God's Love Revealed

God's love is revealed through words in the Bible. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Whoever includes every nation, all races, and every ethnic group. Whoever includes you.

God's love is revealed at the cross of Jesus. God sent His Son to die for sinners like you and me (Romans 5:8). He died for our sins at the cross (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Look at God's love in Christ crucified. This is the greatest love story the world has ever known. Yes, God the Father's love for you is forever proven.

God's love is revealed through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit makes God's love real to believers. Upon confessing Jesus as Lord, the Holy Spirit does something beyond your ability to completely understand. He pours out the Father's love into your heart. Your life is changed by love divine.

God's love is revealed forever. As a believer in Jesus Christ, nothing can separate you from the infinite love of God. That includes trouble, persecution, suffering, and even death. God loves you now and forever. Everlasting life in Christ is the Father's everlasting love (Romans 8:37-38).

If God Is for Us

As believers in Jesus Christ, rest assured that God is for us. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). The answer to that question is obvious. When God is for us, it matters not who else should be against you. God, who rules over all, is for us in Christ. He has forever proven it at the cross, where Jesus died for our sins (Romans 8:33).

God is for us through all the trials, temptations, and problems of life. No matter what we face in life, God is always for us. Therefore, we can depend upon His grace sufficient for every need (2 Corinthians 12:9). Even when we have failed God, we confess and repent of our sins, knowing that He will forgive us (1 John 1:9).

God is for us to conquer the trials and problems of life. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

God is for us, so we can pray with confidence. That should relieve our reluctance to ask God for help. We come with confidence to God's throne of grace, because God is for us. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). 

Living Faith Works

Some may think that faith does nothing, and depends upon God to do everything. However, the Bible teaches that we are laborers together with God (1 Corinthians 3:9). It is God's will for living faith to work through us. Let me illustrate. Put a glove on your hand to do the work before you. The glove does not do the work alone, neither can it. The hand works through the glove. So, God works through us (Philippians 2:13).

Living faith works through us. God can do anything that He chooses to do without us. However, God has chosen to work through us. Living faith confesses, prays, and does the the will of God. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also"(James 2:26).

Living faith says, "I will do the word of God. He has put it in my heart. He is working through me to the praise of his glory. I am a doer of the word." The Bible says,"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves"(James 1:22).

Maybe you are in a situation where you are asking God to do something about it. If so, pray like this, "God, what would you have me to do?" Living faith is a doer of the word. It rises up to do something about it. Living faith works through you to do God's will.

God's Grace Received

God's grace is received through the Gospel (Romans 1:16). The Gospel is the power of God changing our lives through Christ our Lord. So many look to laws and rules to change people and society. The law may dictate how we should live, what we should do, or not do. Nevertheless, the law is powerless to change the hearts and lives of people.

Grace is received as the gift of God. Grace is far more than a theological term or a religious song. Grace is God Himself. He is the God of all grace. Grace is undeserved favor that we can never earn nor merit. Grace is the gift of God, and not of our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Grace is received through regeneration of the Holy Spirit. That is new birth (Titus 3:5). Grace changes us from within. Grace renews your mind, taking away the guilt of conscience, and renews your will to do God's good will. The law of God tells what we ought to be; the grace of God makes us what we ought to be.

Grace is received by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace gives us the unmerited favor of God through Jesus Christ. "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). Receiving Jesus Christ is the fullness of grace to change us. Believing Christ is receiving Christ (John 1:11-12). Grace freely saves us through faith in Christ.

Those Who Will Perish

Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:5). He made it clear. There are no exceptions, repent or perish. Those who are saved have come to repentance. Those who will perish refuse to repent. Jesus made it clear.

God's command to all people everywhere is to repent. "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Those who will perish disobey God's command to repent. That includes all who do not repent.

The word repent (metanoeo) means to have a change of mind that leads to a change of direction in a person's life. It's a change of mind toward God about our sin, and a change of direction in life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God's command for all people to repent is clear. He saves all who repent. Let us always remember that our responsibility is to repent and believe in Christ (Acts 17:30; John 1:12). God's will "that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9) is His will of command to all people everywhere (Acts 17:30).

What God commands, God gives us in Christ. That includes our repentance, "if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25). God's goodness in our Lord Jesus Christ leads us to repentance (Acts 2:38; Romans 2:4). All who will perish reject God's goodness in Christ.

How God Is Revealed

God is revealed to all through creation and conscience. Reason concludes from creation, there must be a Creator. Conscience convicts us when we have done wrong. Even though God is revealed, still we may resist and refuse to believe. Therefore, we are without excuse before God.

Let no reasonable person say there is no God. Creation declares the glory and wisdom of God in the created order (Romans 1:19-21). If there is no God, then the irrational conclusion is simple. Nothing made everything. What a foolish conclusion. That's God's common grace resisted. God is revealed to all.

God is revealed not only through the created order, but also through conscience (Romans 2:15). We are created as responsible moral agents. However, when we ignore conscience in our sin, we would like to think that we are not accountable to God. Yet, God's common grace resisted leaves no excuse.

All are under the corruption of sin. We may willfully choose to reject common grace. We don't want to be accountable to God, because of our own natural bias to sin. If there really is a Creator and conscience is true, we need an excuse. However, God revealed to all gives no excuse. 

How God Is Faithful

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "The whole burden of our salvation rests upon the faithfulness of our covenant God. The whole matter of salvation is centered on the attribute of God's great faithfulness."

God is faithful to the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21). God is faithful to covenant promises for every believer (Hebrews 8:10-13). He is faithful to keep his word of covenant promises. God has bound himself to his people forever with his oath of covenant promises.

God is faithful to covenant promises through the gospel. Jesus died on the cross as the everlasting covenant sacrifice. God is faithful to forgive and cleanse you from all sin, through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7-9). The power of God's covenant promises are proven forever through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful to covenant promises in Christ. Jesus is the Yes and Amen of all the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20). God will not break his covenant word. He has sworn with an oath. Your faith stands upon the covenant of God's faithfulness in Christ. That's God's oath of promise. To doubt God's word in the Bible is to doubt his great faithfulness.

God is faithful to covenant promises in the Bible. Our assurance of salvation is trusting God's great faithfulness. The sure evidence is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9). He is every believer's covenant surety (Hebrews 7:20-22). God's great faithfulness is our sure salvation in Christ.