding our dilemma and God's solution) to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Rom 12:1

The ending phrase "spiritual worship" indicates this is a heartfelt response, not a rigid duty or legal requirement. A response to what? To God providing the righteousness, we must have to be in good standing with the Father, by assigning Christ's perfect standing with the Father to us.

Did only Paul address this? No, Peter, James, and John did as well.

"When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness i.e. in our everyday conduct..." - 1 Pet 2:23-24

This connection by multiple writers isn't a coincidence. Righteous living must always flow out of our righteous standing with God (because we could never meet the requirements of living a perfectly righteous life unaided) i.e., righteous living will and must always flow out of a righteous standing before God. If it does not - if there is no fruit of righteous living - the scriptures call us to make sure we are truly His child. This is clearly implied and stated explicitly in the above and other passages. So much so that scripture tells us if how we live has not changed since we came to Christ, we need to be sure we truly know Him. 

For a further discussion on being right vs living right click here 

What is the good news? click here

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Footnotes: 

¹What exactly is righteous living or living righteously? When our conduct is perfectly aligned with God's ⁴design and will.

And what is God's design (will) for us and all creation? That in everything we do and say we honor and glorify him. And in doing so, we also experience our greatest significance - glory. 

And how do we best honor and glorify him? By loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. Love (i.e. relationship) is the driving force of righteous conduct. Carrying out these commandments or living righteously - i.e. treating others as we wish to be treated - is the result. 

God's love for us is first, and our responding back to him in love is the result. We will not value or love God above all others until we grasp and experience his value of or love for us. 

God is the initiator and source of love. If we are not plugged into Him and thereby drawing strength from Him, we can never be loving as we were designed to be. When we see and experience his love, we "light up," come to life, bear fruit, and become the true bearers of His image as we were created to be.  

God is the power supply, we are the conduits. He is the treasure, we are jars of clay. He is the vine, we are the branches.

Which comes first, our valuing and loving Him or Him valuing and loving us? We love him because he first loved us.

³There is good reason to believe Paul dictated the book of Hebrews to Luke, who wrote it. The way the letter flows and unfolds - the thorough knowledge of the OT - is characteristic of other letters by Paul (a well-studied Jewish Pharisee), not someone who is a Greek Gentile such as Luke. 

But the style and elegance of the Greek used in the book is indicative of Luke also seen in Acts and Lukes gospel. So some suggest Hebrews was a collaboration between Paul and Luke. 

There are other reasons some believe Paul dictated it. Primarily because, as far as we know, all but one of Paul's letters (including Hebrews) was dictated. Possibly because of poor eyesight from his being blinded by beholding Christ on the road to Damascus.

Also Luke was a highly educated Greek national and medical doctor, fluent in "high" Greek. 

Hebrews was written with grammatical precision, using several words unique to the book of Hebrews. This was uncharacteristic of Paul's other letters but similar to the gospel of Luke. For these reasons, some think Paul didn't write it but dictated it to Luke. Explaining why it has characteristics of both Paul and Luke. The fact that he considered himself the apostle to the Gentile adds even more credibility to this view. 

It is also believed Paul deliberately did not identify as the author since he was considered the apostle to the Gentiles and not looked upon favorably by the Judaizers from Jewish circles within the church. 

Some suggest Paul deliberately left his name off to avoid any resistance to the letters' reception and wide circulation within the Jewish community at large. After all, why would the apostle to the Gentiles be writing a letter to Hebrews?  

But Paul's love for his own people was clearly expressed in Romans chapter 9. Knowing this, it would make perfect sense that he still had an intense desire to reach his people even though God had called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. 

⁴this is given either as a direct order in writing, verbally, and by Christ's example - all of which are recorded in scripture.

⁵and advance His kingdom most. Our actions matter, either advancing or hindering God's kingdom. 

Whoever is not with me is against me

Every decision we make is a choice between doing something ¹God's way or my way - doing things to advance God's agenda (kingdom) or mine.  

Christ said it this way, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." 

There appears to be no in-between. This sounds pretty harsh until we dig in a little more.

Ultimately, the key underlying difference between God's way and ours is who do we depend on or trust ²more in our choices and the actions we take - God or ourselves?

 
Choosing our way feels natural and normal, i.e. it's our default setting. It's not necessarily conscious because it's all we know. It seems harmless and doesn't feel like a choice against God. 

But if we are designed to know and love God with all we are and have and in turn put Him on display in all we say and do - thereby making Him known - but do not, are we not rebels and enemies of God? Do all things for the glory of God, love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and be holy because God is holy is not hyperbole or casual statements. It is who God made us to be.

If God is the source of life, love, and all things, to take and use what God has created to advance our own designs and purposes without consideration of God's ³designs and purposes in giving us all things is an act of rebellion against God. It's not that God is a die-hard and doesn't want us to enjoy life. It is because he is life and there is no true and lasting joy apart from Him. 

Any joy we experience in life that is not in, by, or through Him is temporary. When we act to the contrary, our actions (or lack of action to honor Him) are saying to God - and anyone who knows and observes us - that God is irrelevant. When in fact He is just the opposite i.e. He is the most relevant and important being of all. To not act accordingly not only dishonors God for who He is, but it is living a lie that harms us and those we interact with. 

The reality is God is the most important being of all. Without Him, there would be nothing else i.e. all we are and have is from His hand.

Paul said it this way, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." ‭‭Rom‬ ‭11:36‬ ‭

If we bristle at this, it only confirms how subtle and deep our rebellion runs.

But when we stop and consider our life, most give little to no thought as to why God gives us all that we have - i.e. we rarely consider what part God plays in why He does. Instead we should be asking why He gives us life, breath, air to breathe, health, our abilities (physical, mental, athletic, artistic etc.), food, sunlight, rain, sight, taste, smell, hearing, natural resources, etc. and how we can use what he provides to give Him rightful honor and thanks. 

Do you thank Him for all you are and have. If not, is this not an indication of rebellion towards Him who gives us all things?

This would be like our child misusing the things that we as parents have labored to acquire and provide, with little or no regard by them of our wishes as the parent. This can result in the child's harm and/or harm to others and often does (like when a child uses and wrecks their parent's car injuring themselves or others).

It's not that a loving parent doesn't want their child to enjoy and use what they provide. A loving parent loves their child and wants them to feel their love. They want what's best for them.   

But a loving parent also does not want their child to be ⁴harmed. And as a parent with much more life experience (i.e. a better understanding of good and evil if you will), they know us better than we do and how to better use and benefit from what they provide. 

With our heavenly parent, it is far more significant! He knows better than we do what is best for us. He is what is best because all things are by, though, for Him, which is also our greatest joy.

No matter how little we consider God as we go about our lives, the reality is all that we are and have not only comes from God but is maintained by him. Without God, nothing would be, including ourselves, with all the unique abilities we were born with. In reality we hate to acknowledge this. It grates against every fiber of our being because we do not want to be accountable to an all Supreme Being for our choices and actions. 

Considering what God wants is not only the right thing to do but is best for us and others. Who would know what is best for us and how to use what God provides better than Himself? Us!?! Unless, of course, you don't trust Him. And isn't that precisely the issue, our distrust?

We should always seek to use what he provides as He desires and directs. Not because he needs to be in charge (He already is) but because he knows what is best and wants that best for us.

For a discussion on why God allows evil click here and here.

For a discussion on why God loves rebels click here

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¹This was the essence of the choice presented to Adam (primarily) and Eve on whether to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

²And what exactly is it that we should trust? That God not only knows what is best but desires what is best for us. And what He desires He can fully accomplish, i.e. He's all-powerful. In short, we trust that God loves us and knows what is best better than we do and perfectly able to bring all this about.

³And what exactly are those designs? For us - His image bearers - to be the caretakers of His creation, and be fruitful and multiply. 

Why? So that we can enter into and partake of the good gifts of God and extend them to others. Our extending them to others enables us to more fully partake of who God is and designed us to be for His honor i.e. glory.

Why? Because God loves us and his creation and wants us to experience the joy of being in a relationship of love with Him like He has experienced from all eternity past between the Father and Son, in, through, and by the Spirit. i.e. He desires we partake of the joy and delight of receiving and giving love in the same way He does. 

For a fuller discussion on the above, click here. 

All that we are and have is designed and intended to aid us in participating in and experiencing the eternal joy and bliss between the Father and His Son in, through, and by the Spirit. We, however are rebellious creatures who use God's creation to do just the opposite, i.e. to attempt to be independent of God. If we persist He honors our choice along with the consequences. 

⁴This does not mean God will not allow us to experience short-term pain. He often does so we might experience long-term gain. 

God is nonstop love, beauty and glory!

As the Father and Son behold the infinite beauty and glory of the other they experience infinite, overflowing joy, and delight in, by, and through the Spirit. 

Each is the very heart and center of the others affections. We could say each is the unceasing, passionate "heartbeat" and central ¹focus of the beauty of the other. The proverbial apple of each others eye, if you will.

They are passionately moved to extol or glorify the ¹¹other and lazer focused on doing so. 

They have always delighted in each ¹¹other from all eternity past and will continue for all eternity future with or without us.

By beholding and loving the glory of the other and experiencing love and delight in that beholding, each member of our ⁶three person God participates in and experiences their ⁶greatest joy and glory (worth, significance, etc). 

Joy, love, and delight are the fruit of their beholding the infinite glory and beauty of the ¹¹other. 

Experiencing infinite delight, joy, and significance in beholding each other drives all their actions. Bringing greater joy and significance (glory) to the other (among and within the Father, Son, in, by, and through the Spirit first, but also ⁹overflowing to us as His image bearers) is their primary aim. This is what moves God to do everything He - they - do. 

To behold the perfection of the ¹¹other evokes infinite admiration, joy, delight, and love for the other in, by, and through the Spirit. 

So what does any of this have to do with us?

God calling us to love Him and our neighbor is simply an extension and reflection of what God is like, i.e., this is who God is, and He calls us to reflect Him as bearers of His image.

God is ⁸full because he already is - and has - perfect joy and infinite worth (glory) within Himself as the most significant (glorious) being of all. From Him everything else came and depends on Him for existence. 

Actually He is not just full but ⁹overflowing in infinite love. And this is because of the perfectly magnificent beauty, majesty, and infinite glory of each person within the Godhead. 

The Spirit is God, manifested by passionate love (breath) between the Father and Son. This is who God is. He is infinite, passionate love i.e. He is Spirit. 

The Spirit is the life (energy) and wind (power) of God. The Spirit is the very breath of God. Without breath, God - like us, no longer functions. To have breath is to live, and to live, we must breathe. So it is with God. Without the Spirit, there is no breath, and without breath there is no God.

The Spirit is central and vital to who God is. The Spirit's role is unique from the Father and the Son's role and vital to the relationship between them, as well as emanating from and manifested by that relationship.

With all these aspects of God's being combined means each person within the Godhead is continuously giving and receiving perfect love from the other, who is equally perfect in beauty and love, yet also unique in function. 

Each loves perfectly and evokes in the other perfect love and delight because of their unique and perfect beauty and glory. They are all God together, not separately. For God to be God, they all must be together in a perfect union of beauty, harmony, and delight. 

The Father and Son are a union, community, and fellowship of nonstop love and motion in, by, and through the Spirit. An overflowing, infinite, perpetual self-sustained love ⁷generator, if you will, that never stops "running" because of the infinite beauty and worth they each possess individually. This dynamic has always been from all eternity past, before creation ever came into existence. 

What about created things and persons?

Creation is an outward manifestation of who God is as infinite and perpetual love/Spirit. God does not need creation. Creation needs God. Creation exists only because God exists as the God of love. If there were no God, there would be no love or creation. Nothing else would be.

God is the "I AM" i.e., the self-existent One who has no beginning or end. He depends on no one or any created thing because He has and delights in Himself as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. Everything and everyone else comes from Him, exists by Him, and points back to him.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever! Amen" - Rom 11:36

Because of this, God's love is other-oriented and focused, not self-focused. First between the Father, Son, and Spirit, but also out to others who are like him, i.e. us, who bear his image. 

In short, God is not selfish - as a community of 3, with each focused on the infinite beauty and glory of the other - but is full and overflowing. 

Our 3-person God is continuously engaged in giving, receiving, and overflowing in love within the community of Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit. God has never been alone (or lonely) from all eternity past, nor will He ever be. He is not moved to get or take but only to give because He already is all glorious, always receiving and overflowing with love from and for another. 

When a husband beholds the beauty (glory) of his wife and partakes of her love, and a wife partakes of and experiences the strength (glory) of her husband, it evokes within each a delight for the other. A delight so great that their union is like another person (as well as children who bear the image of the parents as well as God's image). They are no longer two separate individuals but a new and distinct union of love. 

So it is with God, who, unlike us, is perfectly beautiful, all glorious, infinitely strong, and continuously overflowing in love.

In God, all these qualities are perfection - nothing can be added to or taken away from God for Him to be all that He already is. 

All of this is without end, i.e., we can never reach the full height, breadth, or depth of our experience of the infinite God...ever. 

Throughout eternity, we will increasingly experience and participate in more of our infinitely glorious and beautiful God. 

In light of who God is, He must be and is the center of all things. He is the most valuable, worthy, significant, glorious, and lovely of all beings or things. 

Without God their would be no beauty, no delight, no joy, no love, no creation, no us... in short, no life, i.e., there would be no-thing. 

Everything else that is - other than God - is because of God. Nothing would be if He were not. 

The very existence of everything else is solely because of this dynamic, vibrant, nonstop overflowing God of love as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. 

This is why He is always calling us to glorify Him. It's not because He needs us, but because we need Him to participate in all He created us to be and experience i.e., we are created to experience Him in the fullness of His beauty-glory by participating in the glory and union of the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. We are designed to find our greatest glory and joy in experiencing His. 

His calling us to glorify Him is the most loving thing He can do for us - as well as the most honoring thing we can do for Himself. 

Our praises of him throughout eternity will be the spontaneous response to beholding him in all his majesty and glory. Just like the praises of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father in, by, and through the Spirit. 

Life without God:

To live in order to take or get (vs give) is static and stagnant. It centers on and ends with those who ²seek to operate this way. It is like the dead end on a one-way street that ends with me (or anyone who operates without God's love moving them to love others). There is no flow through of traffic because the street does not connect to any others. It is a dead end.

To use another analogy, it is like the Dead Sea in Israel. There is no life in it because it's isolated with nothing flowing out. The opposite of the Sea of Galilee, which is full of life with a source and exit for that life to come and go.

Like the Sea of Galilee, God's life is also dynamic, not static, because of the infinite beauty of the persons within the Godhead. Each is infinitely beautiful and glorious; each captures and delights the heart of the other and is captivated by the other's infinite value and beauty. 

This results in love always flowing back and forth between, within, and among our Triune God - out to the other and continually received (reflected) back in admiration and delight. The infinite worth and glorious beauty of God is what drives and moves God Himself and everything else as a result.

God is life and love because he is the infinitely beautiful and glorious community of Father, Son, and Spirit.

What happens when you add us to this divine mix or dance of love and delight? The love and delight only increases (multiplies), not diminishes i.e. love flows among the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit then out to us and back and forth between a greater number of others (who are in His image and as close to being like God as possible without actually being Him i.e. we are like Him in giving and receiving love but unlike Him, in that He is the Source of love and we are not i.e. we are the recipients and conduits of love not the cause).

We have the ³capacity to enter into this dance of divine love because we, ⁴like Christ, are like God himself... in His image. As His image bearers, we are valuable and infinitely valued because we can display God (who is of greatest worth) in a way nothing else can (except Christ Himself, who alone did and does honor His Father perfectly above all others). 

Our capacity to bring Him, who is infinitely valuable, to others makes us valuable. In Christ, we become the ⁵focus of God's infinite affection in addition to the love between the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Does bringing or adding more to this divine dance "thin out" God's love? No, it increases, expands, or multiplies it just like the love of parents can expand, increase, and multiply with each additional child. But unlike earthly parents, God is the infinite source of life, love, and all created things. 

And our love for each child is unique because of the uniqueness of that child and how they each can uniquely reflect back to the parents love and overflow that love and their image out to others in a way that other children can't.

The more children there are, the more facets of God's glory and affections are displayed, experienced, and enjoyed.

 

What is the beatific vision? Click here to find out more.

For more on the self-sufficiency (aseity) of God, click here. 

For more on Christ being the only begotten of the Father, click here. 

For more on how God is relationship, click here.  

For more on whether God is dependent or independent, click here. 

For more on the life, love, and Spirit of God, click here.  
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¹this is the model we build a Godly marriage on. Marriage best works as God designed it to, when each is focused on the other, vs on themselves... with God as the central and primary focus (vs the only focus) and the source of love to and for each.

²Which is all of us until our disconnection from God - the source of life and love - is repaired and we are fully restored to God's love.

³I say capacity because to enter into this Union, we first must be restored to God through Christ due to our rebellious and ongoing distrust and alienation between God and us, created by that distrust. 

This alienation must be resolved and removed so we can be fully restored and reconnected to the Source of life and love. Once it is and we are reconciled and restored, we become the full and perfectly qualified recipients of God's unobstructed perfect love as we were designed to be. 

As we come to embrace and rest in His perfect nonstop love, we are increasingly able to partake of that love in the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit do. This goes to the next level when we are glorified with God in ever-increasing glory for all eternity.

There is legally no longer any obstruction between God and us if we are "in Christ." It is gone forever. So much so that the very Spirit of God in all his holiness and infinite love now indwells us, i.e. We are the temple of God, and He now lives in us as perfectly restored and clean vessels. Without Christ legally purifying us, He could not and would not be restored and reconnected. 

However, practically - on our side of the union - a weak connection still exists because of our lack of perfect trust in the Father. Because of Christ, we have perfect access to all God is, but we must "plug in" by faith. Distrust is like a bad connection in a wire, causing it to regularly short-circuit and hinder the power from flowing freely and consistently through it to its intended end. But this is a separate matter. For more on this click here.

⁴The Father "beget" the Son from all eternity past, not at a point in time (like us), hence He is the "only begotten" Son. For a discussion of this click here.

⁵That infinite affection moves God to do whatever will best draw us closer to him, so we might experience more of Him and participate in more of His love. 

This often includes tests and trials, pain and suffering...but not always or forever. All pain is temporary if we are plugged back into God through Christ. 

When we gain from the pain what we need to (i.e. a greater humility and dependence on God), we rise above that pain. The circumstances causing our pain is often still present but it's sting is removed because we receive it as it truly is - i.e. from the loving hand of God for our ¹⁰increasing union practically for our highest good and His greatest glory. Similar to the pain we experience in a workout. It hurts at the time but we know the outcome is good i.e. increased strength. To use a familiar expression, "no pain no gain." 

To say God is love is to say God is dynamic passion or affections for another resulting in an outward focus and loving action toward others. As the Father beholds the glory and beauty of Son and the Son beholds the glory and beauty of the Father, their delight, joy and passion for each other manifests as the Spirit. The Spirit of love, joy, and delight between the Father and the Son is God for God is love and He is Spirit.

In the original Hebrew Spirit means breath (movement of air or wind) among other things i.e. the passionate and affectionate breathing of God for another who is infinitely glorious and beautiful.

Spirit (Greek)
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

The value of the Father, Son, and Spirit is so immense, and their delight in the other is so great that it moves them to bring joy to each other. 

⁶We could say that love and delight are so real and intense it tangibly manifests as the Holy Spirit - i.e., the holy passion of God - as the 3rd person of the Trinity. We could argue this is in fact the over all manifestion of God, who is both love and is Spirit. The very Spirit - passion/life - that binds the Triune God together.

⁷an analogy comparing God to a finite inanimate object - a generator - only gives a tiny sliver of truth, at best, in describing the infinitely overflowing God of perfect beauty, love, delight, and action. Clearly, God is infinitely greater than anything created. Even more so than something mechanical. He is the cause and Creator of everything that is not God. He must be greater, for without him nothing else would exist.

⁸our fullness, love, and fruitfulness as His children and bearers of His image is the overflow of beholding and participating in the beauty and glory of God in the same way He beholds and participates in the beauty and glory between and among the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit.

⁹This resulted (and results) in an overflow of love and glory to others like Him, as well as to all the rest of creation.

¹⁰ vs legally, which is not changing but completed. Because of the work of Christ - and it being credited to us as a gift - we are seen by God as perfectly righteous. While at the same time we are becoming more righteous practically in our daily conduct, i.e. Our righteousness legally is complete while our righteousness practically is incomplete, ongoing, and increasing. Practical righteousness will not be completed but will continue until we are fully glorified in eternity.

¹¹Being other focused is central to who God is. This is only because God is 3 persons within one being. 

While God is only one being, the distinction of persons within the Trinity means God is other-focused versus self-centered. 

While one being consisting of 3 distinct persons is difficult to comprehend on one level, we see a picture of this in the family unit.

In a healthy marriage, each partner is focused on the other's benefit. The result of this loving union is children. When a married couple has a child, a primary part of their focus of care and affections is now on the child. While at the same time maintaining the main focus on their marriage partner i.e., each other. In order to be their best for the child, they must continue to be the best for each other first.

The analogy is limited and breaks down - i.e., it is not a perfect picture of our triune God - because the husband and wife are finite and must look outside themselves to participate in infinite love offered only by God, the Creator, who alone is infinite in love.

Give as you have received

From the very beginning, the Bible speaks of being blessed by God and blessing others.

Gen 1:22 Then God blessed them (animals) and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

28 And God blessed them (Adam and Eve). And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

And God said, “Behold, I have given (a gift, a blessing) you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food (i.e. as nourishment so you can be more fruitful and also for your pleasure as a reminder of God's love and care).” And it was so. - Gen 1:28‭-‬30 

These instructions to be fruitful and multiply at the very outset tell us God wants life to expand and flourish - especially for us, the bearers of His image. He wants to expand (multiply) the blessings He gives. Hinted at in these blessings is our blessing others. This becomes even clearer as we continue further.

Each new day of creation was a new blessing from God being increasingly expanded. After each day, God pronounced all He did and made was good, i.e. a blessing.

Even after He cleansed the earth of rebellious humanity through the flood, God again pronounces His desire to bless us.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. - Gen 9:1 ESV

He wanted to be sure that after this worldwide "house" cleaning, there was no confusion that his primary desire had not changed and it was still to bless us, not destroy us - even in our state of rebellion. 

God also confirmed and illustrated His desire to bless us when He called Abram and promised to bless him.

1 Then the LORD said to Abram, ²“Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land ³I will show you.

2 ³I will make you into a great nation, and ³I will bless you;

³I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

3 ³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you;

and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

God's ultimate goal with Abram from the beginning of his call was to bless all nations through ¹him; not simply to bless Abram (or only His immediate progeny) so that only he or they could bask in the blessings and forget about everyone else.

The more we dig into scripture, the more we see that whenever God gives us anything - any blessing, i.e. ¹resource, etc - he always asks us to turn around and use it to bless others.

Why?

Because we are in His image - designed and called to be like God. 

Who is God? What is He like? 

God is an ⁴endless and perpetual overflowing fountain of love who calls us to be like Him, to be His children...a "chip off the old block," if you will. 

We are called to love as He loves us - and to give as we have received from Him. This, in large part, is what it means to be in his image.

This is also the very essence of the 1st and 2nd commandments on which all other commands are based.

This commandment involves us receiving from God life, love, and all things, and then sharing with our neighbor (others) what we receive.

How? It is only through our connection with God, being loved by Him (and recognizing how much he loves us in and through Christ but also through the many blessings of creation he has given us), and responding to His love by loving Him with all that we are and have, so that we can love our neighbors in the same way we desire to be loved (and are being loved through all the beauty and abundance given to us now in and through creation).

Contrary to the common approach to living, life isn't about getting to keep and only indulging ourselves in the blessings of life, but about getting to give. It isn't getting all you can and then sitting on and protecting our individual "can" but "getting" (receiving) all we can so we might give all we can. This is who God is and who He's designed and called us to be as bearers of His image. The more we receive, the more we are to give. To use Christ's words, "to whom much is given, much is required." And the servant who is faithful in little, will be given more.

In short, life is about being like God; living as He does, is, and designed us to be - to receive and give love as the Father and Son do between each other from all eternity past (Jn 17:25b). All this happens in, by, and through the Spirit - the Spirit of infinite and passionate love for another - God first and others that bear His image.

What is the nature and greatness of God's giving, and how did he demonstrate it? He gave until it hurt i.e. Sacrificially. He gave the very Son of His infinite and eternal affection so we might enter into that very same community of affection between the Father and Son and partake of God, who is love and life Himself (Jn 17:3); the Creator and giver of all we have and are. 

We are to be holy for He is holy i.e., like God. Holiness isn't about being perfect in conduct, but perfect in our focus and passion for God, in the same way He is for Himself. 

He is most worthy of all our affections, worship, honor, and glory. God ²is glorious and designed and calls us to partake in His glory and be glorious like Him. In so doing we bring Him the greatest honor and experience our greatest joy.

We will never experience true life as God intends until we live as he lives i.e., by receiving His overflowing blessings and sharing them with others.

And we will never be able to live this way until we partake of His life as He experiences it in the giving and receiving of glory between the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit.

For a discussion on sowing and reaping click here. 

For a discussion on legitimate vs illegitimate business click here 

For a discussion on giving what you have click here.

Use it or lose it, click here. 

Is making a lot of money ever legit, click here. 

For a discussion on excellence, click here. 

For a discussion on being diligent, click here

For a discussion on diligence vs being undisciplined click here

For a discussion on the fallacy of the health and wealth gospel, click here.

For a discussion on how faith is hard work, click here.

For a discussion on socialism versus capitalism, click here 

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Footnotes:

¹What comprises our resources? Any and all blessings we receive or possess, be it time, good health, money, things, talents, abilities, skills, experiences unique to us, etc.

²“Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you..."

All the things we normally look to and depend on for our sense of identity and meaning - e.g. our national origin and heritage, wealth (our own land) our extended family (kindred), and even our immediate family, Abraham was called upon by God to walk *away from and look to Him alone as the source of all he is and has...i.e. go to the land I will show you..."

*He also called him to walk towards all he previously sought and had by promising to make him a great family and nation of his own... again, so he might know that God alone is the source of all blessings and in turn us them to bless others.

GOD was calling Abraham to shift his dependence away from those things that we all naturally seek and instead place his dependence solely on God for those things.  This tells us that these things are good and right to desire 

This tells us that these things are good and right to desire but not outside of God but in and through him. God is not opposed to us having these things but He's opposed to our trying to obtain them on our own without looking to and acknowledging Him as the Giver.

³Which also involves recognizing everything we are and already have comes from him.

⁴God was rebuilding Abrams ⁶identity from the ground up. He was telling him every good thing you desire - your own land, your very own nation through your children, a great reputation - I will provide for you and that so you might honor me by being a blessing to others.

Our receiving what we need and value most is not by pursuing these directly but by being like God and blessing others, i.e. seeking first the kingdom of God. God loves to give us all these things (Rom 8:31-32; Matt 7:9-11) as long as we don't forget it is He who gives them. And He does so that we might bless others, becoming the means by which others find, see, and experience God through us.

⁵A God of overflowing abundance, beauty, love, majesty, glory, blessing, and joy.

⁶Abram eventually became Abraham (Gen 17:5). He went from being not just a father of Issac (and ultimately Israel) - as Abram - but a father of many nations - as Abraham.  

God is a God of overflowing abundance and desires we partake of that abundance and in turn, share it with others. This is a primary part of what it means to be like God - in His image.