“In the beginning God…” ~Genesis 1:1 Forever and always, beginning to end, all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful, God is God. He is infinite and holy (completely other than us), yet He is also unchangeable; we cannot comprehend the depths of who He is, yet He has chosen to reveal Himself to man through creation, through His Word (the Bible), and in the person of Jesus Christ.
We, as human beings, are trapped in the bondage and curse of sin. Since Adam’s first sin in the Garden so long ago, every single human who has ever lived (and will ever live) has been condemned by their own thoughts, words, and actions before God – except for Christ. His perfection, justice, righteousness, and holiness stand in contrast to our filthiness, violent disobedience, and pride. We, in our sin, are separated from God and face His judgment and wrath. Nothing “good” we do will ever measure up to His standard or erase the travesty of our own sins.
Yet, God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love for us – even when we were sinners and enemies of His – He, in His mercy and grace, came to meet us in our hopeless state. He came, not as a powerful King demanding honor and praise, but as the sacrificial Lamb who would die to pay the penalty for our sin. Jesus, the spotless and perfect God-Man, paid for our sin (and ultimately for us) with His own life; He died so that we can live. His blood was shed to cover over the guilty stain that sin leaves. However, thankfully, He didn’t stay dead! No, Jesus rose from the dead and defeated sin and death in one fell swoop!
You and I have the opportunity to be saved from sin and death through Jesus. We can not only escape the right judgment of God, but we can be adopted (in Jesus) as God’s children if we believe in Christ. To believe is to trust – to put our confidence in, to accept as our own – when we humbly and wholeheartedly believe in Jesus our lives are no longer the same; we now belong to Him and are equipped to do what pleases Him. We aren’t the boss of our own lives anymore and we are the children of the devil no longer; no, we are now servants of the Living God as His dearly loved children!
This is just the surface, the very beginning, of the story that you and I have the opportunity to be a part of. Please contact us for more information and to know more about the love that God has for you. We love you and would love to pray with and for you!
“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:34-38
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.” – 1 John 4:9-19