death and hell defeated

When Scripture says Satan is defeated and Christ now holds the keys to death and hell, what does this mean? 

This is simply saying that death no longer holds the same meaning and effect it once did. Satan and death no longer have the final word regarding our eternal destination i.e. our eternal separation from God and loss of all the gifts of life we now enjoy. When we are in Christ, death now means we are ushered into his presence when we die and exit this veil of tears. This is why Paul said,

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:“Death is swallowed up in victory.”  “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Co 15:54-57

This does not mean pain and suffering (or Satan) are eliminated in this life, or that death no longer exists (people die every day). It simply means if we are in Christ, death no longer signifies judgment and our ultimate separation from our Creator, nor do the accusations of Satan that we are worthless, guilty, and justly condemned. Why? Because our acceptance by God is based solely on Christ's efforts, not ours. 

Pain, suffering, and death have been conquered, neutered, defused, altered, and are even redeemed and used to bring life in this present world (i.e. to draw us closer to God, who is life). Ultimately, they will no longer be useful or necessary and will eventually be done away with altogether. 

If we are in Christ, they are no longer tools or instruments of destruction and eternal separation from God but are now used as a means of deliverance from our focus and preoccupation with self.

Death no longer means final and eternal death because the sting of death has been removed. Before Christ, the sting was that it ultimately led to condemnation and eternal separation from the Source of life, love, and all the blessings of creation. It no longer does for those who are in Christ. Now death is used as a means to life and ushers us into His presence in this life, with fullness of life awaiting us. 

" 'O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' " The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."  1Co 15:55-57

Christ fulfilled the demands of the law and our just condemnation for all the harm we caused others by ignoring it!

2Co 12:7  So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited (who do you think gave the thorn...it wasn't Satan himself. And note it is described as a gift, not a curse or punishment).

When the Bible says that Christ now holds the keys to death and hell, it does not mean he's eliminated these, but by his resurrection, he overcame them, and now he's redeeming and using the challenges for our ultimate good and his glory. All this is offered to us if we receive His gift of eternal life in, by, and through Christ! Only through Christ is this true. 

Disconnected from the Source of all things

We suffer because we, along with all of humanity, are ¹disconnected from our Creator; the Source of life, love, and all things. As a result we don't function as we were designed to. In a word we are ¹broken.

We also suffer because the rest of the created order is in bondage as a result of our choosing to turn away from God.

Our rebellious distrust of God is the core reason for ²pain, suffering, corruption, and death.

God did not (and does not) cause evil or suffering. It is the organic result of our choosing to reject and walk away from Him; to live independent of Him and attempt to make life work without Him who is the Source of life, love, and all things. If you turn off the light switch (or unscrew the lightbulb), the light goes out. The one who made the device - e.g. light switch - isn't the problem; the one who doesn't use the device as designed is.  

However, God uses the resulting pain of our disconnection to reveal to us that He is the ultimate Source of love, life, and all things. Pain itself is not good. But God uses it for good by showing us our need for Him who is not only good but best. He is best because He is the Source life. We were created to experience our highest good in and through a relationship with him.

Pain does not have the last word regarding evil; God does.

How does God use evil for good?

 

Suffering can reveal to us how life does not work (as intended) without Him, so we might be drawn back into a loving relationship with him i.e. learn how to flip the light switch on or screw in the light bulb.

He does not (and did not) cause evil itself but he does use it. It becomes a tool to turn us back to Himself and shape us, making us a more perfect bearer (reflector) of His image i.e. He uses it to make us more like His Son who is the perfect reflector of God.

God is greater than evil. Evil doesn't win, God does even in and through evil. 

¹For a further discussion on being broken click here.

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Footnotes:

¹We are not completely disconnected objectively. In Him we live, move, and have our being. Without Him we or anything else would not be.

But we are disconnected subjectively, consciously, willfully, and personally.

²Pain is the ³loss (or absence) of the good things God has created that we use to ease or mask our pain. Pain is a reminder to turn back to God, our ultimate good, and no longer to the good things we use to self comfort. 

Nothing is wrong with creation in itself. It is the misuse of it that is our problem. Creation is not the Source, but only the means by which God seeks to convey his love and goodness.  

The reason created things don't work long term - meet our deepest need - is our need is permanent not temporary - we are designed for infinite love (God's love) not temporary comfort. Created things are temporary. They do not have life in themselves but are sustained by Christ. "... And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together"

³For an extended discussion of this last point, click here. 

Which comes 1st, grace or humility?

Which occurs first? Our seeing God as the Source of life, love, and all created things more clearly or our being weaned from an ¹inordinate delight in created things? 

Several places in scripture teach that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. This indicates humility comes ²before grace (i.e., the gift of ³God revealing Himself more fully to us) or at least humility is the means of experiencing ongoing and increasing grace. 

We must recognize attempts at being our own God - our arrogant independence - do not work long-term, i.e., we must humble ourselves. We must die to live. Death to our attempts to save ourself comes before life. 

God is our greatest happiness. Anything that increases our union with Him is good, even (and maybe especially) pain.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

 

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.

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Footnotes:

¹Why do we hold on to and pursue created things so tenaciously? It allows us to temporarily cling to our independence from God. We want the delights of creation without the humility of admitting they are all gifts from our Creator or the necessity of our submission to and dependence on Him. 

²The old saying is you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. 

However, you can also salt its oats. 

The choice to not drink is up to the horse. Salting its oats is up to someone else. 

While the choice to humble ourselves precedes our experience of grace, pain is often a means by which we are humbled. We often have no control over painful circumstances, even though we have control over how we respond to them i.e. we can either humble ourselves in response to pain or become defient and rage at God for it.

³it is not because God is hiding that we can't see Him, but because our pride - our tenacious clinging to our independence - blinds us to seeing Him clearly. It takes humility to see and appreciate humility i.e. to see Christ as the humble servant He is. We can't see or grasp what Christ is truly like without humility because He is humble. 

Without humility we project on to God arrogance when He says we should honor and praise Him i.e. we don't see Him correctly. We suppress the truth in our unrighteousness i.e. our unbelief and valuing (worshiping) created things over our Creator (Rom 1:18-23).

Yes Christ is the Lion of Judah but he is also the Lamb of God who willingly humbled and submitted himself to the Father to be slain... and that for our sake and the Father's glory i.e. he did this for the sake of others. 

What is spiritual blindness?

Spiritual blindness. What is it and why does it occur? 

There are two parts.

The 1st part has to do with our being creatures (finite) and not the Creator (who is infinite). Even though we are like God in many significant ways we are not God. This is not a blindness per se but more a limitation as created beings. 

The 2nd deals with our rebellion to our creaturehood i.e. to our limits.

How do these affect our moral choices?

 

1. We are finite (limited) - which includes our understanding - and do not know everything there is to know, and must know, in order to make the right and best choices - though we often think and act as if we do. 

Only God is all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, and everywhere present. These characteristics enable Him to know the right and best course at all times, in all things, with the unlimited ability to carry it out. We, on the other hand, are not all-knowing and do not know the best course of action or have the ability to live it out perfectly without His wisdom, enabling (power), and direction. 

2. We must recognize we are in rebellion against God, the Source of all knowledge and understanding. We have turned away and cut ourselves off from Him whenever we seek the right course on our own - i.e., when we seek to "be like God" knowing good and evil; right from wrong - without His input and direction.

Adam and Eve choosing to eat from the forbidden tree clearly demonstrated they did not know right from wrong, or have infinite knowledge, otherwise they would not have eaten from it i.e. it was forbidden for a good reason. A reason they clearly did not understand or feel the need to agree with. 

We often choose the wrong course, believing (trusting) we are right. We seek to take the role of God - i.e., to be like God in knowing right from wrong - when we clearly are not God - demonstrated by all the pain and suffering of humanity as the result of making the choice He warned them not to make (which was clearly the wrong choice).

Only God has full knowledge of good and evil i.e., He knows all things. In other words, only he knows perfectly the best course of action to take in any and all situations. We do not. 

Because He does, we must seek and follow him - His directions - to know what is truly good and evil, and not seek to ¹determine this on our own. This is what Adam tried to do in the Garden of Eden when they chose to eat from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

For us to receive understanding and direction from God, we must do the opposite of what Adam sought to do. We must humble ourselves i.e., accept our limitations and admit we are not God who knows all things. ¹We do not know right from wrong without God revealing it to us. Whatever understanding we have of right from wrong only occurs because God has told or shown us. 

As Proverbs 3:5-6 says, we are to...Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, (that He alone knows all things) and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

¹We do not see how arrogant and flagrant a violation of reality this truly is - unless God reveals it to us. In fact we sympathize with Adams choice. We are rebels and in rebellion to God who alone knows right from wrong. 

If Adam and Eve had made the right choice and rejected the serpent's proposal (a promise to be like God in a way they aren't designed to be), they would have stepped onto the right road of knowing (understanding) good and evil the right way, i.e., in faith-filled obedience to God vs rebellious distrust of Him. The issue wasn't that God didn't want them to know good and evil, but to know it the right way, i.e., under His care and guidance, not on their own with our limitations. .

For a discussion on how God created us with choice before we rebelled against Him, click here.

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Footnotes:

¹Though over time, through trial-and-error, we learn there is design in the physical universe and act accordingly e.g. we learn that going without air or water will eventually result in our death or putting our hand in the fire will result in getting burned. This article is addressing our moral and spiritual understanding i.e. what is right and wrong and that right and wrong is a real thing - it actually exists objectly.

Advancing in pain

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

But maybe that's the wrong question and 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. 

What does it profit us if we gain the whole world but lose our own soul?

Isn't the opposite also true? What if we lose the whole world and gain our eternal soul? Is this not far more valuable than having the world?

While pain is ultimately the fruit of our rebellious distrust of God, He still uses it for our good. 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 suffering 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 advancing, we will not embrace them with thanks, learn from them, and let them advance our maturity and walk with God. When we recognize our 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 in them. 

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 or loss 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 with thanks instead of 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 and designs 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 this pain in the world? What's proof do we have that He is all-loving?" 

Glad you asked! 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.

Suffering... has God abandon us?

"Thus says the Lord: 

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. ("...who by their ⁴unrighteousness suppresses the truth..." - Rom 1:18) 

He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 

He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? - Jer 17:5-9 ESV 

Why do pain and suffering remain? 

Pain and suffering are the natural (organic) results of our ongoing disconnect from God. 

Our disconnect is due to our ongoing distrust of Him. 

God does not curse us. Our disconnect is our curse.

Pain reveals and exposes the depth of our rebellious distrust of God. It is the fruit of our distrust. 

Why does suffering remain? So we might fully see the destructiveness of our distrust and the need to have it purged from our hearts and lives. 

Why? So we might turn back to God and find true life in Him and more fully partake of His love as He designed us to. 

We come into this world in a state of rebellious distrust, and absent our original connection/union with ¹God we were designed for. God seeks to restore this connection so we might be in union and a relationship with Him again.

God is love and therefore life itself - and we are in His image, i.e., created to receive and give love. His absence - due to our rebellious distrust - creates an emptiness we desperately seek to fill. Because of our rebellious distrust of God we seek to fill it with anything other than Him who alone can fill us. We look to anything we have access to or can "get our hands on" to fill the void of God's absence. In short, we trust in ourselves to fill the void instead of God  - "...we make flesh our strength..." 

Pain is such a common part of life that we rarely consider it exists because of ²God's absence, much less because of our rebellious distrust of Him. So we trudge along, clinging to our current rebellion in painful emptiness, desperately trying to make the best of things without God. 

We rarely consider how deeply we distrust God and how this impacts everything we do. ³We refuse to see that we - and everything else - depends on the Creator for its very breath and existence. 

Suggesting this is our true condition is mocked and ridiculed. Accepting this is fiercely resisted and denied individually and collectively. The world system is build on distrust in God and living independently from Him i.e. making life work without Him; proving God is not necessary for true life.

Occasionally, our pain and suffering become so acute and our ability to handle it so inadequate that we see and finally acknowledge our true condition and turn back to Him in total trust. 

Life is an ongoing journey through the wilderness of this broken world to test whether we will continue to choose rebellious independence from God - as Adam and Eve did - or unconditional trust in God - as Christ displayed while on earth. 

Does suffering mean that God has abandoned us? Quite the opposite.

Suffering exists so that we might recognize we are not created to be our own God and return to Him -- who is Love itself and the Source of life, and all things -- in trust and humility. Our struggles are the means by which we learn to grow deep roots into Him. 

Every time we experience the loss of something we look to for life - whether that be wealth, fame, natural gifts or talents, our health, a loved one, through substance abuse, etc. - it's an opportunity for us to turn to Him who alone IS life. 

Christ asked what do we profit if we gain the whole world and loose our very souls. But the opposite is also true. If losing the world results in gaining our souls we profit infinitely as well as eternally. 

He sent Christ as proof of His love and His desire to pour it out on you. He did for you what you can not do - trust God without conditions - and offers to credit you with His righteousness. Do you trust Him?

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FOOTNOTES: 

¹in whose image we were created 

²if we acknowledge God at all, it is to blame Him for our pain instead of acknowledging our rebellious distrust, which results in His absence. 

³I'm referring to our objective dependence, not a conscious (subjective) dependence. Everything that exists is because God sustains it as well as brought it into existence. This is the objective reality of our world and our existence. Our subjective denial of this is our problem. 

⁴God does not curse us. Our rebellious distrust of Him does. 

What is unrighteousness: ἀδικίᾳ (adikia)? - sometimes translated as wickedness. Where does it come from? It is the outward fruit of our inward rebellious distrust of God that results in... 

wickedness 

Strong's 93: 

Injustice, unrighteousness, hurt. 

From adikos; injustice; morally, wrongfulness.

There are two elements to unrighteousness. The outward manifestation - our conduct - of an inward disposition of distrust. The former is the fruit of the latter. 

All "sinful" conduct - no matter what outward *form it takes - springs forth  from distrust in God. Distrust is the energy, passion, and drive behind bad (unrighteous) actions. At the heart of sinful behavior is distrust - unbelief i.e. distrust of God - unbelief - is the essence of all sinful behavior. 

*they are "...works of the flesh..."

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: 

sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. 

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

⁵

From Adam to Christ

Before our rebellion, it appears we were spiritually ²neutral. As image bearers we had the capacity, unlike any other creature, to fellowship with God and did i.e. we could willingly receive and return His love. But we weren't ²inclined toward or away from God. You could say we were a blank slate.

However, we were also finite. And because of our limits we had no way of verifying on our own, with ⁶absolute certainty who was truthful and trustworthy, God or the serpent. 

Ultimately, it came down to trust. Our ¹trust in God hadn't yet been tested or confirmed. We had no reason to question God prior to that conversation with the serpent. The serpent's suggestions put into Adam and Eves mind doubt about God and His love for them for the first time. 

This is also why there were 2 special trees in Eden. (And not just anywhere in the garden but at its center). 

⁴We were given two contradictory claims or "promises" from two distinct sources and had to choose which one we believed. In God's original instructions, "do not eat..." it is clear God wanted them to have a choice. 

When humanity's trust was tested, we chose (and continue to choose) to trust ourselves (be our own god) instead of the only true God. We believed we could - and can - decide what was (and is) best for us without God, and know ²good and evil without looking to or depending on God for input. We set ourselves up as the final arbitrator of what is good or evil - an act of rebellion towards God as the Creator of all things and also a lie which was contrary to our design. This continues to be the present modus operandi for all humanity to this day. 

Ever since our rebellion, we are naturally inclined towards distrust of others, God first, as well as each other. 

We went from being neutral to being bent away from God, and we remain that way to this day. We (and humanity as a whole) are now broken, fragmented, and continue to come "unglued" as we seek to find life and make it work without God. 

Without God's help, all our actions are rooted in self-trust and distrust of God. Every time we make choices without looking to God for input, we are saying God is not necessary to live life at the highest level. 

The solution?

The second Adam compared to the first. 

The Spirit led Christ into the wilderness after His baptism (when the Father said He was well pleased with His Son), and thus Christ's formal ministry began. 

Christ's trust in the Father was tested 3 times in the wilderness; as was Adam's. Unlike Adam, Christ passed each time. 

Christ's trust was also ⁷tested throughout his incarnation, and culminated in Gethsemane right before his betrayal and crucifixion, when he said "...let this cup pass from me...but not my will, but yours be done..." and also on the cross "...My God, why have you forsaken me?" 

Being placed into Christ vs remaining in Adam. 

Christ's passing of these ⁷tests of trust was for us, not him. His passing them can now be assigned to us as if we passed them when we didn't and haven't. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded!

But we are asked to trust God - like Adam - one more time to receive this offer. It is not forced on us. Yes, we can refuse to trust, but we are left to bear the consequences of our rebellious distrust (as Adam was) and the harm it causes ³God, others, and ourselves. 

For a further discussion on the initial rebellion of man - i.e. "the fall" - click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹As finite beings, we cannot operate without trust. To do so would require us to be all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present. Only God is infinite and has these attributes; we do not. 

During Christ's incarnation, he was not all-knowing. This was part of his emptying himself (the kenosis). He said many times there were things he did not know in his present human form. This is also why Christ, as a man, operated by faith, like we do and must.

²knowing good and evil was basically knowing right from wrong. Apparently, in their original state and before their rebellion, they needed to confide in God when presented with a choice between right and wrong. The serpent suggested they (we) could be "free" from this seeming shackle if we ate from the forbidden tree. However, we made our choice by ignoring God's instructions to not eat of the forbidden tree and have reaped the consequences ever since, i.e., pain, suffering, and death. 

³we can not harm God personally. God needs no one or nothing outside of Himself and nothing from us. But we can bring dishonor to Him by our thoughts, words, and deeds, resulting on our hindering others from seeing Him as He truly is, ultimately leading to their harm. 

For us to speak and act as if God is not worthy of honor is leading others to do the same i.e. away from God. But He alone is worthy of all honor and glory because He is the Source of life, love, and all things. To Him all glory is deserved and should be given.

Our rejection of our dependence on God was contrary to who we are - creatures dependent on our Creator - and who is as the giver of life, love, and all things. Going contrary to this reality brings real harm and destruction to ourselves, others as well as dishonors God for who He truly is. Diminishing God in the eyes of others by our words and actions draws them away from God which leads them to harm and destruction. 

Christ honored His Father in all he said and did but was treated exactly the opposite of this. And now the Father offers to credit Christ's ⁵faithfulness to you as if this is how you now live. If we are in Christ, the Father only sees the Son's perfect faithfulness as if it was our own and He is well pleased with us, as He is with the Son.

⁴Adam and Eve represented us, not in the sense of acting on our behalf but in the sense that given the same set of circumstances we would have made the exact same choice they did. 

We prove that daily by making similar kinds of choices now i.e., we prefer being our own god and being independent of God instead of dependent on Him. We are not accountable for Adam and Eves choice but our own with one exception. We have a chance to choose God again and totally reverse the legal consequences of our distrust of God - and also the practical consequences in eternity as well - because God provided a way to be restored if we accept His offer.

⁵Keep in mind that Christ's faithfulness was not a walk in the park. He was faithful in the face of all the adversity Christ endured and all the riches He set aside to become a man so he could suffer and die, that we would not have to. 

⁶though the evidence was clearly in God's favor since Adam experienced 1st hand the creation of Eve while he saw no such demonstration of power by the serpent. 

⁷As a man , Christ went from untested to tested obedience. Unlike Adam, he passed the test and now assigns His perfect test results to all those who put  their trust in Him.

The foundation of true happiness

Our greatest joy is the happiness we experience from bringing happiness to someone we deeply love i.e. the delight we experience in bringing another joy by treating them with value.

To love someone is to so identify with their ¹well being that we cannot be happy unless they are also happy i.e. their spiritual ¹flourishing first is what makes us happy. 

This is the same kind of love a spiritually and emotionally mature and healthy parent has for their child. It is sacrificial love. It is love in spite of any qualities we do not like in them.

This is the same kind of love God has for us. He is most happy (delighted) when we are most happy. And we are happiest when our happiness is in Him. God has tied His joy to ours and ours in turn is tied to His. 

However due to our rebellious distrust of God we seek and latch on to created things for happiness instead of Him. 

But this only works short term. It is contrary to our design as bearers of His image and therefore does not bring true long term happiness. 

So how does God draw us to himself so we find in Him the greatest happiness? By helping us see that true and lasting happiness is not in created things. 

Our problem is we are so fixated on created things - whether that be the abilities we internally possess by birth or resources we have aquired or have access to. To find true and lasting happiness we must be weaned from creation as our ²primary source of happiness. But this ³usually involves denial or loss of these gifts which is painful. 

The irony is pain - which makes us least happy - is often a primary means to our greatest happiness, which is ultimately God Himself. 

But this is only due to our distrust of God i.e. pain is caused by our attaching to things that do not make us truly happy long term. God does not cause pain. It is the absence of God that causes pain. 

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Footnotes:

¹What does spiritual flourishing entail? Experiencing our greatest glory, God himself, which can lead to flourishing in all other ways i.e. emotionally, relationally, and sometimes physically/ materially. I say "can" lead as long as God remains our first (primary) love. To find created things our focus leads us away from our ultimate good which is God.

²Creation is not bad, it is good. But when our hearts look to created things as the source of our greatest happiness we are operating contrary to God's intent and our design as bearers of His image. 

This is out of line with reality of who He is and we are. This is bad because it's contrary to who we are designed to be i.e. God is the greatest source of our happiness. Without Him there would be no creation or true happiness. 

³Being denied or losing the blessings of this life is only necessary when our love for them is greater than our love for God. As painful as this is, it occurs so we might experience the ultimate and greater good, God Himself. This is God's intent behind all pain and suffering. Now it is up to us to see, believe, and receive God's love hidden in our pain. 

Love and/or consequences

As God's children, we are no longer ³condemned by God for our ¹poor choices. Legally there is no ³condemnation for those who are in Christ.  

But neither are we ⁴protected practically from the short-term consequences of those choices and the actions that follow. 

The creation - which includes us as bearers of God's image - operates best according to God's design (law). To violate that design results in things not operating properly or fully.

When the legal consequences of our rebellious distrust are removed, it changes us. We are now "seated in the heavenlies" in Christ. Grasping this new reality of our status with God creates within us gratitude and love for Jesus, who removed the kegak consequences. 

There is a difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally restrained one. Love changes us. The law restrains us. Love changes us from within. The law restrains us from without. Both are necessary in making good choices. 

God's law is good and necessary because it lays out and defines how things are designed to operate. To ignore it results in harm to us and others.

These two realities - ⁷love and law - are the positive and negative guardrails that are intended to help drive or guide all true believers' words and actions. 

Love motivates believers to make the right choices (which leads to right actions). 

Fear (respect) of negative consequences motivates us to avoid the wrong ones. 

As God's children, we have no fear of rejection by God, but should still recognize and fear that living contrary to His design always has practical - vs legal - negative consequences. 

As image bearers of God, all our choices matter because we are created to love and honor God. To live contrary to this design results in harm and destruction to ourselves and others. Consequences aren't a direct judgment of God but the organic result of violating God's design.

As God's children our choices do not matter as far as being perfectly loved and accepted by God. In Christ we are always infinitely and perfectly loved and fully accepted and embraced. 

But as the bearers of God's image our choices still must align with how God designed us and the world around us to operate.

These two realities - love and law - appear to be at ⁶odds with each other. But being fully loved and ²experiencing consequences for poor choices are each as true as if the other does not exist. But because of Christ these ⁵exist and work together. Both for our ultimate gain and benefit. 

For a further discussion on the "anatomy" of motivation, click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹By poor choices I simply mean disobedience. Disobedience is the resulting outcome (actions) of our rebellious distrust of God. (This always result in harm to ourselves and others). And distrust is at the heart of our choosing to be our own god. Our desire to be like god - in a way we are not designed to be - was the temptation our original parents bought into that brought pain and death into the world. 

We still operate this way to this day, perpetuating that pain. The present pain, suffering and death we see in the world now reminds us that our choices still matter.

²God may mercifully suspend the the full consequences of poor choices when we sincerely acknowledge them - i.e. "repent." But there is no guarantee. This would be a supernatural intervention and interference of their natural (organic) outcome. Without His mercy (intervention) the consequences will remain, hence His intervention is merciful.

Plus only God knows the sincerity of our heart (and what best aids our maturing) and when we truly abandon (turn away or repent of) a poor choice or only pretend to in order to get some kind of relief or benefit. 

God's objective is our drawing nearer to Him, which is a matter of the heart first. This results in a change in behavior.

³Why are we no longer legally held accountable and condemned for our words and actions contrary to our design and God's will? Because Christ was condemned in our place. The very fact that someone (Christ) was condemned means God's law (will, design) matters. It is vital that these are adhered to. There are always consequence for violating it (them). Because of Christ stepping in for us and taking the condemnation we rightly deserve,  the long term legal consequences no longer fall on us but fell on Him. Instead of the judgment and death rightly due us we are given forgiveness and life. These were earned for us not by us.

For those who ask why there is still pain and suffering in the world after Christ bore the legal consequence of mankinds rebellion, it is because our choices that spring forth from our rebellious distrust of God matter. 

⁴there are also benefits (positive "consequences") for operating according to God's design. Whatever we sow - both good and bad - we also reap. This is why non believers can flourish circumstantially by operating according to God's law. 

Nowhere does the Bible indicate the law is bad, but the opposite. It is seeking to justify ourselves through obedience to God's law that is wrong, not the law itself. 

⁵"Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other." - Psa 85:10 

⁶Our natural inclination is to try to earn God's love. This is why those who claim to be believers have a hard time acknowledging how they come up short. In their minds this means our rejection by God. In order to be fully honest about our rebellious condition we must see God's perfect acceptance and embrace of us because of Christ.

To believe this it is possible to earn God's love does not recognize we can never be perfect enough to earn it. This is why Christ came.

⁷giving us the law is actually an indication and expression of love. What we value most we desire is well cared for. Because everything operates best by design, giving direction on how something (someone) functions best is because we value i.e. love it (or them). Law is not our problem. Using it in an attempt to justify ourselves is our problem. It is a misuse of the law. 

AI edit...

The gift of the law reflects love, as we seek to care for what we cherish most. When we value something—or someone—we provide guidance to help it thrive according to its design. The law itself isn’t the issue; the problem arises when we use it to justify ourselves. This is misuse of the law. 

Combined...

The gift of the law is actually an indication and expression of love. We seek to care for what we cherish. Because everything operates best by design, giving direction on how something (someone) functions best is because we value it i.e. love it (or them). Law is not our problem. Using it in an attempt to justify ourselves is our problem. It is a misuse of the law. 

Pain, humility, and knowing God

Is there any connection between knowing God, humility, and pain? At first we may not think so. 

Let's take a closer look. 

Since humility is key to knowing, seeing, and experiencing God, we should embrace and receive, with thanks, anything that helps humble us, including and maybe especially pain and suffering.  

Instead of bristling at pain and pursuing ¹anything we can find to distract or relieve us from it, we should embrace struggles and be grateful for them. They are a vital means of drawing us nearer to God. 

Knowing God is far more significant and beneficial than short-term relief from our struggles (though it often doesn't feel that way at the moment). Seeing and knowing this enables us to receive suffering with gratitude.

In short, the reason we are to be thankful for our struggles (vs complaining about them) is they ²can be and usually are a primary means of strengthening our understanding and relationship with God who is the source of life, love, and all things i.e. pain ²can be a very unpleasant means to the greatest and most desirable and pleasant end - our increased union with God and the joy and happiness we find in Him. So while the loss of things we rely on for comfort or pleasure are painful, they become the very means by which we are drawn closer to God, the Source of life, love, and all things. 

Thankfulness is the best indicator of humility. Humility is the key to seeing and knowing God in all His infinite love and glory.

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:

¹drugs, alcohol, and sex are some of the more obvious and most common diversions. But diversions can also be more socially acceptable pursuits, such as recreation, career, entertainment, material possessions, food, power, control, fame, or anything else pleasant that will help distract us or relieve us from pain. Boredom is also a form of low-grade pain. 

This is not because pleasure in itself or those things among creation that bring us pleasure are bad. God created us for pleasure but in, by, and through Him. But when comfort or pleasure in itself (the opposite of pain) becomes a higher pursuit than God, it is contrary to our design of finding our greatest happiness in God and what He provides. 

²Actually pain and struggle is a primary means to our increasing maturity and greater union with God when received with thanksgiving. I say "can" because it depends on us trusting that God is using our pain for our ultimate good (even the pain caused by the failures and offenses of others). Otherwise, suffering will only make us angry and embitter us. 

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;" - Heb 12:15. No one likes being around a bitter and angry person - except maybe others who are the same way... "birds of a feather..." as the saying goes.  

It is worth noting that the author of Hebrews was writing to people going through intense persecution and suffering at the hands of others.

Hebrews 12:6-8 ESV

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” ⁷It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons... 

Hebrews 12:11 ESV

¹¹For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Other passages that directly or indirectly address this vital truth... 

James 1:2-4 ESV

²Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

Ephesians 5:20

"...giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"  

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." 

Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

This last passage is particularly interesting because we often go to God in prayer for relief from difficulties, yet God says we should give thanks in those very kinds of prayers i.e. don't just seek God for relief, seek God himself and be grateful for everything that aids you in knowing Him better, especially difficulties. 

Romans 8:28-29 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

The good that God is achieving in all things (vs 28) - both hard and comforting - is making us more like His Son (vs 29), not necessarily improved circumstances.

Trust or isolation?

When we speak of trusting others we are also talking about ⁴faith. We may understand the importance of trust but this also indicates that ¹no one operates without ⁴faith as well. The two are tied together. 

For society to function well, there must be faith (trust). It is essential for people to work well together. Without it we isolate and things come unglued, fragment, and fall apart. We increasingly see this in society as integrity in relationships continues to deteriorate, particularly among those in positions of influence, such as those in government, business, or other leadership rolls.

Relationships of every kind require faith (trust) on many levels. Trust in someone else's knowledge, wisdom, ability, intentions, character, and integrity, etc. 

And confidence (trust) by others in us as well. Trust must go both ways in a healthy relationship. It is constantly either being reinforced or eroded by one's actions. 

Ultimately, at the bottom of it all, there needs to be trust in God. This is the most vital of all. On this, everything else rests and depends.

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Footnotes:

¹Some think faith is ⁴unnecessary. They don't need to count on - trust in - others. They can simply count on themselves and operate well alone. 

However, this is also based on faith. Faith that we have or can obtain everything necessary ²to function at the highest level on our own. Others are not necessary.

But we are limited. We don't know everything and don't have unlimited resources or the ability to obtain all that is necessary to reach our maximum potential, no matter how talented we may be or how hard we try. 

By ourselves, we aren't even sure what our highest good is. Is it having unlimited wealth, power, knowledge, influence, popularity, praise, or recognition, as the world often presents? 

What exactly is our highest good and purpose that will give us the greatest sense of purpose, meaning, and happiness in life? 

Only someone with perfect and infinite knowledge would know, and that is not us. 

Who would know and have this understanding better than our Designer, who Created and Sustains of all things i.e. the One who created everything for a specific reason and with a specific purpose in mind? 

If this all-wise and all-powerful being exists, it would be wise to find out why He made us (you) and everything else, would it not? 

²It may be ³safer to function on our own, but do we want to be safe or do we want to flourish and reach our greatest potential? 

God also created us as relational beings. First to have a relationship with Him, but also relationships with others. If so, reaching our highest good without relationships is not possible. 

It is for good reason the Bible says the greatest commandment is to love God with all you have and your neighbors as yourself. Both are about relationships.

It simply is not possible to operate well completely on our own. If you haven't watched the movie "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks, it illustrates this well. 

³In order for betrayal to occur, trust must be violated. If there is no trust, there can be no violation. This is why some refuse to trust anymore. They seek to avoid the pain of betrayal. They are acting out of fear instead of faith (trust) in God. 

But this requires isolation, which has its own set of issues. If we are designed for relationship, we can never be complete on our own.

 

In the long run, isolation prevents us from experiencing life to the fullest extent we are designed for. Those who isolate have decided that a safe life is better than the fullest and best possible life; the life God created us to have. To live a safe life is to also miss out on the greatest riches God offers.

⁴I think there is a slight distinction between trust and faith. We usually consider trust to be something we give someone after they have proven themselves trustworthy through our personal experience with them. Whereas faith may be regarded as more of something "blind," i.e. we trust someone without first-hand experience of their trustworthiness, but more from something we heard someone did in the past to or for someone else. For example, we are told Christ died for us, yet this was over two thousand years ago. We did not witness this event firsthand. But we may be compelled to believe it is trustworthy for various reasons, such as the loving behavior of someone who trusts the claims and actions of Christ, or the confirmation of Christ's claims via the archeological or historical evidence that Christ was and did what we told us he did and said.

Faith is disregarded and considered so taboo by some that they avoid using the word altogether (a carryover from "the age of reason" and our postmodern view of the world, and a disregard for all things spiritual i.e. that which is beyond the material world we can see and touch). So they replace it with words like trust and confidence. But when we peel back the layers, at the bottom of it all is faith in some form. 

While faith might have more to do with belief in something (usually God) and trust with dependence upon something or someone (not necessarily God) they are essentially the same thing i.e. only the object of our faith or trust is different, not necessarily the nature of dependence (trust) itself.