Synopsis
The world we live in today has fallen prey to a lie. The lie that God is a miser Who withheld good things from us. In essence, God do not really love us.
Adam accepted that lie. He was our progenitor and representative. We accepted his decision by proxy.
Today, we can reverse or void that decision when we accept Jesus as our Lord.
Adam was our lord in that what he did, he did it for, to, in and as us.
Jesus is our Lord because what He has done, He did them all for, to, in and as us. Confessing Him as Lord is taking possession of all that He has done and achieved so that as He is, so are we in this world [1 John 4:17, Romans 5:15-19].
By confessing that Jesus is our Lord, we veto the decision Adam made for us by proxy. God made it so easy for us!
Jesus is God [John 1:1, John 14:9]. God is greater than Adam. But of course! Hence, what Jesus did overrode what Adam did. Greater is He Who is in me that he who is in the world [1 John 4:4]. God is love [1 John 4:8]. His love has been poured out in my heart [Romans 5:5]. Hallelujah!
Is that a fantastic deal or what?
Foreword
The world has become what it is today because of a big con job!
The lie is that God is a miser Who is withholding good things from us. In other words, He does not really love us.
In the book of Job, Job was oblivious of God’s unconditional love for him. He imagined that his spiritual piety was the basis of God’s providence.
Right after the Book of Job is the Book of Psalms. It was written mainly by David, a man who sought God’s love; a man after God’s own heart [Acts 13:22]. Then the Book of Proverbs (Wisdom) followed. Wisdom is the knowledge of God’s love put into action; it is trusting in His love for us. It is being Christlike.
So will we progress in the journey of trusting God. We start off by being ignorant of His gracious and unconditional love. Through the Cross, we begin to see that He loved us. Thereafter, we slowly get to know of His love. Finally, we enter into a trusting relationship with Him.
Jesus Christ the Man epitomized complete trust in God. Abram was a type of that epitome. Abram trusted God to provide the sacrificial lamb even to the point of lifting the knife to slay Isaac, the son he deeply loved, when God came through. [Genesis 22:8, 12-13]. It was through such experiences of trusting God that Abraham was fully persuaded and won over by the integrity of God and His love for him [Romans 4:20-21].
The fulfillment of Bible prophesies proved God’s integrity [Numbers 23:19]. It is here that we start to learn of God’s integrity or His faithfulness to His Word [Isaiah 55:11]. When we begin to see God as faithful, He says that we have seen well [Jeremiah 1:12].
The death of His only Beloved Son on the Cross as Jesus the Man proved His love for us [Romans 5:8].
By these two immutable or unchangeable things, God has established His claim of loving us; His claim over us as His beloved Own [Hebrews 6:18]. In the verse, the promise refers to the Promised Messiah and His oath is His integrity.
What more can He do to convince us that He loved us? We are His beloved children! God has redeemed us from the big con job! [Galatians 3:13].
By believing in the lie that God is a miser, Adam chose to earn his keeps. This erroneous perception of God culminated in his posterity asking for the Law; do good get blessed and do bad get cursed. God’s providence and love for us are unconditional. The asking for the Law manifested the wrong perception of God.
God gave up His only Beloved Son to die on the Cross as Jesus the Man to prove to us that He loved us unconditionally. He loved us not based on what we do or don’t do. His love for us is unmerited, unearned and undeserved. He simply loved us.
When we accept God’s proof of His gracious love, we reject satan’s lie. With that rejection, we are redeemed from the curse of that lie.
God emphatically reinforces the absolute and perfect love for us in Romans 8:32, “He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?”
Contrast the cry of God’s heart in that verse with satan’s suggestion in Genesis 3:4-5, “But the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity.”
I would paraphrase that as such, “God is bluffing you. He does not want you to eat the fruit because there is something good for you there. He does not want you to have it.”
Every spiritual force of evil out there recognizes us as His own.
How about us?
Questions
How did the world end up in lack with scarcity and opportunity cost as the way of life? These thieves came to steal and to destroy. Along with them came inflation, the silent corrosive agent in stealth.
Have we been able to stop their rampage?
With advancement in every facet of our lives, have we become happier people? Or have we lived so long without happiness to forget what it is really like? Worse still, have we substituted it with something much more inferior that we can achieve within the constraints of this aged world?
These are just some of the many burning questions that beg to be answered.
With our combined human knowledge and intelligence, are we anywhere near the answers or have we drifted further from them than we would ever care to admit?
How much longer do we want to live in the lie that we can help ourselves when centuries of futile attempts have brought us from the frying pan into the fire?
Would you agree with me that we need help desperately?
Thus far, it has been nothing but a string of questions. To begin with the answer, we start with the lie.
The Lie
The world has become what it is today because of a lie.
The greatest liar in this world managed to deceive the first human being on earth into believing that God is a miser. That false accusation cast a serious doubt on the integrity of God’s love for the world. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world, meaning everyone in the world be it Christians or otherwise.
Satan’s charge against God impeached or challenged the credibility of His very nature and character. God is love [1 John 4:8]. Just as fishes swim, water wets, heat warms, so God loves. You get my drift?
When Adam took the bait of satan by eating from the forbidden tree, he accepted satan’s testimony of God as a miser Who withheld something good from him. Hence, Adam decided to get on his own what he thought God was keeping from him. Adam also agreed with his wife, Eve that the fruit of the tree was desirable to make them wise [Genesis 3:6]. Alas! Men professing themselves to be wise ended up fools! [Romans 1:22]. A wise fool! What an oxymoron!
With his acceptance of the false testimony, Adam had unwittingly chosen to reject God’s love and provisions. Adam chose to be self sufficient instead of God sufficient. He chose to rely on or trust in self rather than God.
God provided everything that Adam would ever need in the Garden of Eden and placed him there. All Adam needed to do was to take care of the “fruits” of God’s “labour”. Adam did not have to work for them. Everything in the garden was fully grown and ripen, ready for his taking.
The Effects
But when Adam chose to rely on himself, God respected his decision and took him out of the garden. Why did God not override Adam’s decision? It was because God gave Adam the gift of free will or choice.
It was never God’s intention to create robots. His every intention was to make us His beloved children who would willingly requite His love or love Him back by trusting Him.
Once out of the garden, not only did Adam have to earn his keeps, he had to sweat for them [Genesis 3:17-19]. With his finite abilities, lack in every form ensued.
Adam was our representative. His choice became ours. The repercussions of that choice became our harsh and cruel realities.
The Reversal
God, the Creator of the entire Cosmos, has provided the ultimate and conclusive proof of His complete, selfless and unconditional love for us; by the death of His only Beloved Son on the Cross as Jesus the Man. This serves to refute satan’s lie or ludicrous charge against God.
Today, we can reverse or void our decision by proxy when we accept Jesus as our Lord.
Adam was our lord in that what he did, he did for, to, as and in us. By confessing that Jesus is our Lord, we veto the decision Adam made for us by proxy. God made it so easy for us!
Jesus is God. God is greater than Adam. But of course! Hence, what Jesus did overrode what Adam did. Greater is He Who is in me than he who is in the world [1 John 4:4]. God is love [1 John 4:8]. His love has been poured out in my heart [Romans 5:5]. Hallelujah!
The Gospel
What good news! We get to choose again!
We do not need to live under the dark regime of that lie. We can choose to live in the light of Truth; God loved us! God’s Word is Truth [John 17:17]. God’s Word is Jesus [John 1:1]. Jesus came to show and prove that God loved us [Romans 5:8].
God, our loving Father, has transferred us from the dominion of the darkness of that lie into the kingdom of His love as proven by the death of His only Beloved Son [Colossians 1:13].
Do we want to continue living under the oppressive conditions of this world that is spinning out of control? Or do we want to live above them trusting in our loving Father to control and turn them in our favour?
God’s love for the world is universal and unconditional. But the vote of confidence in His love and the veto of Adam’s folly is by confessing Jesus as our Lord.
The reason the only Beloved Son of God was made manifest was to undo (destroy, loosen and dissolve) the works the devil has done [1 John 3:8].
Jesus the Man is the Christ or the Promised Messiah or God’s Anointed One. God has:
1) Anointed Him to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor;
2) Sent Him to:
a) announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
b) send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and
broken down by calamity],
c) proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free
favours of God profusely abound]. [Luke 4:18-19].
The Good Deal
Jesus is our Lord because what He has done, He did them all for, to, in and as us. Confessing Him as Lord is taking possession of all that He has done and achieved so that as He is, so are we in this world [1 John 4:17].
Is that a fantastic deal or what?
It is like going back to the Garden of Eden in which God has provided everything for our taking.
God has tendered the death of His only Beloved Son as evidence of His love for us. Is that piece of evidence admissible to you?
Our loving Father in heaven has laid before us life and death; the truth of His love and the lie of satan. He is urging us to choose well by accepting the proof of His love for us by the laying down of the life of His only Beloved Son [Deuteronomy 30:19].
The New Life
As we have become so accustomed to living a life without God, it will take some time for us to get used to living this new lifestyle of dependence on Him or trusting Him.
It is a paradigm shift.
It is like the right-handed holding a toothbrush in the left hand to brush the teeth. It would feel odd and uncomfortable initially.
Meanwhile, the accuser, the old serpent, will try his level best to unseat us from our new stand or position of rest. Therein lies the spiritual war; Ephesians 6:12, For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
Our loving Father has equipped us for this spiritual warfare. He has prepared and recorded volumes of testimonies and witnesses of His great and everlasting love for us in an evidential document called the Holy Bible.
Holy means sets apart. Bible means book. It is a Book set apart for our spiritual warfare. We overcome the evil one with God’s words.
The Bible speaks of tomorrow. Yet some are looking at today to authenticate what the Bible is saying about tomorrow. Even though many of the tomorrows as spoken of in the Bible have already become today, the same still question those tomorrows that have yet to become today.
The fulfillment of Bible prophesies authenticates God’s claim of His love for us and highlights His integrity. God do not lie! [Numbers 23:19].
As we allow God to let us experience this new life as His beloved children, we will begin to understand His love for us. When the veil obscuring His identity as our loving Father Who Himself tenderly loved us [John 16:27], we find ourselves not conforming to the fashion of this world, a fallen world that fell prey to satan’s lie [Romans 12:2]. We will become more Christlike. To be Christlike is to trust in God’s love for us [2 Corinthians 3:18].
We will learn and be convinced that God knows much more and far better than us [Isaiah 55:8-9]. He made us [Genesis 2:7]. When we were just an idea in His loving mind, He has already chartered a wonderful path that is unique to each of us. He knows what is truly good for us [Jeremiah 29:11]. In the process of getting to know Him, we get to know ourselves better too.
God loved us. He loves, not spoils. Whenever we do not get to do things our way, remember it is in our best interest that He did not allow it [Proverbs 3:12, Hebrews 12:6].
How many times did our earthly parents not give in to our every whim and fancy when we were much younger? Looking back, were we not glad that they did just that? The same is with our heavenly Father.
Hebrews 12:9-11, “Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live? For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness. For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].”
Every challenge or trial in our lives serves to establish a deeper and closer relationship with God, our loving Father. A bond is forged when two people go through thick and thin together. Our loving Father promised that He would never leave us or forsake us and that He would be with us wherever we go [Deuteronomy 31:6, 8, Hebrews 13:5]. We regard every trial wholly joyful as it draws us closer to our loving Father [James 1:2]. As we fight the spiritual war of faith together with Him, we become more established in His love for us [1 Timothy 6:12].
In the account given in Daniel 3:24-25, a heathen king threw three young men into the fire for trusting in our Father God. He was in the midst of the fire with them and protected them. The three young men came out of the fire unharmed without even the smell of smoke on them. That same king was so floored by the display of our Father God’s mighty protection that he promoted the three young men.
Our loving Father is the same yesterday, today and forever [Hebrews 13:8]. He loved all His children the same [Acts 10:34]. What He has done for the three young men, He would do the same for us today.
The Answer
The fulfillment of Bible prophesies proved God’s integrity.
The death of His only Beloved Son on the Cross as Jesus the Man proved His love for us.
By these two immutable or unchangeable things, God has established His claim of loving us; His claim over us as His beloved Own [Hebrews 6:18]. In the verse, the promise refers to the Promised Messiah and His oath is His integrity.
Our problems are the result of the lie.
The answer to our problems is found in the crimson thread running through the Bible from cover to cover; the crimson thread of God’s great and everlasting love for us.
The death of His only Beloved Son on the Cross as Jesus the Man has proven beyond a shadow of any doubt that God loved us.
The Rewards
When we learn to trust in God’s love for us, we will gradually become contended with whatever earthly lot He has given us [Philippians 4:7]. We rest in knowing that His great love for us is working all things (good and bad) together for our good [Romans 8:28]. We trust that He knows better when to give us what we need [Jeremiah 29:11].
With this contentment comes peace [1 Timothy 6:6]. Girded by full confidence in His perfect providence, we no longer need to compare with others. What we are having now is God’s best for us at this particular station of the current stage of our lives. Envy or jealousy causes unrest, disharmony, rebellion and all sorts of evil and vile practices [James 3:16, 1 Corinthians 3:13].
We do not need to be bothered by what others are saying about us. Who shall lay a charge against us when it is God Who justifies us [Romans 8:33]? It is before our Lord Jesus the Christ that we stand or fall. Our Lord is mighty to support us and make us stand [Romans 14:4]. Hence we do not find the need to engage in tongue lashing [James 3:6].
This is the kind of peace that Jesus has given and bequeathed to us [John 14:27].
Call to Action
Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
A child born and bred in a toilet is now given a choice to live in a palace. Which will he choose?
It’s our call now!
What is it going to be?
Be Alert
1 Peter 5:8, “Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.”
Every time the evil one returns with that same stinking lie about God, we say, “NO-ah!” Noah means rest. Then we turn to the Cross and we shout, “YES-hua!” Yeshua is our Lord Jesus. He is the personification of the unearned, unmerited and undeserved love of God for us.
John 1:17, “For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Grace is God’s unearned, unmerited and underserved love for us. Truth is that God loved us.
We have peace knowing that He Who knows much more and far better than us is working out things that are truly good for us. We can then rest from all our futile struggles to make things right based on our limited and finite knowledge of what is good and evil. As we flow with the rhythm of His grace, we come to understand His great and everlasting love for us.
Hence, rest finds grace. In grace we find God’s great and everlasting love for us.
Remember that Jesus Christ the Man was tempted many times in the wilderness. Even after the three recorded temptations, satan retreated only to wait for an opportune moment to tempt Him again [Luke 4:13]. Our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted at all points and yet without sinning [Hebrews 4:15] . He was tempted to reject God’s love but did not.
Whenever we trust in God’s love for us, we walk on the storms of our lives. The moment we fret over those challenges, we sink into them. Even then, our Lord is able and mighty to lift us up when we cry to Him for help [Matthew 14:29-31].
Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
We turn all our challenges into prayers to Jesus because we have an awesome friend in Him. All our sins and grieves He bears. What joy we often forfeit and what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to Him in prayers.
Each time we take things into our own hands rather than trusting God to be in control, we land ourselves in unnecessary troubles.
Proverbs 26:2, NKJV, “Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, So a curse without cause shall not alight.”
We do not give in to satan’s suggestion that we must do all things possible to get what we want. This smacks of the lie that God is withholding the good stuff from us.
We do what the Lord has put in our hands to do. Thereafter, we stand on His love for us to work all things for our good [Ephesians 6:13].
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
There is a lesson to be learnt from King Hezekiah as recorded in Isaiah 38 regarding the Sovereignty of God’s Omniscience. I quote an extract of the footnote to Isaiah 38:5:
God’s time for Hezekiah to die had come (Isa. 38:1), but he had no son. It was unthinkable to him, apparently, that he should die and leave no heir to his throne. As devout as he was, he could not trust the Lord to give His faithful servant what was best for him. So he took matters into his own hands and begged to be allowed to live on. The Lord granted his request—sons were born. How immense the grief that resulted! One of his sons, Manasseh, became Hezekiah’s disgraceful and ruthless successor, not for just a few years, but for fifty-five! (II Kings 21:1ff.) He undid everything reformatory that had been done, established idol worship, caused his son to go through the fire as an offering to the pagan god, defied God’s prophets, and caused the slaughter of those who opposed him (including perhaps Isaiah, his father’s best friend who, according to Jewish tradition, was sawed in half during Manasseh’s reign). How little Hezekiah knew of what was best for him or for Judah! How presumptuous is anyone who demands that his own short-sighted vision replace the wisdom of God’s plan for his own life or for that of others!
It is not my will be done but His because He knows better what is truly good for me [Jeremiah 29:11].
If I perish, I perish [Esther 4:16]. I will be joining my loving Father in heaven and living in one of those mansions that Jesus the Christ has prepared for me [John 14:2].
Amen!!!
Note from Author
Anyone can interpret the scriptures in favour of an adopted stand [2 Peter 3:16]. I find that the only constant in the Bible is God’s love for me. Therefore, I have chosen to read and interpret the Bible in the greater context of His love for me.
This is my personal conviction. This is how I enjoy my Bible.
I am the beloved child of God that Jesus the Christ has made me to be [2 Corinthians 5:21] in the process of getting to know God’s love for me.
If you have been blessed by this literature, let all the glory and praise redound to our loving Father God. If there is anything you find amiss, let God judge my heart.
If you would like to support the declaration of God’s great love, you can do so HERE.
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