Through Jesus' Love

God loves us so much that He forgives our sins is a misstatement of the truth.  God by His nature cannot forgive our sins without the redemptive work of the Cross.  The proper statement is that God loves us so much that He gave His Son to die on the Cross as a living sacrifice for our sins.  

The blood of Jesus washes away our sins.  It is the complete sacrificial work of Jesus that allows God to receive us as heirs into His kingdom.  This understanding of sin emphasizes how grievous sin is to God.  God simply cannot tolerate sin.  Sin cannot exist in His presence.

The process of forgiveness on the human level is fairly straight forward.  When we are lightly offended by another person, we may simply forgive them because we love them so much or because the offense was so light that it is easily forgotten.  For more grievous offenses, we may find it harder to forgive, but we may decide to do so because the offender admits guilt and the offender’s expression of sorrow and regret is sufficient to ease our pain.  Of course, the process is always easier if the offender offers to compensate us for our losses and/or promises never to do it again.

The process of forgiveness on the supernatural level is more complex.  For God, every sin is a grievous offense.  For the sin to be forgiven requires more than an admission of guilt, an expression of regret, a reconciliation of damages and a desire to turn away from the sin forever.  God requires that Jesus mediates on our behalf.  He can only be our mediator if we have received Him as Our Savior.  The process of supernatural forgiveness is a miracle made possible by the death of Jesus on the Cross. 

With the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we hold the promises of God’s Word that He will perfect His strength in our weakness.  We must be aware, however, that through this process Our Heavenly Father does not take away our right to choose.

The bottom line is that we have to make choice to either follow the urgings of the Creator of the Universe or follow our own carnal desires.  We shall be free indeed if we choose submission to the callings of Our Lord.

As parents, we want all the best for our children.  We want them to have a wonderful life.  Because of our higher level of understanding and our life experiences, we know that children should only be given certain gifts and responsibilities when they have shown that they are ready to handle them.  Our children prove their readiness for more through obedience to our instructions.

God uses our experiences as parents to reveal to us the way in which He will release His blessings into our lives and how He will call us to greater responsibilities in His kingdom.  Just as we provided more for our children based on their readiness, Our Heavenly Father measures the amount of His release to us based on our obedience to His instructions and callings on our lives.

If life were a business, it would be all about the bottom line results.  In truth, this is how most people approach life.  Even people in ministry are often too heavily focused on the results (the number of members, funds collected, funds distributed, etc.) of their ministries.

In God’s kingdom on earth, it is all about the process.  God takes full responsibility for the results.  He looks to us to follow His primary processes – love Him above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves.  Through our efforts done for His glory, He takes care of all the rest.

Most of us in America were raised to be fiercely independent.  Our level of independence was often the measure of our maturity.  

That admirable trait, in the eyes of the world, impacts how we are able to build intimacy with God.  When we fall short of full surrender to Jesus Christ because of our independent spirit, we end up living on the fence – half in a spiritual life and have in a carnal life.  

Only a Holy Spirit led lifestyle that fosters our intimacy with Our Heavenly Father will enable us to completely surrender our lives to Jesus.  We will have reached spiritual maturity when we get off the fence and become consciously devoted to God in all that we do.

From the beginning, God gave man free choice.  While God has a plan for our lives, He allows us to discover it through the life choices that we make.  He will provide urgings in our spirit through His Holy Spirit.  He will provide stop signs in the same fashion.  But through it all, our free choice will remain.

The closer we are to Our Heavenly Father will dictate how closely our choices mirror His choices for our lives.  Our intimacy with Him will ultimately lead us to a place where our choices will be the same as His.

The living water is within us when we receive Jesus Christ as Our Savior.  The living water is never turned off.  It is always available to us and to those around us.

Only the level of our faith restricts the flow of the living water.  Without faith, we build a dam.  With a little faith, we allow a measured flow.  With much faith, we release an unlimited torrent of absolute power.  Our faith must be in the One from whom our experience flows.

A new man in Christ is identified by his obedience to God’s commands and by the fruit that he bears.  His life is an expression of the gifts that he has received – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  In everything he does, he shares with the world around him the perfect love and forgiveness that he received from the Father.  He pleases the Father by bringing honor and glory to His name, the name of Jesus and to the Holy Spirit.

One thing is as certain as death and taxes.  We are going to experience trials in our lives.  Some of the trials will be small while others will be so big we will nearly faint.  In each, we must learn to rejoice for trials are God’s way of drawing us close and teaching us His ways.

Through our faith we will have our character built up so that we may become the person God intended us to be.  And as our character builds, our faith will grow stronger to facilitate even more spiritual maturity.