God Loves Us

 

God loves you; God loves you, God loves you!

Father God loved us so much that He created people knowing in advance, by His foreknowledge, He would have to send His Precious Son to redeem a race riddled with sin.

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” and “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” [Genesis 1:26-a and Genesis 1:27a] [NASB]

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” [Psalms 46:10]

The Bible tells us in the book of Genesis that God created man, but when man disobeyed God’s law sin along with death entered our world severing our connection with God.

“But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day you eat from it “you will surely die.” [ Genesis 2:17-]

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so  He will not hear.” [Isaiah 59:2]

Sin; that is such a puzzling word. Every person has a preconceived idea as to what he or she thinks sin is; to some sin is murder or robbery or to others sin just does not exist. Let’s look in God’s written word the Bible to find out what Father God thinks about sin.

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”[Romans 3:23]

The Word of God tells us ALL HAVE SINNED. So, let’s explore the word all in Strong’s Definitions  tells us that the Greek meaning of all is “all, all, any, every, the whole.” [2] So in the Greek, the work all means every single person has sinned.

To make it easy to identify sin, let’s break it down into three categories: thoughts, speech, and action.

So, have you ever had a critical thought about someone, or judged what someone said, were angry at someone, or had sexual desire for another person? These are the kinds of thoughts God would consider a sin.

“Do not Judge so that you will not be judged.” [Matthew 7:1]  [See also James 1:19, and Matthew 5:28.]

Hmm, let’s ponder on the aspects of speech for a moment. Have you ever sworn at another person, cursed using God’s name, lied to someone or maybe you spoke rudely to your parent? These are things that God would consider a sin.

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth.” [Ep 4:29]

“But now you also, put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.” [Col 3:8]

Ok, so we learned from God’s word to us the Bible what thoughts and speech are considered a sin by God.  So now let’s get personal and check for any wrong actions you might have done. Have you stolen something that is not yours? It does not have to be big to count, have you eaten someone’s food at work, or maybe just cheated a little on your taxes? Nothing on this list to identify with yet, hmmm, so here are a few more examples, have you had sex outside of marriage, cheated on a test, or even broke the speed limit while driving. According to the Holy Bible, these are all things God would consider a sin.

“For this is the will of God your sanctification; that is that you abstain from sexual immorality.” [ I Thessalonians 4:3-5] and [Ep 4:28,]

It is from God’s Word the Bible,  that we understand God’s view of sin. To make the word SIN easier to understand let’s split it up into three categories: thoughts, speech, and action. We learned that critical thoughts, that swearing, and stealing are all considered a sin by God’s standard, the Bible In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul writes that “ALL HAVE SINNED.” God is holy, no person with sin can enter into communion with Him, and according to the Bible because of our sin in we have “Come short of the glory of God.” [Romans 3:23]

What does this verse mean to “come short”?  Here it means, that they had failed to obtain. So, the  Greek translation is that “come short” is the lack or inability to obtain the glory of God. [Barnes Notes] So what is the glory of God – They had sought to be justified, or approved, by God; but all had failed, and they were therefore under condemnation. [Barnes Notes]

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so He will not hear.” [Isaiah 59:2]

God’s word to us in “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Y’shua our Lord.” [Romans 6:23]

Let’s look at the word [wages]; wages are a payment for something we do such as getting a salary for our work, getting paid for mowing the lawn or receiving a paycheck for work at a restaurant.

So, now we know that in this verse, wages are a payment for sin which every individual has committed, remember sin is anything we say, think or do that is not perfect.

So, if the Bible says “For the wages of sin is death.” [Romans 6:23], we need to find out what is death. God’s word states the PAYMENT FOR OUR SIN IS DEATH, but the great news is the GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH HIS SON, Y’shua. The Bible tells us that Y’shua took the payment of our sins upon His body.

 “Who took away our sins Himself by means of His body on the tree, so that by dying to our sins we could live in righteousness.” [1 Peter 2:24]

The Bible tells us God give us the GIFT of His Son, Y’shua the Bible says that,  “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Son so that everyone who believes in Him would not die but would have eternal life. [John 3:16]

Wait, GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, that is the people in the world, including you and me, that He gave us the GIFT of His Son, Y’shua. Let’s look at the word, gift. A gift is something you receive free of charge for Christmas, your birthday, a holiday, or special occasion. It is not something you earned or paid for it is FREE.

So, the GOOD NEWS is God gave us a free gift, in His Son, Y’shua. So, how do we accept this gift? Hmmm. Well, let’s imagine your friend has given you a wonderful wrapped present and said, “I bought this for you, please open it.” Well, of course, you would thank your friend and accept the gift, and that is what God wants you to do. ACCEPT HIS GIFT.

So how do we accept His gift of His Son?  The Holy Bible shares that God has given us the gift of eternal life and in I John God tells us how to receive His FREE GIFT.

“And so many as did take Him, He gave them  authority to become children of God, to those who believed in His name.” [I John 1:12]

So, in order to accept God’s gift we must receive the salvation offered through His son, and believe on the name of Y’shua.

“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation.” [Romans 10:9,10]

According to this verse, we must believe in our hearts that He was resurrected from the dead and confess to another person our belief in Christ.

There are so many verses in the Bible about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ it was hard to choose, so please read the two verses I chose, and know you can look up many more in the Bible.

“Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” [Romans 8:34] 

Also, “Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the white wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed: you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here.” [Mark 16:5,6]

 

How do I accept God’s gift of love for me?

Admit all have sinned including you.

The payment for your sin is death.

Jesus took the payment for your death.

Accept the gift of God.

Believe in your heart Christ died for your sins and rose again.

Confess or say with your mouth that you believe in Christ.

 

The following is a sample of a prayer you might use to accept the free gift of God’s son, Jesus.

Dear God, I know I am a sinner, and the payment for my sin is death, but I believe your son Jesus, took the payment for my sins. I accept your gift of your son and believe Jesus died for my sins and rose again. I will tell another person about my belief in Jesus.

Works Cited

1. “Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Print -Used by permission.” [All Biblical references in this article are derived from the NASB]
2. . [Strong’s Definitions https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3956&t=NASB%5D