Through faith in Jesus Christ, we come to God, our loving, heavenly Father. In Christ, we see God's Fatherly love.
Enjoying God's Fatherly love - This is more than our entrance into God's family through faith in Christ. It's living as a member of God's family. It's discovering how much we are loved by God. It's learning to love him more and more.
In Romans 8:28 - "in all things God works for the good of those who love him", we read about both God's love for us and our love for him. The most important thing is God's love for us. Our love for him is secondary. It is responsive. It arises out of his love for us. As we come to appreciate God's love for us, we grow in our love for him.
How do we know that God loves us? - We see his love "in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 8:39).
God is generous in his love: "He ... did not spare his own Son, but gave him for us all" (Romans 8:32).
In Romans 8:34, we learn that Christ died for us, was raised for us and is interceding for us.
He "will ... graciously give us all things" (Romans 8:32).
How does God give to us? - In Philippians 4:19 - "My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus", we learn that God meets our need, but he does not provide for our greed. In 2 Peter 1:3-4 - "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires", we learn that he gives us what we need to live a godly, Christ-centred life, not a worldly, self-centred life.
From the love of God, revealed to us in Christ, we look back to the beginning and we catch a glimpse of the love of God, our Creator. Our sin prevents us from getting a clear view of the wonderful love of God, our Creator. God's original creation was good, but we must now live with the fact that creation is fallen - fallen away from what it once was, fallen away from God, the Creator. There are many threats to our awareness of God's love which reaches out to us, many obstacles which get in the way of our responsive love for Him - "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (Romans 8:35-36).
How does God reveal himself to us as our Creator? - He creates, in us, a "new creation" (Galatians 6:15). He creates, in us, His "love" (Galatians 5:6). It's "in Christ Jesus" that everything changes for us. We see the whole creation in a new light. We begin to live a new life.
How does God enable us to keep on walking with him through faith in Christ? Is it by making life easy for us? No! It is by giving us the strength that face our difficult circumstances and triumph over them. Through his great love for us, he makes us "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37). "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour ... he enables me to tread on the heights" (Habakkuk 3:17-19).
The heights: - He has "glorified" us (Romans 8:29-30). In one sense, our glorification still lies in the future. In another sense, we say, He has glorified us, because we trust in the Lord. He has promised to do this for us, and he will fulfil his promise. It shall be done! We are in the heights. we still face conflict, but we have the victory in Christ - "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).
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