When God Loved Us

Charles Spurgeon said, "If a man could know that he was loved by all his fellowmen, if he could have it for certain that he was loved by all the angels, yet these were but so many drops, and all put together could not compare with the main ocean contained in the fact that “God loved us.”

God loved us when he foreknew us, even before we were born. God loved his people in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Such a thought is beyond our comprehension. God is greater than we ever thought, and that includes his love for us. To use Spurgeon's words, that is "contained in the fact that 'God loved us.”

God loved us when we were yet sinners. He did not wait until we got good enough to love us. Had God done so, he would have never loved us. God never loved us because he saw something good in us. Far from it. God proved his love for us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). It's not based on what we are, but who God is. God loved us, because "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

God loved us when he changed our hearts. We could no more change our hearts than a leopard could change his spots (Jeremiah 13:23). God loved us enough to change our hearts. He poured out his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us (Romans 5:5).

We Are One In Christ

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "As a believer, you are one with Jesus. Therefore you are secure. You will be confirmed to the end until the day of his appearing." In these words, Spurgeon spoke of every believer in Christ. We are one in Christ.

We are one with Christ through new birth. Every true believer is born of the Spirit. We have been born again unto faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. As we are one with Adam in our first birth, so we are one with Christ in our new birth.

Every true believer is one with Christ through the Holy Spirit. We are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). Christ is the head, and we are the body. As Adam was the head of the human race, so Christ is the head of the church, which is his body (Colossians 1:18).

As the human race is in Adam through sin, so believers are in Christ through salvation from sin (Romans 5:19). As we were born with a sin nature in Adam, so we are born again as a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We are one with Christ as our representative. We are one with Christ through his death and resurrection (Romans 6:5-6). We have died to the old life, buried with Christ, we are risen with him in newness of life. Water baptism is the symbol of our death, burial and resurrection with Christ (Romans 6:3-4). Therefore, Spurgeon said, "As a believer, you are one with Jesus." That's what it means to be one in Christ.