God's declaration of love to us
Many Christians are not sure and worried about it, God still loves them? They are worried that God might reject them, and worse, that he has already rejected them. Maybe you are the same scared. Why do you think Christians are so worried? The answer is simply that they are honest with themselves. They know that they are sinners. They are painfully aware of their failures, their mistakes, their transgressions - their sins. They have been taught that God's love and even salvation depends on how well they obey God. So they keep telling God how sorry they are and begging for forgiveness in the hope that God will forgive them and not turn their backs when they somehow create a deep, inner sense of concern.
It reminds me of Hamlet, a play by Shakespeare. In this story, Prince Hamlet has learned that his uncle Klaudius killed Hamlet's father and married his mother to seize the throne. Therefore, Hamlet secretly plans to kill his uncle / stepfather in an act of revenge. The perfect opportunity arises, but the king is praying, so Hamlet postpones the attack. If I kill him during his confession, he will go to heaven, Hamlet concludes. If I wait and kill him after he has sinned again, but before he announces it, then he will go to hell. Many people share Hamlet's ideas about God and human sin.
When they came to faith, they were told that if and until they repented and believed, they would be completely separated from God, and the blood of Christ would not and could not be effective for them. Believing this error led them to another error: that every time they fell back into sin, God would withdraw his grace from them, and the blood of Christ would no longer cover them. This is why—if people are honest about their sinfulness—they spend their entire Christian life wondering if God has rejected them. Neither of these things is good news. But the gospel is good news. The gospel doesn't tell us that we are separated from God and that we have to do something for God to grant us his grace. The gospel tells us that God the Father in Christ embraces all things, including you and me, including all people. (Kol 1,19-20). has reconciled.
There is no barrier, no separation between man and God, because Jesus tore it down, and because in his very being he drew mankind into the love of the Father. (1Joh 2,1; Joh 12,32)The only barrier is an imagined one. (Kol 1,21)which we humans have erected through our own selfishness, fear, and independence. The gospel is not about doing or believing something that causes God to change our status from unloved to loved.
God's love does not depend on anything we do or don't do. The gospel is a declaration of what is already true—a declaration of the Father's unwavering love for all humanity, revealed in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. God loved you before you ever repented or believed anything, and nothing you or anyone else ever does will change that.Röm 5,8; 8,31-39).
The gospel is about a relationship, a relationship with God that became reality for us through God's own action in Christ. It's not about a set of requirements, nor about a mere intellectual acceptance of a series of religious or biblical facts. Jesus Christ not only stood by us at the judgment seat of God; he drew us into himself and made us with him and in him through the Holy Spirit to God's own beloved children.
It is none other than Jesus, our Redeemer, who took all our sins upon himself, and who also works through the Holy Spirit in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. (Phil 4,13; Eph 2,8-10)We can wholeheartedly dedicate ourselves to following Him, knowing that He has already forgiven us if we fail. Think about it! God is not a deity watching us from afar, out there in heaven, but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in whom you and all others live, move, and have your being. (Apg 17,28)He loves you so much, regardless of who you are or what you have done, that in Christ, the Son of God, who came in human flesh—and comes through the Holy Spirit into our flesh—He took away your alienation, your fears, your sins, and healed you through His saving grace. He removed every barrier between you and Him.
In Christ you are rid of everything that ever prevented you from directly experiencing the joy and calm that comes from living a life of intimate fellowship, friendship, and perfect, loving fatherhood. What a wonderful message God has given us to share with others!
by Joseph Tkach
