Hi all
Just a few thoughts on our relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
More and more we as faithful believers are shackled by the thought of our sins before God continuing to be a problem in our relationship with Him.
The very thought of considering what offends God in our lives is a good thing. As we consider God's Word in our Bible we see that it is through our desire and application of its authority that we are progressively sanctified in our lives.
Never on this earth will we be perfectly sanctified. That is reserved for Glory. That time when we reach the heavenly shore when called in physical death or raptured by our Saviour.
John tells us that our acknowledgement of our sin in our lives is essential to bring Joy to the believer.
Consider 1 John 1:4 & 9
The wonderful thought that God is always who He says He is as 'faithful and just' must bring joy to any faithful believer who is walking in fellowship with Him.
Continuing in the Truth of God's Word brings liberty to those who were once in the darkness of their sin:
John 8:31 - Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
John 8:32 - And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
God doesn't stop loving the believer who fails Him. The disciple and Apostle James says:
James 1:2 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
James 1:3 - Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
When God allows temptations into our lives He rejoices to see the growth that comes as the believer overcomes them through His power. Also as we fail He remains the same so that we may be lifted up again to Him as we come in repentance and confession.
In a daily reading by the writer and commentator F B Meyer I rejoiced in this thought - that no matter how much I personally fail God He is always there to love me and hold me without applying blame.
Jesus Christ took my blame at Calvary's Cross. Praise God.
See below the full transcript of what I read and I hope it gives you a blessing as it did for me.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S LOVE
"We have known and believed the love that God hath to
us. We love Him, because He first loved us."-- 1 John 4:16-19.
GOD IS Love. Jesus Christ first brought to men the
conception that man loves God only because God has first loved him. In vain we
search for such an idea in the philosophies of Greece and Rome. The men who
fixed this thought in the literature of mankind were followers of Jesus Christ.
Might and majesty were the dominating ideas of B.C., but since A.D., we think
of Love enthroned in the Divine Nature.
His Love passeth knowledge. We may apply to it the masterly
arraignment of Psalm 139. It winnows our rays. It besets us behind and before.
It lays on us its gentle restraining hand. It is high, we cannot attain to it.
If we ascend into heaven, it is there; if we make our bed in the grave, it is
there to lift us to His heart; if we take the wings of the morning, it shines
as sunrise; if we pass into the darkness, it makes the midnight shine as the
day. It covered us in our birth, it will tend us in old age. How precious it
is, and how multitudinous in its expression, no mortal lips can tell.
Even our sin will not lessen that Love. That Peter sinned
deeply, who can doubt, but did it put a screen between him and Christ? Nay, for
when Christ arose, He sent specially for him. In the garden He restored him,
and at the lakeside He taught him that His love would be as acceptable as ever
(Mark 16:7; John 21:15).
His Love will not spare. Jesus looked on the young man and
loved him! But He read him through and through, and mercifully gave the
unwelcome verdict: "Go, sell all that thou hast... and follow Me." He
went away sad, and Christ went away sad! But He loves us too well to spare us!
God's love is consistent with stern dealings at those things which may cause us
to fail of the best.
We believe in God's Love when it seems not so. "We have
known," says the Apostle, that "God is Love," unutterable and
changeless! But there are times when we have to believe in it, i.e. in the perplexity
of life's problems. We are often facing incidents and providences that strike
us as inconsistent with God's Love. Then we must believe that the same Love is
there. God Is Love, and nothing can reach us save through His Love.
One final reference from me:
2 Cor 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
2 Cor 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
Past, present and future we as believers are delivered from our sin.
Does that mean we can sin as we want? God forbid.
Let us continue in the Word and bring Glory to God in all things.
Pastor Peter Skillen
Braehill Baptist Church
Belfast
www.braehillbaptist.org
pastor@braehillbaptist.org
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