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Monday, March 17, 2014

So Loved the World......

There are many who consider being a part of a church, they may even on some rear occasions have gone they deep down want to know God , but when they look at their own lives they feel a sense of shame or unworthiness. They may be trapped in a pattern of behavior that is decidedly un-Christian.They tell themselves that they will need to clean themselves up before they could ever be apart of any church. Before they could be accepted.

They wrestle and struggle with the issues of life, they see themselves as being out side of the love of God, and unfortunately  if,  and when,  they have gone to a church they may have been made to feel unwanted or unloved.  They may have concluded that God will not or does not love them. But is this the truth?..It may "feel" real but is it the truth? Does God hate those who live in un-Christian life styles? Do they have to by some means earn His grace and forgiveness?

For Us

The verses that is called the the most beloved verses in the Bible,  is John:3:16, this makes it plain that God does not "hate" the world, he may not love what the world does but,  God does not hate the world.

"God so love the world that he gave his only begotten Son".(16a)

This tells much, it is explicit that God recognized the need of the world that out side of God's act of Salvation the world had nothing to look forward to only death with out God for eternity.

 "that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."(16b)

It also make clear that salvation is dependent not upon us, but upon what Jesus has done and who Jesus is. What is our part is belief this belief is not just a causal acknowledgement it is transformational. God acted out of love for and toward us and sent, that is gave,  his Son Jesus Christ, to die for each and all. Love is why God gave Jesus. That through Jesus God has saved the world so we do not need to be condemned. Jesus makes condemnation unnecessary,  yet Scripture shows that some will reject what God so freely offers.

" For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him".(17)

From the Foundation of the World

When, or at what point,  did God act on all of our part to bring this salvation for us? We tend to think of  events or actions as occupying a particular place or point in time and in our limited human vantage point this is natural for us to do so,  but  God  is not bound by our perceptions of time, he inhabits eternity everything is "now"  with God regardless of "when" we observe it 's manifestation in the history of salvation. 
So in God's" now"  of eternity,   God acted on our part in his Son to provide salvation for any who would but freely receive it by grace even before the material creation came into being.

"the Lamb who was slain from the foundation  of the world."Rev:18:8

Here the Holy Spirit inspires John to employ the language of accommodation to stress that no matter how far back we peer, even into eternity  we will see God's act of salvation in Jesus for all of us. This just does not speak to God's intention to make provision for salvation if it became necessary, but rather,  that God himself was guaranteeing that salvation would be an accomplished realty for us in Jesus. 

 Yet it is true that there was in a , "right time" for God to enter his own history of salvation through the incarnation and become fully one of us in the Person of Jesus Christ. The humanity of Jesus makes salvation possible for us all. Being fully one of us he could die for all of us.

 "in the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and was God" Jhn:1:1

"and the Word became flesh"(14)

 "You see, at just the right time" ,Rm:5:6a

Forgiveness was not something that God would resort to  but would be a realty even before we ever knew that we  needed it.

As We Sinned 

This tells us that God's love was for us and toward us even as we went about our lives,  maybe in indifference or in ignorance of who God is and what is there for us all, maybe before we heard the message of the Gospel about Jesus. 

"when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."(6b)

Yet ,even then , in our lives of sin before we knew God and his love for us , even as we lived in sin, even as "we were powerless" ,  he had made salvation a realty for us, if we will just freely receive it.  God did not wait for us to "get good enough" we could never be "good enough"

 We all alike  are in need of a Savior, we could not save our selves Jesus had to save us. This is what Paul addresses in his Epistle to the Roman Church.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (8-11)

Jesus' death and the salvation through him shows us God's love for and toward us even in the wretched state we may have been living in. It also tells us that God want us and loved us more than he loves himself. Consider that for a moment , God loves you more than he loves himself and demonstrated it by dieing for each and all. God would not be without us,  so deep is his love for us. Even while we yet were sinners.

God's love was in pursuit of us even in our lives of sinfulness we actively sought out coming to us in Jesus and dieing for us all and raising  from the dead. The resurrection of the dead confirms the power of the cross for without the resurrection the cross would be meaningless. It declares that sin has been dealt with and that an all new life is available for us.

Through One

At the onset, as we conceive time, Adam as the Father of the race chose to  know "good and evil"  and thereby all chose in him. 

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned"(12)

What Adam did we all have done,  we all followed suit with him and have sinned. Based on who we were in Adam.  Why would God apply the action of one upon the whole of humanity? Human history shows that God was just in doing so, for all have sinned.  

God acted in the greatest kindness imaginable by placing all of us under Adams choice. But how can this be true?  By placing all under the actions of one ,Adam, condemnation came on all by one, so that in the same way  because of  the One, Jesus and his perfect sinless obedience we all can experiences the righteousness that is Jesus' because of who we are in Christ. 

The power of the Second Adam, which is Christ,  is greater than that of the first. Therefore salvation becomes dependent of the action of just one, Jesus,  for us all. He acted for us as one of us even as we lived out of  ignorance of this truth.We could not save ourselves.It is a free gift offered to any and all.

"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."(15-19)

How We Live

When we hear the Gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ and we see the power of  life and death and resurrection we are than given the opportunity to experience what Jesus has made true for us all, if we will just freely receive it. Though he saved us when we were yet sinners  if we have truly taken hold of what he offers then  we can remain no longer there in. He calls us forth into a new life of grace.

There has been  a tension in the church for two thousand years over this very issue. Paul address this very thing after concluding that salvation is given not earned and  that it all comes from and by Jesus, that we of ourselves only share in and are credited for Jesus' perfect righteousness in that we are incalculable of  living perfectly. Some , therefore wrongly,  believed that how we live after coming to believe in Jesus did not matter.

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Rm:6:1-2

Paul is clear that we are to live out of our relationship with our Lord and that relationship should transform us , that as we are forgiven we should live forgiven, that is we live what is now true for us in Jesus. 

Forgiveness of God  has the power to transform us, we can set aside those things which in the past beset us, because Jesus lives.

"For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin"(5-7)

Do Not Forget You Are Forgiven

As we look to Jesus and trust in his resurrected life, and know that in him we are already counted as rightous
our lives will change. Some may find that their old ways , may at times  still hold their grip. When we find that our progress is slowed it maybe that we are too focused upon the power of the sin rather than upon the power of God's forgiveness. The Apostle Peter speaks to this in his  second epistles , admonishing and reminding all,  that Christians not forget the truth of that they are forgiven, and that in forgetting this,  they have found themselves hindered in their maturity.

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been forgiven  from their past sins." 2Ptr:1:5-9

So great is the power of God's forgiveness that it is life changing and liberating....So great is God's  love for each and all , that He calls out to us and  invites us to know him and know that he loves us and has through Jesus made for us all  life everlasting. God so love the world...Amen

Rev.Todd Crouch, Pastor 
 
The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike.
Washington, Pennsylvania.   www.gcfountainoflife.org
The Fountain of Life is heard  on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM  in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com

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