In my Southern Baptist rearing as a child, I viewed God the Father as loving us poor sinners because Jesus died for our wretched sins, and I think we all often felt that the Father begrudgingly loved us out of pity and only because the Son interceded and mediated for us devils. God was to be feared, awed, and obeyed. If you did not obey then you would incur the Father's wrath, or severe chastening, and I wondered whether the Father in some way relished in bringing about that chastening. The indwelling Holy Spirit did what He could with us, trying His best to keep us in line, but, again, from my childlike perspective, He threw up His hands because we were constantly grieving Him (Eph. 4:30), quenching His fire (1 Thess. 5:19). I perceived God's love as being reluctant. I was a failure, a gross and immoral sinner, and I constantly cause Him grief. I was never doing enough for the Lord, was a constant slacker, and my Day at the Bema Judgment would not be pleasant.
FOR GOD SO LOVED
Every child in our church memorized John 3:16 but I don't think we were properly taught what the verse truly tells us of God's character and nature. "For God so loved the world," or "For God loved the world in this way," that "He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NASB). Who is the One who loved? The Father. The Son of God teaches us that the Father Himself loves the ones He redeems (John 16:27). Out of His great love "with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins," the Father "made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4, 5, 6, 7). The Father does not reluctantly love us! From His own great love for us He lavished His grace and mercy and love and redemption and salvation upon us (Eph. 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). This brought Him great delight (Eph. 1:9)! God the Father, the Creator, infinitely loves us.
God the Father does not reluctantly or begrudgingly love us, out of some pity for a loathsome creature that is despised and wretched, but has, from all eternity past, fixed / positioned / laser-focused / lodged / set His all-encompassing love upon us whom He has redeemed. There was never a time from all eternity past that God the Father did not love you--you whom He unfailingly intended to redeem (Jer. 31:1). Because He is eternal, so also is His love for you eternal, and will continue to be immensely experienced in you for all eternity future. You will forever be learning of the width and the length and the height and the depth of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:18, 19). Because you will never become omniscient, all-knowing, you will forever be learning about the ways and the character and the nature of God. His love for you cannot be increased because the fullness of His love for you cannot be measured; which also indicates that His love for you cannot be diminished, or decreased, since His love for you springs from His own essence as God. His love is measured by His own eternal and infinite standards and not by human standards of measurement or your preconceived conditions.
Do you think the love of the Father is measured by your successes or your failures? Do you still believe that God the Father's love for you has something to do with you? His love and His grace and His mercy and His salvation has nothing to do with you but everything to do with Him. You cannot "let God down," because you do not "hold God up," as I remember a preacher once truthfully saying. He is not angry with you, and withholds love for you, when you fail. His Son has already redeemed all your failures. Nor does His love for you increase when you succeed. His love is a God-sized love and cannot increase or decrease. He designed you, He created you, and chose from all eternity past to save you out of His eternally stubborn love for you. He did this without any conditions on your part: while you were spiritually helpless (Rom. 5:6, 8) and while you were still His enemy (Rom. 5:10) and while you wanted nothing to do with Him (1 Cor. 2:14) He intervened into your sinful, fallen, and helpless condition to save you by bringing you to Himself through Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:3, 4, 5; 2:1, 2, 3; Titus 3:5; James 1:18).
FOR GOD SO DISCIPLINED
Someone might think that God does not love them because He brought about some sort of discipline for rebellious sin. I certainly remember my dad and my mom telling me and my brother that disciplining us was difficult for them. We didn't like being disciplined. But they disciplined us out of their immense love for us. They didn't want to see us ruin our lives by reckless living. There were standards we were told to live by and, if we broke those standards, there would be discipline for the rebellion. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as
FOR GOD IS THE GOSPEL
Preach the Gospel to yourself often! In the Gospel we find not merely a promise but a Person! In the Gospel we discover the heart of God in the Person of Jesus. We do not find a condition to be met on our part in the Gospel. The Gospel is the Power of God for salvation to the one who believes in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus (Rom. 1:16). God offers us not a verb but a noun--Christ Himself! Christ is our salvation (Acts 4:12). Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). In the offer of the Gospel we do not find a condition that we must meet from our own innate strength or ability, such as, "Turn from your sins and God will then save you." A sinner can no more turn from his own sins then he can become a bird and fly away (Rom. 2:5; cf. Jer. 13:23). The Gospel is not "You do this and then God will do that." The Gospel is Jesus Himself! God is the Gospel! Jesus is the Gospel Incarnate. All spiritual and eternal promises of God are in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20)! The question you should ask is: "How do I get in Christ?" For God chose to save us in Christ (Eph. 1:4). In Christ "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us" (Eph. 1:7, 8). You need union with Christ!
But you cannot get yourself into Christ and save yourself. The very notion of salvation itself infers the helplessness of the one needing to be saved. You cannot save yourself. You cannot convict yourself of your sins while in your depraved nature. You are spiritually dead to and spiritually separated from all that spiritually pertains to God (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 1:2, 3;), who is Spirit (John 4:24), and must be approached in spirit (John 4:23). Your spirit is lifeless, utterly inactive, dead (1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1). What your spirit needs is life, animation, regeneration (John 1:13; 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; 6:63; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3, 6; Titus 3:5). Unless and until God regenerates your dead spirit then you will remain dead to spiritual matters (1 Cor. 2:14). "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive [regenerated us] with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6 NIV). Paul explicitly states here that God regenerates His elect (cf. Eph. 1:4, 5) while or when they are still spiritually dead and this is by His own grace. God must place you "in Christ" and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) the gift of faith naturally results (John 6:37, 44, 45, 63, 65; Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:1). If you are trusting in Christ Jesus then you have received an eternally stubborn love from God and this love will graciously sustain you all the days of your life (Ps. 139:16) into all eternity future.
FOR GOD IS THE CONDITION
You cannot conditionalize the love of God for His people. You cannot conditionalize the Gospel. If you say to sinners that they must turn from their sins in order to be saved then you are exchanging the truth of God for a lie (Rom. 1:25). You want unregenerate sinners to turn from their sins? How? You are not preaching the Gospel when you utter such conditions. Christ is the Gospel. Christ is Grace Incarnate (John 1:17). You must point people to Christ and not to man-made conditions that are unbiblical. God saves by His grace through faith in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:21). The grace by which God saves sinners is as unconditional as the grace by which God elects to save sinners. The work of salvation belongs solely to God in Christ Jesus by the effectual work of the Holy Spirit or salvation is not attained at all. Depraved sinners who are spiritually dead can in no sense imaginable meet God's conditions, standards, or laws (Gal. 3:24-27). If there be any condition to the Gospel of God then God will meet that condition Himself--God is the Condition. This is because sinners cannot save themselves. Sinners don't even want to be saved. Nothing could be clearer in reality. If God doesn't save then no one can be and no one will be saved.
If God had left us to our own fallen devices, waiting for us to "repent and believe in Jesus Christ to be saved," He would wait for all eternity. He knew this already because He fully knew and understood the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13; Gen. 3:13) and our depraved nature (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:10, 11, 18; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Therefore God the Father made an eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20) of unconditionally electing--in God the Son through the effectual agency of God the Holy Spirit--to save a people for Himself (Gen. 21:12, 13; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 7:7, 8; 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 1 Kings 12:15; 20:42; 2 Kings 19:25; 2 Chron. 6:6; Job 23:13, 14; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; 78:67, 68, 70, 71, 72; 105:17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; 135:4; Prov. 16:4; Isa. 44:1, 2, 7; Jer. 1:4, 5; Mal. 1:2, 3; Matt. 11:25, 26; 20:16; 22:14, 22, 40; 25:34; Mark 13:20, 22; Luke 4:25, 26, 27; 8:10, 10:20; 18:7; 22:22; John 6:37, 39, 44, 45; 15:16, 19; 17:2, 6; 21:23; Acts 1:7; 2:23, 39, 47; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; 22:14; Rom. 1:6; 8:28, 29, 30, 33; 9:11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29; 11:5, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:26, 27, 28, 29; 2:7; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 1:4, 5, 9, 10, 11; 2:10; 3:11; Col. 3:12; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2:12; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:1, 2; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:2, 20; 2 Pet. 1:10; Jude 1:4; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). He elected to save a people for His glory--to "the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves;" "in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us;" "according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ;" "according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will;" "in order that we [who believe] ... might be for the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12).
Any condition attached to the attaining of salvation in the scriptures is and must be fulfilled by the Father, who made the Eternal Covenant in the Son, Jesus Christ, as is brought to pass by the effectual agency of the Holy Spirit. The Father elects and calls, the Son provides atonement and righteousness, and the Spirit applies all necessarily-stated conditions: grace as ability (John 1:14, 16, 17; 15:5; Acts 15:10, 11; 2 Cor. 9:8, 9, 10, 11; 12:9; Phil. 2:12, 13; 2 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:15, 16), brought about by faith via regeneration (John 1:11, 12, 13; 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; 6:37, 44, 45, 63, 65; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:14; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3, 8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Thess. 2:13; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 2 Pet. 1:1), for obedience and sanctification by the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 21, 23, 26; Rom. 1:5; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:1, 2). This work of salvation must be entirely effectuated and completed in and by the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--completely and entirely apart from any semblance of work, effort, merit or response from the object of the electing God's loving desire because He alone saves those who need saving.
The God of Israel unconditionally elected Abraham, a pagan from the pagan land of Ur, to begin for Himself (Eph. 1:5 NASB) a redeemed people (Gen. 11:27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; 12:1, 2, 3, 4). God explains to His people: "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose [elect] you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant [the covenant is His covenant] and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments" (Deut. 7:7-9 NASB). Salvation belongs to the LORD (Ps. 3:8; 62:1; Jonah 2:9; Rev. 7:10)--and if He desires to demonstrate His wrath on defiant sinners (Rom. 9:22) and wants to save some of them (Rom. 9:23) then He reserves that right: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). If you are saved by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ then you are, among all mortals, blessed beyond measure.
Sinclair Ferguson writes: "When people are broken by sin, full of shame, feeling weak, conscious of failure, ashamed of themselves, and in need of counsel, they do not want to listen to preaching that expounds the truth of the discrete doctrines of their church's confession of faith but fails to connect them with the marrow of Gospel grace and the Father of infinite love for sinners. It is a gracious and loving Father they need to know."† Those of us who have been bruised and beaten by life, some of that beating resulting from our own poor choices, need a God who will do for us, and in us, what we cannot do for ourselves. I didn't even know I needed saving--to say nothing of desiring to turn from my sins! I could no more believe in Jesus Christ for salvation than I could sprint up Mount Everest in half an hour. I was dead, spiritually separated from life with God in Christ by the Holy Spirit, and I did not care one bit that I was such a wretch. I cared nothing for holiness, for Scripture, or for eternal life. God interrupted my life and rescued me from myself for His own glory and by His own doing alone. I could not meet His conditions so He became the condition substitute and delivered me out of sin and transferred me into His Kingdom by His own proactive grace (Col. 1:13-17). He made Himself known to me in His Word, in His Son Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1, 2, 3), and saved me by His love.
FOR GOD IS FOR US
God works "for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, he also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified" (Rom. 8:28-30 NIV). This brings the believer an immense amount of comfort in spite of any turmoil one is experiencing. Here is yet another spiritual marker of God's eternally stubborn love for His child, the son and daughter, He chose to adopt into His own family. Out of His own great love, the Father from eternity past predetermined to graciously adopt sinners into His family, in Christ Jesus His Son and our Lord. The one believing, the one in Christ, will be justified and, one day, experientially glorified. There can be no doubt about this reality--so much so that the glorification is rendered past tense, as though what will be has already occurred, and, spiritually taken, it has occurred (cf. Eph. 1:20; 2:6). We are right now, spiritually, seated with / in Christ in Heaven. So Paul concludes: "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31).
I like the phrase "who can be against us?" because the inference is "who of any count?" or "who of any worth?" In other words, if God is for us, then that is all that matters. But here's the amazement: God is for us! God is not against us! God has set His love upon us! He wants to be in right relationship with us! So He took all the measures required to gain us for Himself in Christ Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Father really does love us! He really does love you! He has always loved you and He always will love you! He loves me from all eternity! He has always loved me and He always will love me. Nothing in this life or in the next can separate us from Him and from His love. Paul boldly writes: "I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39 NLT). Rarely do I quote from The Message translation but I shall do so here: So, what do you think? With God on our side
__________
† Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance--Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016), 72.
FOR GOD SO LOVED
Every child in our church memorized John 3:16 but I don't think we were properly taught what the verse truly tells us of God's character and nature. "For God so loved the world," or "For God loved the world in this way," that "He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NASB). Who is the One who loved? The Father. The Son of God teaches us that the Father Himself loves the ones He redeems (John 16:27). Out of His great love "with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins," the Father "made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4, 5, 6, 7). The Father does not reluctantly love us! From His own great love for us He lavished His grace and mercy and love and redemption and salvation upon us (Eph. 1:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). This brought Him great delight (Eph. 1:9)! God the Father, the Creator, infinitely loves us.
God the Father does not reluctantly or begrudgingly love us, out of some pity for a loathsome creature that is despised and wretched, but has, from all eternity past, fixed / positioned / laser-focused / lodged / set His all-encompassing love upon us whom He has redeemed. There was never a time from all eternity past that God the Father did not love you--you whom He unfailingly intended to redeem (Jer. 31:1). Because He is eternal, so also is His love for you eternal, and will continue to be immensely experienced in you for all eternity future. You will forever be learning of the width and the length and the height and the depth of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:18, 19). Because you will never become omniscient, all-knowing, you will forever be learning about the ways and the character and the nature of God. His love for you cannot be increased because the fullness of His love for you cannot be measured; which also indicates that His love for you cannot be diminished, or decreased, since His love for you springs from His own essence as God. His love is measured by His own eternal and infinite standards and not by human standards of measurement or your preconceived conditions.
Do you think the love of the Father is measured by your successes or your failures? Do you still believe that God the Father's love for you has something to do with you? His love and His grace and His mercy and His salvation has nothing to do with you but everything to do with Him. You cannot "let God down," because you do not "hold God up," as I remember a preacher once truthfully saying. He is not angry with you, and withholds love for you, when you fail. His Son has already redeemed all your failures. Nor does His love for you increase when you succeed. His love is a God-sized love and cannot increase or decrease. He designed you, He created you, and chose from all eternity past to save you out of His eternally stubborn love for you. He did this without any conditions on your part: while you were spiritually helpless (Rom. 5:6, 8) and while you were still His enemy (Rom. 5:10) and while you wanted nothing to do with Him (1 Cor. 2:14) He intervened into your sinful, fallen, and helpless condition to save you by bringing you to Himself through Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:3, 4, 5; 2:1, 2, 3; Titus 3:5; James 1:18).
FOR GOD SO DISCIPLINED
Someone might think that God does not love them because He brought about some sort of discipline for rebellious sin. I certainly remember my dad and my mom telling me and my brother that disciplining us was difficult for them. We didn't like being disciplined. But they disciplined us out of their immense love for us. They didn't want to see us ruin our lives by reckless living. There were standards we were told to live by and, if we broke those standards, there would be discipline for the rebellion. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as
His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined--and everyone undergoes discipline--then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Heb. 12:7-11 NIV).If we stray into sin, and we receive consequences, then we cannot think that the discipline from God is a sign that He does not love us. Quite the contrary! If we are disciplined then we can at least rejoice in the fact that our Father loves us beyond measure. If He did not love us, we would not receive any discipline, which means that we do not belong to Him as a true child. Discipline is love. Stay teachable. Stay humble.
FOR GOD IS THE GOSPEL
Preach the Gospel to yourself often! In the Gospel we find not merely a promise but a Person! In the Gospel we discover the heart of God in the Person of Jesus. We do not find a condition to be met on our part in the Gospel. The Gospel is the Power of God for salvation to the one who believes in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus (Rom. 1:16). God offers us not a verb but a noun--Christ Himself! Christ is our salvation (Acts 4:12). Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). In the offer of the Gospel we do not find a condition that we must meet from our own innate strength or ability, such as, "Turn from your sins and God will then save you." A sinner can no more turn from his own sins then he can become a bird and fly away (Rom. 2:5; cf. Jer. 13:23). The Gospel is not "You do this and then God will do that." The Gospel is Jesus Himself! God is the Gospel! Jesus is the Gospel Incarnate. All spiritual and eternal promises of God are in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20)! The question you should ask is: "How do I get in Christ?" For God chose to save us in Christ (Eph. 1:4). In Christ "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us" (Eph. 1:7, 8). You need union with Christ!
But you cannot get yourself into Christ and save yourself. The very notion of salvation itself infers the helplessness of the one needing to be saved. You cannot save yourself. You cannot convict yourself of your sins while in your depraved nature. You are spiritually dead to and spiritually separated from all that spiritually pertains to God (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 1:2, 3;), who is Spirit (John 4:24), and must be approached in spirit (John 4:23). Your spirit is lifeless, utterly inactive, dead (1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1). What your spirit needs is life, animation, regeneration (John 1:13; 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; 6:63; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3, 6; Titus 3:5). Unless and until God regenerates your dead spirit then you will remain dead to spiritual matters (1 Cor. 2:14). "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive [regenerated us] with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6 NIV). Paul explicitly states here that God regenerates His elect (cf. Eph. 1:4, 5) while or when they are still spiritually dead and this is by His own grace. God must place you "in Christ" and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) the gift of faith naturally results (John 6:37, 44, 45, 63, 65; Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:1). If you are trusting in Christ Jesus then you have received an eternally stubborn love from God and this love will graciously sustain you all the days of your life (Ps. 139:16) into all eternity future.
FOR GOD IS THE CONDITION
You cannot conditionalize the love of God for His people. You cannot conditionalize the Gospel. If you say to sinners that they must turn from their sins in order to be saved then you are exchanging the truth of God for a lie (Rom. 1:25). You want unregenerate sinners to turn from their sins? How? You are not preaching the Gospel when you utter such conditions. Christ is the Gospel. Christ is Grace Incarnate (John 1:17). You must point people to Christ and not to man-made conditions that are unbiblical. God saves by His grace through faith in the Person and Work of Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:21). The grace by which God saves sinners is as unconditional as the grace by which God elects to save sinners. The work of salvation belongs solely to God in Christ Jesus by the effectual work of the Holy Spirit or salvation is not attained at all. Depraved sinners who are spiritually dead can in no sense imaginable meet God's conditions, standards, or laws (Gal. 3:24-27). If there be any condition to the Gospel of God then God will meet that condition Himself--God is the Condition. This is because sinners cannot save themselves. Sinners don't even want to be saved. Nothing could be clearer in reality. If God doesn't save then no one can be and no one will be saved.
If God had left us to our own fallen devices, waiting for us to "repent and believe in Jesus Christ to be saved," He would wait for all eternity. He knew this already because He fully knew and understood the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13; Gen. 3:13) and our depraved nature (Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:10, 11, 18; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Therefore God the Father made an eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20) of unconditionally electing--in God the Son through the effectual agency of God the Holy Spirit--to save a people for Himself (Gen. 21:12, 13; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 7:7, 8; 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 1 Kings 12:15; 20:42; 2 Kings 19:25; 2 Chron. 6:6; Job 23:13, 14; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; 78:67, 68, 70, 71, 72; 105:17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; 135:4; Prov. 16:4; Isa. 44:1, 2, 7; Jer. 1:4, 5; Mal. 1:2, 3; Matt. 11:25, 26; 20:16; 22:14, 22, 40; 25:34; Mark 13:20, 22; Luke 4:25, 26, 27; 8:10, 10:20; 18:7; 22:22; John 6:37, 39, 44, 45; 15:16, 19; 17:2, 6; 21:23; Acts 1:7; 2:23, 39, 47; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; 22:14; Rom. 1:6; 8:28, 29, 30, 33; 9:11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29; 11:5, 7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:26, 27, 28, 29; 2:7; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 1:4, 5, 9, 10, 11; 2:10; 3:11; Col. 3:12; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2:12; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:1, 2; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:2, 20; 2 Pet. 1:10; Jude 1:4; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). He elected to save a people for His glory--to "the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves;" "in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us;" "according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ;" "according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will;" "in order that we [who believe] ... might be for the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12).
Any condition attached to the attaining of salvation in the scriptures is and must be fulfilled by the Father, who made the Eternal Covenant in the Son, Jesus Christ, as is brought to pass by the effectual agency of the Holy Spirit. The Father elects and calls, the Son provides atonement and righteousness, and the Spirit applies all necessarily-stated conditions: grace as ability (John 1:14, 16, 17; 15:5; Acts 15:10, 11; 2 Cor. 9:8, 9, 10, 11; 12:9; Phil. 2:12, 13; 2 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:15, 16), brought about by faith via regeneration (John 1:11, 12, 13; 3:3, 5, 6, 7, 8; 6:37, 44, 45, 63, 65; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:14; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3, 8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Thess. 2:13; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 2 Pet. 1:1), for obedience and sanctification by the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:15, 21, 23, 26; Rom. 1:5; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:1, 2). This work of salvation must be entirely effectuated and completed in and by the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--completely and entirely apart from any semblance of work, effort, merit or response from the object of the electing God's loving desire because He alone saves those who need saving.
The God of Israel unconditionally elected Abraham, a pagan from the pagan land of Ur, to begin for Himself (Eph. 1:5 NASB) a redeemed people (Gen. 11:27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; 12:1, 2, 3, 4). God explains to His people: "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose [elect] you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant [the covenant is His covenant] and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments" (Deut. 7:7-9 NASB). Salvation belongs to the LORD (Ps. 3:8; 62:1; Jonah 2:9; Rev. 7:10)--and if He desires to demonstrate His wrath on defiant sinners (Rom. 9:22) and wants to save some of them (Rom. 9:23) then He reserves that right: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). If you are saved by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ then you are, among all mortals, blessed beyond measure.
Sinclair Ferguson writes: "When people are broken by sin, full of shame, feeling weak, conscious of failure, ashamed of themselves, and in need of counsel, they do not want to listen to preaching that expounds the truth of the discrete doctrines of their church's confession of faith but fails to connect them with the marrow of Gospel grace and the Father of infinite love for sinners. It is a gracious and loving Father they need to know."† Those of us who have been bruised and beaten by life, some of that beating resulting from our own poor choices, need a God who will do for us, and in us, what we cannot do for ourselves. I didn't even know I needed saving--to say nothing of desiring to turn from my sins! I could no more believe in Jesus Christ for salvation than I could sprint up Mount Everest in half an hour. I was dead, spiritually separated from life with God in Christ by the Holy Spirit, and I did not care one bit that I was such a wretch. I cared nothing for holiness, for Scripture, or for eternal life. God interrupted my life and rescued me from myself for His own glory and by His own doing alone. I could not meet His conditions so He became the condition substitute and delivered me out of sin and transferred me into His Kingdom by His own proactive grace (Col. 1:13-17). He made Himself known to me in His Word, in His Son Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1, 2, 3), and saved me by His love.
FOR GOD IS FOR US
God works "for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, he also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified" (Rom. 8:28-30 NIV). This brings the believer an immense amount of comfort in spite of any turmoil one is experiencing. Here is yet another spiritual marker of God's eternally stubborn love for His child, the son and daughter, He chose to adopt into His own family. Out of His own great love, the Father from eternity past predetermined to graciously adopt sinners into His family, in Christ Jesus His Son and our Lord. The one believing, the one in Christ, will be justified and, one day, experientially glorified. There can be no doubt about this reality--so much so that the glorification is rendered past tense, as though what will be has already occurred, and, spiritually taken, it has occurred (cf. Eph. 1:20; 2:6). We are right now, spiritually, seated with / in Christ in Heaven. So Paul concludes: "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31).
I like the phrase "who can be against us?" because the inference is "who of any count?" or "who of any worth?" In other words, if God is for us, then that is all that matters. But here's the amazement: God is for us! God is not against us! God has set His love upon us! He wants to be in right relationship with us! So He took all the measures required to gain us for Himself in Christ Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Father really does love us! He really does love you! He has always loved you and He always will love you! He loves me from all eternity! He has always loved me and He always will love me. Nothing in this life or in the next can separate us from Him and from His love. Paul boldly writes: "I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39 NLT). Rarely do I quote from The Message translation but I shall do so here: So, what do you think? With God on our side
like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us--who was raised to life for us!--is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up [mediating, advocating] for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture ... None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us (Rom. 8:31-39).I wrote this because I needed this! I needed to remind myself that the Father loves me and I needed the assurance of this truth. I find myself in His truth, in His love, in His grace. There have been days over the last few months when my only prayer was "Father, I just need you to love me today." That's all I could pray. So I keep reminding myself that the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Savior and King, said in prayer to His Father, "I have given them [His disciples] the glory that You gave Me [so] that they may be one as we are one--I in them and You in Me--so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me" (John 17:22-23 NIV). God, my Father, loves me even as He loves Jesus Christ. That love will carry me through this life and into the next. On your worst day, when you are at your lowest point in life (and I know those days because I struggle with severe depression and moments when I don't want to live any longer), God is still for you, loving you, sustaining you. You live and move and have your very being in Him (Acts 17:28) because He so loves you with an eternally-stubborn love from His own being. Never ever doubt the love of the Father for you.
__________
† Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance--Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016), 72.
0 Comments
Please be respectful to everyone.