For God So Loved the World

                                                                                                                 

 Aloha Dearest Family,

      “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

             This verse is familiar to us all and we have heard it quoted hundreds of times throughout our lives. The other day I was thinking about this verse and I came to the astounding realization (once again) that God loves people. How much? You could say “God is love” all day long, and it would be true every time. But John 3:16 states briefly the ultimate demonstration of God’s love. If anybody ever questioned God’s love, John 3:16 is the undeniable proof to the world.

“For God so loved the world…”

Why was man created in the first place? God longed for a family to have day to day fellowship with so He created man.  He then designed a place for man to live - the earth. In fact, the reason for the sun, moon and stars is to shine upon the earth. And the reason for the earth is for man to live. The earth was designed to be man’s “garden of delight”. A place filled with oceans, lakes, streams, mountains, waterfalls, as well as beautiful valleys and forests. On top of all this, God populated it with an endless variety of animals. Why did God do this? For man to enjoy. We were the jewel in His wonderful creation. Then God created spirit upon man so that He could enjoy continuous communication and fellowship with His creation. After all this, He saw all that He had created and he said “It was very good”. Now He finally had someone to commune with and lavish His blessings upon. How God must have dearly loved Adam and Eve.

            But this paradise was not to last. Man, God’s beloved jewel, disobeyed God’s ONLY commandment. Because of this, sin and death entered man’s world and the spirit that was upon him died. On this day man lost his connection with his Creator. The earth itself was marred and cursed. But God, the sweet Father that He is, then set in motion a secondary plan to bring man back to Himself. A second Adam would be born to correct the error of the first Adam. This man would be God’s own son and would give his life to set things back in order. This man’s name was Jesus.

             “...that He gave His only begotten son...”

            When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, his ultimate mission in life was to die. Not for his sins, but for the sins of the world.

             “Surly he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53: 4 and 5)

            “And he is the propitiation (payment in full) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:1)

             Whenever my wife and I read the gospels, we almost always skip the parts that speak of Jesus’ suffering and death. It’s too hard to read about; too hard to imagine. It is so hard to read about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, when he is pleading with the Father that if there is any other way, please don’t let him have to suffer the death that was fast approaching. But in the end, there was no other way. As hard as it is for us to read about, just think how hard it must have been for his Father. The culmination of God’s plan of man’s redemption now rested upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ. No other act of giving would ever match this one act of heartrending sacrifice. God willingly gave up His son who He dearly loved and Jesus chose to give up his life because the Father asked him to. They did it for us. Did we deserve it? No. Did we desperately need it? YES!

         “...whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

God and Jesus Christ accomplished what man could not do on his own; repair the broken relationship that God first enjoyed with Adam. Man is now fully restored to a place of peace with God and given all the rights and privileges God bestows upon sons and daughters. We can now enjoy sweet, moment by moment fellowship with our Father because He has bestowed upon us His holy spirit. We now have continual access to God and we have the boldness to enter into His presence to ask for grace when we need it. We also have a future that we can look forward to, for our names are written in the lamb’s book of life and we will live with God and Jesus Christ forever.

 As we can see, John 3:16 is the culmination of all God hoped and dreamed for His beloved sons and daughters. Now whenever we read this verse, we can more clearly see in demonstration the true heart of the Father and how much God truly loves us. Let us be eternally thankful and give Him the praise and honor He deserves. And let us also thank Jesus Christ for giving his own life to bring us back to God. This is love.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

                                                Love Always, Ray

             “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Redeemed

 

                                                                   

Aloha Dearest Family,

         When I first got born again, I learned that I was sanctified, I was justified, I was reconciled to God, I was righteous and I was redeemed. I didn’t grow up in church so a lot of these words were what I called “church words”. I had to look up each to see what these words meant, and throughout the years I have come to understand and love the true meaning of each. Today I would like to share about redemption. What does it mean to be redeemed and why did we need it?

    To answer these questions, we must go back to the beginning. In the beginning God had given Adam and Eve dominion to rule over the earth. 

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28-30).

 When they disobeyed God’s commandment, this dominion that was originally given to man, was transferred to God’s arch enemy, Satan. The devil has been the ruler of the earth from that time forward.

            “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (I John 5:19)

 Mankind then became “a slave” to the whims and desires of the devil because of sin. The sin of Adam which brought forth death, was transferred to every man (Romans 5:12) for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Because of the fear of death, mankind has been in bondage.

            “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14 and 15).

As we can see, the devil has the power over death - not God. God wants us to have eternal life, not death. This is why God sent Jesus Christ. To make us free from the power of the devil. When Christ died, he broke the power that the devil had over us and offered us an endless life. He died for our sins, so the power of death was broken - forever.

In the Bible redemption is defined as - to purchase back; to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity exchange for a payment. In Biblical times a ransom was the price paid for the release of slaves. Jesus paid this ransom when he gave his own life on the cross and liberated us from the bondage of the devil’s power.

             “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

 Now we are FREE! Free to live the life God had planned for us. Free to be the men and women we always dreamed of becoming. The devil has no more hold on us because we belong to God and are legal citizens of heaven. We are sons and daughters of God and we will live FOREVER.

                                             Love Always, Ray

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins:” (Colossians 1:14)