Gods Great Love For Us - Part 1 of 6

In the coming weeks leading up to April 3rd, the day Jesus Christ, the Son of God was crucified in the year 33 AD, we will be sharing Scripture verses and thoughts God says about His great love for us. We hope you follow along and are enriched during this time of reflection as we approach the anniversary day Jesus resurrected from the dead, April 5, 33.

(1) Gods only Son leaves heaven, is miraculously born a human being on earth.

Please note that some of the content contained within the Reflection Moments depicted here is not recorded in the scriptures. They are merely human attempts to relate and ask some questions of certain aspects of the Son of God, which may help you see the Savior’s human side of His divine life on earth.

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Why are we here, where did we come from, and where are we going? God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who is commonly referred to as, “The Godhead” said:

Genesis 1:26, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The fact that God decided to create mankind is in and of itself an act of love coming from a Spirit of love helping us to appreciate our miraculous beginnings from His mind out of nothing. The incredible aspect of this love for us in the beginning is the key words “in Our image according to Our likeness.” I have as you may have often thought of Gods image as some form of a person in stature and shape like us. But I realized in the study and meditation on the scriptures, God reveals in His word that He Himself is Spirit, an ultimate eternal mind. Not a physical looking frame of a person for we read in John 4:24. “God is Spirit.” He is and was at the time of creating mankind, the Spirit of I AM. One might ask, "What does it mean we are in the image of God?" Well quite simply, We have been created with eternity within us with survival of the death of the body! How can one with this nature of God within them reject that he or she has not a soul in the body? This is mind boggling. We all have an immortal spirit residing inside us, a soul and a mind that gives us life and mind in His likeness because he made us. I must stress, not His equal. We have emotions, God has emotions. We have a conscience of the heart, God had a heart for us to be created. We have feelings, God feels and knows our pain. We can have eternal life if we choose Him. God is eternal. And we have personality and creativity. God has personality, a creative all knowing mind.

I'm getting ahead here but later, Jesus said in Luke 24:39, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Again, this proves we have a spirit and a soul inside us that originated from the Godhead.

When Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ in Matthew 16:16-17, Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” This shows us clearly that God is not a flesh and blood being.

And to reiterate, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." (John 1:1-5)


Reflection Moment

The following scripture in the gospel writings of Luke is kind of a mirrored image back to our beginnings as human beings beginning with Adam and Eve in the garden when they were created without sin. Jesus miraculous conception by the Spirit of God and forming in the womb of Mary is the next great gift of God to us out of an amazing Love to redeem mankind back to Him. Oh His love for us was and is so great and without restraint! At this point of history after the great flood of Noah, the children of Israel and the rest of the human inhabitants of the earth, things weren’t getting any better. By year "0" sin and separation from God was of an immense divide that only God could remedy the situation outside of ourselves. Think of it as a mission of love by the Godhead to give up and empty Himself at just the right time for us. That is a love we cannot possibly understand or replicate in our lives. Honestly, would you willingly give up your place in heaven? Would you become something much less than yourself as a member of the Triune Godhead for imperfect sinners filthy as rags? I have to admit, I wouldn't.

Luke 1:26-37, “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus."

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”

John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Birth date of Jesus? - June 17, 2 BC

Some believe Jesus has not the essence of God, that He is a created being. It's this last phrase "only begotten" that causes problems. False teachers have latched onto this phrase to try to prove their false teaching that Jesus Christ isn't God; i.e., that Jesus isn't equal in essence to God as the Second Person of the Godhead. They see the word "begotten" and say that Jesus is a created being because only someone who had a beginning in time can be "begotten." What this fails to note is that "begotten" is an English translation of a Greek word. As such, we have to look at the original meaning of the Greek word, not transfer English meanings into the text.

The definition of “monogenes“ is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind." This is the meaning that is implied in John 3:16 (see also John 1:14, 18; 3:18; 1 John 4:9). John was primarily concerned with demonstrating that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:31), and he uses monogenes to highlight Jesus as uniquely God's Son—sharing the same divine nature as God—as opposed to believers who are God's sons and daughters by adoption (Ephesians 1:5). Jesus is God’s “one and only” Son.

For an in depth lesson on Christ Jesus being God in the Flesh on Earth, click here.

Terms such as "Father" and "Son," that are descriptive of God and Jesus, are human terms that help us understand the relationship between the different Persons of the Godhead. If you can understand the relationship between a human father and a human son, then you can understand, in part, the relationship between the First and Second Persons of the Godhead. The analogy breaks down if you try to take it too far and teach, as some Christian cults, that Jesus was literally "begotten" as in “produced” or “created” by God the Father. The following powerful scripture from the mind of God completely obliterates this false teaching.

Colossians 1:15-20, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

God’s pure love for us is graphically demonstrated by the last 6 words – “through the blood of His cross.”

Reflection Moment

The bible says Jesus is a “stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks” (1 Cor 1:23). The Jews for the last 4000 years intently expect a beautiful and powerful Messiah, a King that will establish his final kingdom on earth forever. This belief still exists today in full force among the orthodox Jews. So much so they are currently planning and designing a new Temple in Jerusalem to have ready for their Messiah to return to! Well ladies and gentlemen, they missed Him! They do not accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah, they do not believe He was resurrected to life on the third day as the scriptures state. The Godhead in their perfect plan of redemption purposely created this stumbling block of blindness among us and Gods former chosen people, to redeem all mankind back to Him through the "narrow gate" for only a few will find it (Matthew 7:14). We all must now make a choice. There is no further revelation from God. The written Word of God, the bible is now complete and perfect for all and “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).

Rev 1:5, “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood”

1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

Translate this to mean, “Jesus willingly left heaven in all His power, splendor and glory to visit us and redeem us through His eventual perfect sacrifice for us. We often hear the phrase, “It’s all about Jesus.” This is true. If it were not for Jesus Christ work on our behalf, we would be doomed. Might you consider another truth in respect to "He first loved us?" It’s all about us that He was born by the Spirit into the womb of Mary, walked, taught and died for us during this short transitional period of time.
God Came Near Us...

God is Love (1 John 4:8) that by His perfect nature, He acted through this immense love for us. But have you ever asked the question, why? Why did he create us. Here is a scripture to ponder and meditate about that might give us a clue as to the essence, Why?

"Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43.7)

So, in conclusion in this writers opinion, from Gods perspective it is all about us. He loved us so much that His suffering for a little while among us on earth was worth the price He paid to fulfill Gods new plan of salvation. It is all about Jesus, but is equally all about us ladies and gentleman. God through Christ purely and completely loves you and I, save for obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ that seals us in the Spirit giving us hope of a home in heaven with this incredibly loving God, our Father. Have you heard and obeyed the one true Gospel?

Next week we will speak to, Mary’s love, Josephs fear for their God-boy.

Blessings

You might want to enjoy this terrific lesson by Wayne Jackson on - Why did God create us?

Why did God create us?

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