Do Not Overlook His Attitude
Dearly beloved of God, it is not only what did for us in Christ that is astonishing, but the heart with which He did it is also conspicuous.
Religionists often portray God as hard, vengeful, a tyrant that we must please or else He will send us to hell; nothing could be further from the truth. They say our sins keep us from Him, and we must earn our salvation. They are wrong on all counts.
God chose us in Christ, and he redeemed us, reconciled us, saved us, and justified us by his accomplishments, and gave us what he accomplished by His grace. It was His good pleasure to do these things in Christ.
In love God determined beforehand for us to have sonship to Himself through Jesus Christ in accordance with the GOOD PLEASURE OF His will unto the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He highly favored us in the beloved one Jesus Christ.
In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE, which He has ABOUNDED toward us.
God revealed the mystery of His Will and made it known to us according to HIS GOOD PLEASURE which He PURPOSED IN HIMSELF.
Does this sound like a tyrant? It sounds to me like a loving Father who desired to bless us as His children with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.
It is God who chose to become God our Father, and to endow us with all the privileges that accompany our sonship.
He is the one that chose to cast our sins as far as the east is from the west and remember them no more. We stand in His presence as justified in Christ and by his accomplishments.
He does not throw our sins in our face, or bring up our past; the devil is the one that does that.
God is not just merciful; He is RICH IN MERCY. He is not just loving; His love toward us is GREAT LOVE WITH WHICH HE LOVED US, and furthermore He desired to extend His rich mercy and great love toward us in Christ Jesus.
When we were dead in sins, Christ died for the ungodly. God showed His love to us while we were yet sinners. When we were guilty before Him, and came short of the glory of God, He freely justified us by His grace through the redemption that is Christ Jesus.
Much more, being now justified by Christ’s blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.
Dearly beloved, if we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son when we were enemies, then much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved from the wrath by his life.
God appointed us to the acquisition of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are watching in our walks or we are sleeping in our walks, we shall be made alive together with him.
How could anyone miss His GREAT LOVE and the RICHES OF HIS GRACE toward us in Christ Jesus?
In fact, it will take Him the ages to come to display the EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE in KINDNESS to us in Christ Jesus. This paints quite a different picture of God from that which religionists paint.
God our Father FREELY GIVES US ALL THINGS with His Son. We do not earn them. They are ours in Christ by the grace of God.
He determined for us to have ACCESS to Him by the new birth spirit. This was His desire, not ours.
In Christ He made us fellowcitizens with the saints, and MEMBERS of HIS HOUSEHOLD. In fact we are built together for GOD’S DWELLING PLACE by the spirit.
Dearly beloved, the spirit from Him Who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us! He has demonstrated the EXCEEDING GREATNESS of His power to us in Christ Jesus. He made us partakers of the divine nature.
How could anyone think of God our Father in terms like religionist think of Him?
Beloved, the GOODNESS OF GOD leads us to a change of heart and believing, not the fear of hell. He leads us with His LOVING KINDNESS and TENDER MERCIES, and there is NOTHING GOOD that He will withhold from us.
God our Father is not bothered by our prayers as some nuisance, He DELIGHTS in them, and assures us that we have the petitions we desired of Him.
We should not overlook His attitude towards us. He says we are HIS DEARLY BELOVED CHILDREN. In Christ He did what was impossible for us to accomplish by our feeble works, and He freely gave us all things with His Son.
When we speak of the RICHES and TREASURES that He has FREELY GIVEN us in Christ we should not forget His GOODNESS, His RICH MERCY, His GREAT LOVE for us, the EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE toward us, and the RICHES OF HIS GLORY that He has prepared for us in the ages to come. Do not overlook His attitude towards us.
How should we respond to Him? We should love Him with all our heart, and walk in love, and in the good pleasure of His will, and be thankful. Is that too much to ask, dearly beloved of God?