Experiencing God's love… By faith or action?

We can only bring God's infinite love to others to the extent we have received it ourselves.

Why do we need to receive it before we can give it? Because in and of ourselves we do not have the ¹love others need. We are all designed for perfect love but cut ourselves off from the Father in all his infinite love by our rebellious distrust (our turning away from trust in God to trust in our self) and our attempts at living independent of this love and life i.e. God himself. We are now void of his love and can only offer it by being reconnected to God through Christ.

Receiving God's love

Receiving his love is not necessarily a feeling or emotional experience but a faith experience; the engaging of our trust. It is believing in the objective reality of God's fixed love for us in Christ. This is what we are called to do; to trust/believe. This is our "work." 

Joh 6:29  Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

Receiving Gods love is believing, receiving and knowing we are already fully loved in Christ, not waiting for some subjective feeling of his love to overwhelm us and drive us to action. And how do we know this? We trust what he's said and did in and through Christ. 

Love (a subjective sense of it) however is also usually experienced and released in and through our loving others. Loving others as God calls us to is itself an act of faith which results in experiencing God's love.

This is why were are told we not only come into the kingdom by faith but we also live it and walk in it by faith. Our experiencing Gods' love starts with faith which in turn leads to even greater faith.

Gal 3:11  Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." See also Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Heb 10:38

It is in our treating others with kindness and compassion (because we have been treated this way by God) that we experience His love in living it out and letting it flow through us to others.

What moves us to action?

Faith is our motivation. Or to be more precise, God himself and his infinite love is. As we believe and receive his love is fully ours (he is for us, not against us) it is released in and through us. This is the primary means -- our faithful obedience to love others as he loves us -- by which we receive/experience his vast unlimited, never-ending love. It is in our  believing his love is fully ours in Christ, we are moved to action/obedience.

This is also what it means to abide in Christ. To ²remain/stay/abide in a posture of faith that God loves us fully and infinitely in Christ regardless of what we do or don't do, feel or don't feel, experience or don't experience. It is only as and when we ²abide that we bear "much fruit." For without Christ (in his infinite all-embracing love) we can "do nothing" i.e. love others with God's kind of love i.e. bear much fruit.

This is the very same love that flows between the Father and Son. If we are in Christ's, this love is fully ours and already dwells in us by his Spirit; the very same Spirit of love that unites the Father and Son. Simply by virtue of God's Spirit living in us, we are living in and under the perfect covering and care of his love, regardless of our feelings i.e. this is the objective reality of our status, our state of being. 

The more we believe his love is totally ours (always fully present with us, in us and on us regardless of feelings or circumstances) the more we are empowered to live it out to others. The more we live out his love to others the more we engage, participate in and experience it. 

Joh 14:21  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." (This was part of the answer of Christ to Phillip to "show us the Father" stated earlier in Joh 14:8  Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.")

The above passage indicates the (subjective) manifestation of God's (objective) love is clearly tied to our pursuit of God i.e. our keeping his commandments. 

Seeing the Father (and subjectively experiencing him fully) is directly tied to keeping God's commandment. The primary commandment being to "love one another" stated later in this same conversation. 

Joh 15:12  "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

So which is first? Do we experience his love by faith or in our acting by faith?

Both

His love has already been fully poured out on us and demonstrated to us by God sending his Son to live and die for us. This is the objective reality of our status before God. There is nothing else needed to fully prove or secure God's love for us. The only thing preventing this love being fully ours (subjectively experiencing it) first hand is believing God and his Son did this for you and I personally and then acting accordingly. Once we recognize and accept Christ's work on our behalf, his Spirit of infinite love takes up his abode within us and his care for us, remains on us (objectively) without conditions.

However, once we are in Christ, we are now called to extend this same love to others who have yet to receive it. In our extending it, it flows to us and through us to others.

Joh 14:21  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

Joh 14:23  Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home (dwell with, abide with, be present) with him.
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¹we all need Gods bottomless, never-ending, infinite love; mere human love, though meaningful, is insufficient.

²For a fuller discussion on abiding, click here. 

Self absorbed or God absorbed

Being self-absorbed is empty and void of true life -- it is temporary, erratic, and insufficient.

Being God ¹absorbed is life -- He is the all-sufficient, permanent, and never-failing source of love, life, and all things.

Since God is life, is it any wonder He is constantly calling us to be obsessed with Him; to love Him with all that we have and are and to always bring Him glory? He's calling us to nothing less than being obsessed with life itself because He is life and fullness of life is in Him alone and nothing else. He calls us to Himself because he loves us that much.  

"And this is eternal life (i.e. permanent life. Life without interruption), that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." - Jesus  Joh 17:3

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' " - Jesus' response to Phillip. John 14:6

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Jesus speaking to the 12 disciples.  Mat 10:39
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¹If this grates on us, it only indicates how bent we are towards being our own god. Who hasn't heard or even made the comment, "a little bit of God is OK but let's not go overboard!" 

However, when you see those fortunate enough to have great success in this life, still have prolonged periods of loneliness and depression; even ending their lives in the midst of such great "success," this should be a clue we were made for more, far more. We were made for infinite love. 

Some have argued we can be so heavenly minded we are no earthly good when it is the other way around. We can not be of any true earthy value until we are totally plugged into the heavenly bliss and glory shared between the Father, Son, and Spirit. Or as Jesus says, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." - Mar 12:30-31. We can only carry out the latter part of this commandment as we plug into the former.

His life is our life

When are we most alive? When we are participating in the life of God. The more we participate, the more alive we become.  

And what is the life of God? It is the joy God has always had and now experiences in the union and communion between the Father and the Son as they gaze upon the beauty (the infinite glory/worth/value) of the other in the Spirit of love and adoration.

We will experience that life to the degree that we turn away from trying to secure life by our own efforts and let him fill us with his life/Spirit.

Jesus said:

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 

"I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. *Yours they were, and you *gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one." - Jesus - Joh 17:3-11 

*This language depicts the value of that which is theirs i.e. us. We are valuable to both the Father and Son. So much so that the Father sent to Son of his eternal affections and the Son agreed to come and restore us back to them. 

#EternalLife #ThotsAboutGod #ThoughtsAboutGod

Overview of Jonathan Edwards theology

The below excerpt is from Kyle Strobel's book Jonathan Edwards Theology: a reinterpretation. Pg 4-5

Underscored, embolden, or italicized words and (parenthetical comments) are my own:

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First, Edwards theology begins with God, and in his eternal life as Trinity, as the ontological principle (nature of being or existence) which grounds his systematic task. 

Second, Edwards begins 'from eternity' and then 'descends' to address God's work in time, i.e. God's economic movement to create (begin something) and sustain (continue) it.

Third, this work in time is the work of redemption, directing the revolutions in the world and guiding it toward resurrection, judgment, and consummation. 

Fourth and finally, Edwards's theology is a theology of redemptive history, grounded in and formed by the God who is redeeming, or more specifically, the God who redeems in, through, and as Christ.

Further elaboration of the above points:

First, Jonathan Edwards's theology is fundamentally Trinitarian. Edwards's account of the trinity is the anchor, or in his words, the fountain of all that is. Edwards's theology traces the contours of the trinity so that the ordering, emphasis, and teleology (final /designed/ planned aim) of his thought find its home in his Trinitarian analysis. 

Several key concepts come into focus as a result of this ordering. 

First, Edwards emphasizes personhood. This emphasis grounds his depiction of the Trinity and organizes his discussions concerning God's attributes and his work of redemption. The formal demarcations (what differentiates and distinguishes persons) of the processions (i.e.The Son and Spirit) are not addressed through origin (e.g. begotteness) but through *personhood (i.e. individual understanding and will. God as a person has his own understanding [his own comprehension of objective truth] and will). 

  *For a further discussion on "personhood" click here. 

Second, Edwards develops his formal analysis of the processions in terms of the beatific vision. The Father gazes upon the Son and the Son upon the Father, not in a detached fashion, but with delight (the Spirits spiration). In other words, the happiness of the Father and Son is the Spirit, and the vision of God shared by Father and Son, is, in Edwards' phrase, 'happifying'. (makes one happy)  

Last, as an account of mutual beholding in the Godhead leading to affections, Edwards' depiction of the Trinity serves as the archetype (he is the source and model; we are like him) for creaturely knowledge of God, i.e. knowing God requires apprehension that happifies.

Second, God descends to create the world and sustains it (GOD is the first cause and initiator who comes to us. We do not go up to him). Edwards refers to this as God's emanation. God is diffusive (outward flowing); he is communicative *(shares and passes along things about himself by words and actions) in both his imminent (within the Trinity) and economic (outward exchange/ interaction) existence. God is a God who reveals himself in the world for the purpose of affectionate knowledge (of others) which is an image of his own inner Trinitarian self-knowing. (God is happy in what he sees and knows about himself and seeks to bring others into this happiness),

*and we are like him in this way. As we receive love from him we desire to pass it along to others. He is the source of that love, for himself first and then to and for us and out to others through us. We are conduits.

This grounds the third point, that God sustains creation for the purpose of perfecting this affectionate knowledge as well as perfecting the union believers have with Christ. God is guiding creation to resurrection, judgment, and consummation, which, for the elect, entails the full beatific vision of God (we shall be like him when we see him as he is), or true participation in God's self-knowing and self-loving. The parallel of God's emanation is thus, in Edwards's terminology, *remanation, the glory of God received and communicated back to its divine source.

*This is at the heart of our value. We are valuable because we can experience and enjoy God who is most valuable, expressing our value of him back to him and out to others by pointing others to him.

The Trinity, as the fountain, gives shape to all theology so that the beautification thread formed in his doctrine of the Trinity is woven throughout the whole until it finds its perfection in consummation (i.e. eternal glory). Edward's theology, in this sense, it's cyclical. Everything moves from God, and everything returns to him in judgment. The elect continue on this trajectory (past judgment) to God, while the reprobate does not. 

Rom 11:36  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Along with being cyclical, Edwards thought, is teleological. The elect do not disappear into God, but commune with God eternally, because this eternal union is *asymptotic – always (throughout eternity) growing closer without collapsing into a singular entity. 

* asymptotic - adjective Mathematics.

1. of or pertaining to an asymptote (a straight line approached by a given curve as one variable in the equation of the curve approaches infinity).
2. (of a function) approaching a given value as an expression containing a variable tends to infinity. 
3. (of two functions) so defined that their ratio approaches unity as the independent variable approaches a limit or infinity. 
4. (of a formula) becoming increasingly exact as a variable approaches a limit, usually infinity. 
5. coming into consideration as a variable approaches a limit, usually infinity: asymptotic property; asymptotic behavior.

Fourth, Christ as the image of God, is the locus (central focal point or location) of revelation to the creature and as God- man, is the point of mediation between God and man. Affectionate knowledge of God, as noted above, entails beholding God. Christ reveals God in his excellencies, calling the elect to behold and see his goodness and beauty. Redemption, through Christ work, is the central thread that shapes Edwards entire theological project. Redemption is what the world was created for and redemption entails God's revealing himself in Christ with affectionate creaturely response.

End of book excerpt
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If redemption is what the world was created for and the rebellion of man proceeds and necessitates redemption then the fall was part of God's plan from the beginning.

1Pet 1:18  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20  He was foreknown before the foundation of the world (i.e. before anything was created, which of course includes mankind) but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

In order for Christ to be foreknown as the redeemer, it also had to be known (by God) why or who he was redeeming i.e. that redemption was even necessary. There is no redemption if there is nothing that needs to be paid for i.e. bought back. 

Redeem defined. 

Heaven and hell...literal?

Our deep, insatiable, and constant longings for love/life can not be adequately explained physically. This is a clue we are far more than mere physical beings. These longings are a hint or indication that we do not cease to exist simply because our present bodies do. 

We long for something permanent - everlasting/ eternal - instead of temporary. Once we get a "taste" of love, we never want it to stop but want more. 

Longing for satisfaction without the ability or means to obtain it is the essence of hell. I would suggest that a never-ending longing and burning desire to fulfill ourselves and derive a sense of meaning through our independent efforts (i.e. without God), while no longer having access to the good gifts of God we now enjoy, is the essence of hell.

"Hell on earth" is seeking to find fulfillment in something other than God but not finding it. Even when we think we have, it never works or lasts long term.

Not just present but eternal longing

Longing for fulfillment does not cease simply because our existence on earth does. We are more than mere physical beings.

Hell is continuing in the state of longing after this life is over, with no means of obtaining what we need or hope of relief.

Though hell is depicted as a physical burning, I propose it is also - if not exclusively - an emotional/ spiritual burning that is so great the pain goes beyond the physical and may, in fact, be even greater. Think in terms of solitary confinement in utter darkness with nothing to distract yourself. No food to satisfy your hunger, no water to quench your thirst, no "toys" - creature comforts - to distract you or occupy your time. All you have is your thoughts and memories of enjoying the good things you use to have access to or endlessly replaying a poor choice others made that hurt you or you made that hurt others.

This may be hard to grasp but only because we do not understand the powerful void left within us by the absence of God. We are spiritually "shut down" - dead to seeing God as the Source of infinite love that he is - no longer having access to or use of the good gifts of His creation to keep our spiritual and emotional longings in check i.e. to numb the pain.

In order to contain a large object there must be a large container - spiritually speaking. Nothing is greater than God so the void within us must be immense. Far greater than we now realize because we mask it through use/exploitation of the creation - others and the good gifts of life. 

Does evil "send" us to hell?

Does doing evil send people to hell or is it evidence they are already on the road there? Isn't this simply an indication we are already in a state of rebellion from our dependence on the Source of life and all things - and therefore evidence of our alienation and separation from Him?

The good news is Christ has provided the remedy i.e. our rebellion no longer has to separate us from God now or in eternally; our refusal to accept God's free offer and solution does. Isn't the heart of evil our ongoing rebellious distrust of God resulting in destructive/evil behavior? God offers us freedom from all of this, yet we refuse it. 

Doing evil does not necessarily send people to hell as much as it's evidence they are a child of hell and already heading there unless they are restored back to God, our Designer and Source of love, meaning, purpose, and all things.

John 3:16  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:18  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:19  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

John 3:20  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

John 3:21  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

The essence of heaven.

The essence of heaven is the complete unhindered and unfettered presence of the God of infinite love, glory, joy, delight, and bliss. Think of those best moments you have had that if they were any better, you would burst with joy and gratitude, then multiply that many times over without interruption and constantly increasing. This only begins to give us a glimpse of what heaven will be like.

However, we cannot and will not experience God's full presence without several things occurring first. 

• The animosity and alienation from our rebellious independence and distrust of God are removed (reconciliation). This addresses our heart towards God i.e. we are no longer his enemies aka totally untrusting, rebellious creatures.

• The just condemnation for our rebellious independence and distrust of God is removed (judgment). This addresses God's posture towards us i.e. He is and no longer needs to be our judge. Christ was judged in our place. 

• The complete righteousness of God -- earned for us by Christ -- is assigned and credited to us, establishing our good standing before God (justification). 

• The complete and eventual *removal of our propensity to distrust God and to operate independently of him (glorification). 

• Complete freedom from our mortality and the corruption of our present existence (glorification), no aging, sickness, or death.

Until we understand what Christ entered into for us; taking upon himself our hell so we might not have to, hell will appear unfair and make no sense - yet no one ever asks, how fair was the suffering of Christ who did nothing wrong and everything right. And He did all this for us because we weren't able to. 

Since he did, if we refuse his offer, would this not be the greatest insult and rejection of His love. Our being left to our own devices would be totally just.

The issue isn't if hell is unfair but that we refuse to accept his going through hell for us so we might not have to i.e. it is not as if there is no solution. We are only bound for hell if we refuse that solution He freely offers. God not only does not wish for us to go there, he did everything necessary to keep us from going.

 

In short, Christ took on what was not rightfully his - total condemnation and rejection - so he could give us what was not rightfully ours - perfect love and acceptance by His Father.

However, people who don't know Christ or refuse his offer are choosing hell every day. They are choosing separation from God which simply continues on into eternity. How you may ask? By using creation to attempt to fill the void left by the Creator's absence and refusing God's free offer to restore us back to Him.

We now have access to all the gifts of creation yet without acknowledging the Creator, Giver, Provider, and Sustainer of those gifts (Rom 1:21-25). In eternity they will continue to refuse to acknowledge the Creator but will no longer have access to all the good gifts of creation we presently enjoy, be that the use of our own personal skills and gifts or those we find all around us...the hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling and tasting of created things etc. 

Hell is our choice.

"Hell is your freely chosen identity, based on something other than God, going on forever." - Tim Keller, former pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. 

The essence of "hell" is the absence of God and His love, which is also part of our present state of existence. 

2 Thes 1: 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

The hard reality is we all are presently experiencing the absence of God in the ultimate sense -- none of us are fully in his loving presence yet, nor can we be in our present state. We are therefore in a kind of hell now to a limited degree i.e. In varying degrees we all experience suffering and pain now.

Intuitively we get this. Every time we experience overwhelming pain and suffering it is a reminder that Hell exists and is real. Who hasn't felt or said "that was hell" after going through some extremely painful and difficult circumstance -- yet, oddly, we have a hard time accepting the continuation of this very same state of pain and suffering after we leave this life?

At the same time, we all are also experiencing God's loving presence to a limited degree i.e. heaven. Whether we trust him or not we experience something of him through the many gifts we now enjoy. For those who have accepted God's offer of reconciliation, His Spirit of infinite, endless love also indwells us. 

Our present existence in this beautiful yet broken world is a kind of in-between state. We experience something of the joy of who God is but also the pain of not yet being fully reunited with Him in His infinite love. 

For those who have entrusted themselves to Christ and therefore love him, they experience heaven now to some degree by his presence in and through his Spirit that dwells within.

When we are finally in God's full and unfettered presence there will no longer be any pain, suffering, or crying, only joy, and endless ever-growing bliss. But not until then. Rev 21:4  

Everything good in this life that causes joy and delight points to the goodness of God and is only a prelude to the uninterrupted good/joy/glory to come for those who love him.

Everything bad in this life points to our brokenness and separation from God and the prospect of continuing in that separation for those who reject him.

If heaven is a real place, hell must also be -- just as darkness must exist because light exists i.e. darkness is simply the absence of light -- for heaven is the presence of God and hell is the absence of his loving presence.

So our present existence is as much of Heaven as someone who rejects/distrusts God will ever experience and as much of Hell a lover/worshiper of God will ever experience.

Do all of us feel God's absence? 

Does a man born blind understand sight or sense its absence? If no one told him he was blind (and everyone else around him was also blind) would he not think his condition normal? 

Most are not aware of the void of God's absence for two primary reasons. 

1. We are disconnected from God and therefore also spiritually dead to God, seeking only what we can see, smell, taste, feel, and hear.

2. Proof (and also the result) of this is we have and use the good gifts of God to mask or numb that void/deadness. Not unlike a blind man groping around, experiencing something of the reality of this world, while never fully enjoying it.

If our life is built around having and enjoying the good gifts of God and not God himself, the Giver of those gifts, we will leave this life without either and experience the full force of the void/emptiness now within us due to God's absence. This is the essence of hell.

For a further discussion on how hell is a continuation of our current path click here

For a discussion of whether we are rebels to God click here.

For a discussion on whether God's wrath is reasonable click here

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¹I would argue this removal is organic and not mechanical. Our inclination away from God even as His children, will be fully subdued or overpowered once we see him face to face i.e. we will be like him when we see him as he is i.e. no longer through a glass darkly but in the fullness of his glory. This will result in the longing of our hearts being satisfied for the first time. What (more correctly WHO) has been missed and what our hearts have longed for all our lives will now but right in front of us. How can we long after anything else once we are in the presence of perfection and perfect love? 

Obedience... does it matter or not?

For the child of God, two seemingly opposing principles must be tenaciously and equally held on to (believed) and kept in balance.

1. There is nothing we can do that will ever make us acceptable to God or enable us to participate in his love.

2. Living according to God's will/directions/commands is (a) most honoring to God (b) according to our design and (c) the most freeing way to live and experience all God has designed us to experience.

To say it another way 

Principle #1 is saying our righteousness or living right does not matter at all.

Principle #2 is saying our righteousness or right living absolutely matters (in fact it is all-important in our bringing God the greatest possible glory and experiencing God and all He desires to be for us).

How can these both be true and work together?

It all depends on the context and setting you are considering. 

Let's take a closer look.

# 1  There is nothing we can do that will ever make us acceptable to God or enable us to fully participate in his love.

Why? 

Two primary reasons (which include some additional underlying truths). 

1. Who God is:

   • All things came to be by Him and all things continue to exist by him         

      i.e. Everything depends on God. He is Creator & sustainer of all things. 

   • God is also holy, perfect, and righteous. 

      a. Because he is the Creator and because he is unyieldingly holy, He rightfully deserves our highest regard and our complete and total allegiance and worship. 

      b. Because of these things, He rightfully calls us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. 

Anything short of conducting ourselves accordingly is out of line with reality i.e. who God is, who we are, and is therefore unacceptable.

2. Who we are:

We are in his image designed to be in a relationship with him but rejected (and still reject) Him as our Creator and sustainer resulting in our spiritual blindness and deadness i.e. we are dead to seeing him for who He truly is. We are unable to live for him (unaided) as we ought and were designed to.  

We therefore simply do not have it in us to do as He calls us to do and be who He originally created us to be. We can never do enough. So there's no point in even trying. 

#2 Living according to God's will/directions/commands is (a) most honoring to God (b) according to our design and (c) the most freeing way to live and experience all God has designed us to experience.

Why? Faithfulness, obedience to God, living to honor Him, etc. is  what we were created for and why we exist. It is living according to who we are and how we were designed to experience fullness of joy and life.   

True life is in God alone who is life at its source. Obedience to his directions is living in alignment with his good and perfect will, putting us not only in harmony with Him and who he is, but also operating according to who he has designed us to be.

A train is not somehow freed by jumping off the track but in fact will bog down in a ditch or field or run off a cliff, crash, and burn because it's no longer operating according to its design, i.e. it is off the tracks it was made to run on. 

Who would know better how the train best operates if not the designer of the train? 

Because he tells us how to best operate we must listen if we are to experience our greatest good and bring him greatest glory.

So how do these two principles come together?

In a word, Christ!

Christ, the eternal Son of God, stepped out of eternity, took on the flesh and blood of humanity, and dwelt among us as a man. 

And not only so but he lived out his life as a man wholly for the glory of his Father, in perfect harmony and obedience with him as we (humanity) were designed to live. 

After living this perfect life he allowed himself to suffer the consequences of our not living wholly for the glory of his Father. In doing so he satisfied the legal requirement to live perfectly according to God's glory and our design. 

He offered his righteous life in exchange for our unrighteous one so we are no longer required to live a righteous life to be received and embraced by his Father. 

In so doing he removed the barrier between us and God for failing to live as He designed us and calls us to. Now His Father's love is freely extended and poured out on us, as if we had lived perfectly for God's glory ourselves. 

His offer of right standing and uninterrupted love (the very same love the Father has for his Son) is now ours as a gift, if and when we receive it.

In summary, God demonstrated his love for us when we deserved the opposite, providing our access to God and taking care of principle #1. 

As we see this love (for the first time) and are increasingly drawn up into it (an ongoing process) we respond more and more in love by seeking to honor him in all we do or say. Love is the life or dynamic necessary to live according to God's design and glory, enabling us to live out principle #2. To say it as the Bible does, we love him because he first loved us.

The Bible sums up these two principles in the following verses:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 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, who walk not according to the flesh (i.e. attempting to live by the law to earn God's love) but according to the Spirit (i.e. seeking to obey the law out of love and gratitude to God in Christ for securing our right standing with him and his infinite love for us)." Rom 8:1-4

The Bible also touches on these contrasted principles in the following. 

1Co 10:23  "All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up.

"All things are lawful..." simply means nothing we can do will be held against me legally because of a righteous status (legal standing) in Christ.

"not all things are helpful... not all things build up..." simply means we are designed to operate a certain way and will experience consequences for not doing so. 

The evidence of this right motive for obedience is expressed in the following

Joh 14:15  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Loving ourselves… part II

More and more we hear talk about loving ourselves.

Why? My observation of myself and of others, is this comes from a deep, often unconscious, sense of feeling unloved, often connected to our ¹family of origin.  

When you grow up knowing - and believing - you are truly and deeply loved - ultimately by God but also well conveyed to those who were blessed enough to have godly loving parents - you rarely think about being loved any more than you think about eating right after a very large, satisfying meal. The more loved (valued) you feel, the less likely you will be allured by the offer of love from temporary, unhealthy, or destructive sources. To use an analogy, healthy, godly love inoculates us from catching the bug of unhealthy, fleeting love. When we know we are infinitely loved, we become givers instead of takers, comforters of others instead of those who seek comfort. 

We all have a deep sense of feeling unloved simply because we are disconnected and separated from our Creator - the source of love and ²life Himself. However, this sense will be more or less exaggerated and felt depending on how much true sacrificial love we did or did not receive from our parents.

People usually resort to self-love because they have been deeply hurt and ³disappointed by others. And in truth, not even the most loving parents or any other person can give us the love we were designed for. Only God can. As a result, we are more inclined to no longer trust others to come through for us. We believe we can only trust ourselves, so this is where we go for love. As meager as self-love may be, it is better than nothing, plus we have some control over it. At least we feel we do.

Our ability to trust - or lack of it - starts with our parents. We are already naturally inclined to distrust. It was the disposition of our original parents (Adam and Eve) and continues to be ours. But our earthly parents help lay the foundation on which trust is either nurtured or damaged more. 

Because of the breakdown of the family unit at large and the huge significance of the support (or lack) it offers, there is an increasing number of children that grow up experiencing a greater sense of missing love, resulting in increased efforts to self-love. The greater the breakdown, the greater the effort. Hence the rise of Narcissism, the appeal of self-love, and the age of the "selfie."

The challenge, however, is when all is said and done, we are designed for infinite love. A finite being - you and I (including our parents) - can never give us infinite love i.e. an infinite need can never be met by a finite solution. Only infinite love will do.

Though our parents are our first and most significant relationship through which our self-concept is shaped, ultimately no parent can give us what we were designed for; infinite, uninterrupted love. 

Since perfect love (God's) is available to all of us, to not accept it is on us individually, not our parents. We may be damaged because of inadequate parental love but this is only an opportunity to experience and appreciate God's love all the more - if we can learn to trust it.  

Loved well...or not

When a child is loved well (consistently) by parents who also know they are loved well - due to a strong sense of love of feeling loved by the Creator - and the parents clearly convey to their child the reason they love well is because of God, the child will easily transfer their sense of love and trust from their parents to God when they eventually move out on their own and no longer under the direct care of their parents.

God never fails even if others do

The beauty of God's love is even if and when someone does not receive healthy love and support from their family of origin, God also uses this to show the greatness of his love by contrast.

Psa 27:10  Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child]. Amplified version.
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¹However, the root cause is we are all alienated from our Creator, the source of love and life. If we are designed to be in a loving relationship with our Creator and are absent that relationship, we will always have a sense of feeling unloved no matter how loving our parents or others are. 

²though we still have access to and use of created things and use them as God/love substitutes -- which includes other creatures i.e. animate and inanimate.

³The beauty of being a believing parent is God's forgiveness of us and unrelenting love for us frees us to acknowledge our mistakes and ask for our child's forgiveness when we make them -- and we will make them. Being a good parent isn't about being perfect; it's about being real and demonstrating the love and grace of God in our brokenness. Our brokenness becomes an opportunity to demonstrate how the grace of God works in our lives as imperfect bearers of God's image (and in this sense the same as our kids - we all need and are recipients of grace) and therefore can be the same in the child's life as well.