Who God Loves

God loves all nations and races. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). God has so loved every nation, all races, and every ethnic group. The Bible has been described as God's love letter to the world. 

God loves sinners. Yet, you may doubt God's love at times, because you think you're not good enough for God to love. The truth is that none of us earn nor deserve God's love. God does not love us because we are good enough. We have all sinned, but God's love is revealed for sinners (Romans 3:23; 5:8). When God's love is received through believing in Christ, we are saved from the condemnation of sin (John 3:17).

God loves sinners at the cross of Jesus. God sent His Son to die for our sins (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2). He died for your sins at the cross. God loves you through Christ crucified. This is the greatest love story the world has ever known. God so loves you at the cross of Jesus.

God loves believers in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. His love is poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:5). The Holy Spirit makes God's love real to us. Upon confessing Jesus as our Lord, the Holy Spirit does something beyond our ability to completely understand. He fills our hearts with God's love. 

How God Will Provide

All of us have needs. Fear says,"No one is going to provide for your needs. You are a needy person with no one who can help." Faith says, My God shall supply all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

Our greatest need is not physical nor financial. Our greatest need is spiritual. We need God. We need faith in God who provides. God's covenant name among others is Jehovah-jireh. It means the Lord will provide. His name reveals His character. It's who He is and what He does.

God is Jehovah-jireh for His people. He is the Lord who provides for all who believe in His name. That means faith can trust in who God is. It's not just who we want Him to be. He reveals His name to you and all believers. We can trust in His name, receiving from Him according to our need.

God provides as your heavenly Father. He knows your needs before we ask. Prayer is not designed for us to inform God. He knows all things. Our prayers receive from God our Father. Jesus said to pray, Our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9). He taught us to make requests based upon our needs. Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). God will provide as your Father in heaven.

God Working in Us

God works in us as believers through covenant. What God says, God will do. God's covenant with us is a binding contract. What God promises, God will fulfill. Our faith stands upon the covenant promises of God through Jesus Christ. It is based upon God's covenant word. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you, what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, forever and ever. Amen (Hebrews 13:20-21).

God works in us as believers through the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe the gospel, that Christ died for your sins, and Christ is risen from the dead. You have entered the everlasting covenant with God by faith in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Shepherd of all God's covenant people.

God's everlasting covenant cannot be changed, because God has sworn with an oath of promise. The everlasting covenant through Jesus Christ is forever and ever. Amen. Our faith is based upon what God has promised to do in us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God's covenant promises are working in believers in such a way to please Himself. Our lives please God not because we are trying real hard. To the contrary, God is working in us what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13). God's everlasting covenant is working in us through Christ. 

How to Trust God

Trust God by trusting His word. God speaks to us through Holy Scripture. God speaks to you through Jesus Christ our Lord and the Gospel. You trust God by relying upon what He has said through Scripture, Christ, and the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4). 

Trust God even when you don't understand. We cannot understand all the ways of God. Trusting God is confidently believing in His ability to help us and direct us. A child is more limited in knowledge than the parents. Yet, that child can trust what the parents say to him. Likewise, our knowledge and understanding of God is limited, but we may confidently trust His word in the Bible.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). Lord is God's personal and covenant name. Trust God as your Lord by trusting His many wonderful covenant promises in the Bible (e.g., Jeremiah 32:40; Hebrews 13:20-21).

All relationships are built on trust. Our relationship with God is trusting Him, because He is trustworthy. His word is your bond of trust. You trust God in all your circumstances, then you can say, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust (Psalm 91:2).

Salvation Not by Chance

W. T. Conner wrote, "Our salvation is not a matter of chance nor accident. We are saved because God meant for us to be saved. He saves us and he does so on purpose. He works through the unceasing ages to carry out his purpose."

I have heard people ask, Does everyone have a chance to be saved? Understand that no one is saved by chance. Dr. Conner made what is taught in Scripture very clear. God saves no one by chance nor accident. God foreknows his people in Christ. He saves us on purpose, even his eternal purpose in Christ (Romans 8:28-30). God's providence works in all things to accomplish his purpose (Romans 11:36; Ephesians 1:11).

God shuts no one out. His salvation is offered freely in the gospel to all people everywhere (Mark 16:15). He commands all people everywhere to repent and believe in Christ (Acts 16:30-31; 17:30). However, God who knows all things, the end from the beginning, foreknows his people in Christ. Not one of them is saved by chance nor accident.

God foreknows his people in a loving covenant relationship. God foreknows his people, and we shall all know him (Hebrews 8:10-11). We know God through our great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21). In the day of judgement, the Lord says to all who are lost, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23).

Be Justified In Christ

Justification is a legal term. In court, one accused of a crime is either condemned or justified. Based upon the merits of Christ, God justifies sinners. The sinless life and substitutionary death of Jesus at the cross for believers is the basis for our justification from all sin (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Be justified by faith alone in Christ alone. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Faith is trust and confidence, relying upon Christ alone. By faith in Christ, you are justified with God.

Be justified by grace through faith in Christ. Faith receives the grace of God in Christ. Faith is the evidence that we are justified before God. It is our assurance of faith. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed (Romans 4:16).

Be justified by faith in Christ unto righteousness. The only way a sinner can become righteous before God is by faith alone. Righteousness is the gift of God to you in Christ alone. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:5). Self-righteousness can never be good enough to justify you. Be justified by faith in the perfect obedience and righteousness of Christ alone. He is every believer's justification.

The Lamb of God

Four times in Revelation 21:22-22:5 we see God the Father and the Son mentioned together. The Son of God is referred to as the Lamb of God. In New Jerusalem, believers from all the ages of history see the Father and Son enthroned together. It is an answer to the prayer of Jesus our Lord in John 17:24. "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved me before the foundation of the world."

The Lamb is the light of New Jerusalem. "The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is the light" (Rev. 21:23). There is no night there in God's one eternal day. In the New Jerusalem, "its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there)." (Rev. 21:25).

Who will live forever in New Jerusalem? The Bible clearly states, "only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Rev. 21:27). They are the redeemed of the Lord by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus our Lord is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of every believer (Rev. 12:10-11).

In that eternal day, "there shall be no more curse, but the throne of  God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him" (Rev. 22:3). The curse of sin is forever removed, by the Lamb of God. He was slain at the cross and redeemed us to God by His blood, out of every nation (Rev. 5:9).