Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so are there spiritual laws which govern your relationship with God.
1. God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life.
(References contained on this page are from the Bible and should be read in context wherever possible.) God's Love "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes inHim shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NIV). God's Plan[Christ speaking] "I came that they might have life, and might have itabundantly" [that it might be full and meaningful] (John 10:10).
Why is it that most people are not experiencing the abundant life? Because...
2. Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life. Man Is Sinful "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Man was created to have fellowship with God; but, because of his stubborn self-will, hechose to go his own independent way, and fellowship with God was broken. This self-will,characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is evidence of what the Bible calls sin. Man Is Separated "The wages of sin is death" [spiritual separation from God] (Romans 6:23).
HOLY GOD
SINFUL MAN
This diagram illustrates that God is holy and man is sinful. A great gulf separates thetwo. The arrows illustrate that a man is continually trying to reach God and the abundantlife through his own efforts, such as a good life, philosophy, or religion - but he inevitably fails.
The third law explains the only way to bridge this gulf...
3. Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can knowand experience God's love and plan for your life. He Died in Our Place"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christdied for us" (Romans 5:8). He Rose From the Dead "Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day, accordingto the Scriptures...He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared tomore than five hundred..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).
He Is the Only Way to God "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to theFather, but through Me'" (John 14:6).
GOD
JESUS
MAN
This diagram illustrates that God has bridged the gulf which separates us from Him bysending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for oursins.
It is not enough just to know these three laws...
4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can knowand experience God's love and plan for our lives. We Must Receive Christ "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, evento those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). We Receive Christ Through Faith "By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is thegift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). When We Receive Christ, We Experience a New Birth (Read John 3:1-8) We Receive Christ by Personal Invitation[Christ speaking] "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voiceand opens the door, I will come in to him" (Revelation 3:20). Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ tocome into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just toagree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross foryour sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. You receive JesusChrist by faith, as an act of the will.
These two circles represent two kinds of lives:
1. The Self-directed life
Self is on the throne. Interests are directed by self, resulting indiscord and frustration. Christ is outside the person's life.
2. The Christ-directed life
Christ is on the throne. Self is yielding to Christ. Interests aredirected by Christ, resulting in harmony with God's plan.
Which circle best describes your life?Which circle would you like to have represent your life? The following explains how you can receive Christ:
You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer:
(Prayer is talking to God) God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude ofyour heart. The following is a suggested prayer:"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open thedoor of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins andgiving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of personYou want me to be."Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If it does, I invite you to praythis prayer right now and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.
God can simultaneously hear and answer all the prayers that all people pray at all times. Not only that, but he can see all actions of all individuals - even those whose actions are done behind closed doors. Is this just wishful Christian thinking or is this possible within the framework of any possible existence?
How Can God Do That?
Christianity makes some rather remarkable claims about the abilities of God. From a human perspective, the idea that any being can do these kinds of actions seems preposterous. However, since God is "outside of the box," we need to think outside the box.
Existing outside the box
There is much evidence from both the Bible and from science that demonstrates God must exist and operate in dimensions of space and time other than those to which we are confined. God could not have created the universe if He were only a part of it. The Bible says the universe cannot contain Him (1).
According to particle physics and relativity, at least ten dimensions of space existed at the creation of the universe (2). Three of these dimensions (plus time) formed the space-time manifold that we can directly observe. The other six of these dimensions exist within the universe as incredibly compact dimensions of space. God must be able to operate in all of those ten dimensions plus more in order to have created the universe. A verse from the book of Hebrews suggests God created the universe out of some of the dimensions of space and time which are not visible to us (3).
The God of the Bible is invisible and cannot be seen except if He reveals Himself to us in a three-dimensional form that we can see. A being which exists in dimensions beyond our three spatial dimensions would be invisible to creatures (us) that can only exist in the confines of our universe (4).
Acting outside of time
The God of the Bible is described as omnipotent. If God were confined to three dimensions of space and one dimension of time, then He could be in only one place at one time. The God of the Bible is described as knowing all that we do (5). We can hide nothing from God. A three-dimensional God would not have the ability to see through walls (Can you?) and could not know what happens outside of his sight.
Stephen Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose extended the equations for general relativity to include space and time (6). Not only space, but also time has a beginning - at the moment of creation. Studies in particle physics have shown that our dimension of time is really only half a dimension, since time can only move forward (7) (forget the time travel movies - this is scientifically impossible). If God existed in only one dimension of time, then He would have had to have been created at one point. The Bible says God was not created, but has existed from eternity past to eternity future. The Bible also suggests God created time and was acting before time began (8), confirming that God exists in at least two dimensions of time. In addition, the Bible states God can compress or expand our time line (9), based upon what He wants to do. For God to turn a day into 1000 years and 1000 years into a day requires that He exist in at least two dimensions of time.
A three dimensional God would be unable to hear all of our prayers, since He could not be everywhere at once (10). In addition, a three dimensional God could not perform any of the signs and miracles of the Bible, since He would be confined to the laws of physics of our three-dimensional universe, which make no allowance for miracles.
God model
We cannot visualize a God who exists in dimensions beyond our own, but we can look at a model of a universe in which there are fewer dimensions than ours and extrapolate to that of an extradimensional God.
Imagine we are the observers of a universe which contains only two dimensions of space and one dimension of time. All things in this universe exist in a single plane (i.e., everything is flat). We observe this two dimensional universe from a three dimensional universe, and therefore, have one dimension more than the creatures that live in this two dimensional universe.
Mr. & Mrs. Flat
For this demonstration, we are pretending this page (or monitor image) is part of the universe of Mr. and Mrs. Flat. The Flat family are confined to the plane of this page and can only move within this plane. They can neither see nor interact with any part of the third dimension of a three-dimensional world.
Whenever Mr. Flat looks at Mrs. Flat, he sees only one side of her at a time. In this two-dimensional universe, she appears to him as a line segment. In order to see all of Mrs. Flat, Mr. Flat must walk all the way around his wife. From each angle, Mr. Flat will see only one or two line segments of differing lengths which compose Mrs. Flat. A complete picture of Mrs. Flat can only be formed in the mind of Mr. Flat. However, we, as observers from a three-dimensional universe can see the entirety of Mrs. Flat at one time. Not only can we see all of Mrs. Flat, but all of Mr. Flat at one instant in time. We can even see inside Mrs. Flat, something that Mr. Flat could never see, unless he were to cut her open. Likewise, God, with only one extra dimension, can simultaneously see all sides and the insides of each one of us (11).
Mrs. Flat wants to have a moment to herself, so she goes into a room and locks the door. Mr. Flat cannot see her, because she is surrounded by four walls. However, we are able to see her, because her walls do not extend into the third dimension of our universe. Likewise, an extradimensional God can see us at all times, even if we try to hide behind our three dimensional walls.
A god who is not extradimensional would not be able to observe us at all times, as stated in the Bible.
I would like to extend this model to describe a three-dimensional god in this two-dimensional universe. For simplicity, we will describe this god as a cube. This god, being three-dimensional, can choose to interact with the two-dimensional universe or not. This cube god decides to reveal himself to Mr. and Mrs. Flat, as well as their friend, Mr. Level in this two-dimensional universe. The cube god places himself above the plane of the two-dimensional universe directly in front of Mrs. Flat and extends a corner of his cube into the plane of the two-dimensional universe. Mrs. Flat sees this revelation of her god as a point. Next, the cube god places himself above the plane of the two dimensional universe directly in front of Mr. Flat and extends the intersection of two sides of his cube into the plane of the two dimensional universe. Mr. Flat sees this revelation of his god as a line segment. Then, the cube god places himself above the plane of the two dimensional universe directly in front of Mr. Level and extends an entire side into the plane of the two dimensional universe. Mr. Level sees this revelation of his god as a square.
Three views of cube god:
Mrs. Flat
Mr. Flat
Mr. Level
All three get together and talk about their experiences seeing their god. Mrs. Flat insists her god is a point. Mr. Flat says his god is a line, and Mr. Level states his god is a square. Even though there is only one cube god, they come to the conclusion that there are three gods, because the god each saw appeared differently to each person in their two-dimensional world. Therefore a god that exhibits extra dimensions, when described in a lesser dimensional universe would seem to represent more than one entity. Likewise, our God, who must exist and operate in dimensions beyond our understanding, exists as a Trinity (God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit), although He is one God.
Conclusion
The Bible says that God exists outside the dimensions of this universe, creating both the spatial and temporal dimensions under which it operates. The God model described above shows that such an entity can see and interact with everything that happens in a lesser dimensional universe, such as ours. Not only can He interact anywhere within such a universe, but He can act at any time - past, present or future - during the history of that universe. God never runs out-of-time or is limited by it. God truly is amazing, and His abilities probably extend far beyond what has been described here.
References
1. Behold, heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain Thee... (1 Kings 8:27)The Almighty is beyond our reach. (Job 37:23)
2. Glanz, J. 1997. Strings Unknot Problems in Particle Theory, Black Holes. Science 276:1969-1970.Kestenbaum, D. 1998. Practical Tests for an 'Untestable' Theory of Everything? Science 281:758-759.
3. The universe was formed at God's command, so that what was seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)
4. But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" (Exodus 33:20)When He passes me I cannot see Him. When He goes by, I cannot perceive Him (Job 9:11)The Almighty is beyond our reach (Job 37:23)No man has seen God at any time... (John 1:18)No man has seen the Father... (John 6:46)And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. (Colossians 1:15)Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God... (1 Timothy 1:17)God... whom no man has seen or can see... (1 Timothy 6:16) ...Him who is unseen. (Hebrews 11:27)
5. Then hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest, for Thou alone dost know the hearts of all the sons of men, (1 Kings 8:39)"As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts." (1 Chronicles 28:9)For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, And He sees all his steps. There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. (Job 34:21-22)Then Job answered the LORD, and said, "I know that Thou canst do all things, And that no purpose of Thine can be thwarted." (Job 42:1-2) Then the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and He said to me, "Say, `Thus says the LORD, So you think, house of Israel, for I know your thoughts.'" (Ezekiel 11:5)
6. "The conclusion of this lecture is that the universe has not existed forever. Rather, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago." Stephen Hawking The Beginning of Time.Penrose, R. 1966. An analysis of the structure of space-time. Adams Prize Essay, Cambridge University.Hawking, S.W. 1966. Singularities and the Geometry of space-time. Adams Prize Essay, Cambridge University.Hawking, S.W. and G.F.R. Ellis. 1968. The cosmic black-body radiation and the existence of singularities in our universe. Astrophysical Journal 152: 25-36.Hawking, S.W. and R. Penrose. 1970. The singularities of gravitational collapse and cosmology. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: 529-548.
8. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (1 Corinthians 2:7)This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (2 Timothy 1:9)The hope of eternal life, which God... promised before the beginning of time (Titus 1:2)To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:25)
9. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:4)
10. O Thou who dost hear prayer, To Thee all men come. (Psalm 65:2)"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." (Matthew 21:22)
11. "Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24)
In Philippians 2;5 the Apostle Paul tells us to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. In Romans 11:34, Paul asks, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” But in 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul answers that question by stating, “but we have the mind of Christ.” What can we learn from scripture about the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ? Can we develop from scripture a psychological profile of Jesus and the inner motivations that inspired His actions?
In the Gospel of Mark 1:14-15, Jesus of Nazareth went around preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand; the Kingdom of God was near. He was calling all people to enter this Kingdom by an act of repentance—the act of turning their lives around and going toward God instead of going away from God.
Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was the realm where God ruled with GODauthority. Mankind, through its own sin and willful rejection of God existed in a realm of suffering and brokenness. Mankind had created its own mess. God, however, because of His love and mercy was offering all people everywhere the opportunity to enter His Kingdom where they would be forgiven, redeemed, restored, healed, liberated, and made whole.
Jesus called to all people to enter this Kingdom of God that was now breaking through into human history through His ministry. Jesus warned that there would be a day of judgment when God the Father would destroy the systems of this world that had brought sin and suffering and He would also judge those who lived by that world system, and then God’s rule would be absolute. Now was the time to turn to God who would bring healing and wholeness. Jesus proclaimed Himself as God the Father’s absolute messenger and also as the agent who would bring this Kingdom into fullness in history (John 14:6). The proclaiming of God’s Kingdom was the driving force in the life and ministry of Jesus.
There’s often a lot of preaching and teaching about the mind of Christ. We are told to have the mind of Christ. As we look at Jesus and we search the scriptures for the mindset of Christ, looking, as it were, for a psychological profile of Jesus, we can, I believe, see four foundational principles that made up Jesus’ mindset. This should be our mindset also.
1) THE ABBA EXPERIENCE of Jesus—In His human consciousness, the first, foremost and overriding experience of Jesus was His constant abiding consciousness of God as His Father. Jesus always used the familiar term “abba” or “daddy” rather than the formal “ab” or “father” when He spoke of God. In fact, Jesus’ body had been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. Throughout all the levels of Jesus’ human psyche, He had a conscious, subconscious and unconscious sense of perfect fellowship with God His Father. In Luke 2:49 we read that at 12 years old, entering puberty and adult consciousness, Jesus told Mary and Joseph in the Temple at Jerusalem that He was about His Father’s business in His Father’s house. God the Father Himself confirmed Jesus’ sonship by actually speaking in an audible voice at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River and later on the Mount of Transfiguration, that Jesus was His beloved Son in whom He was well-pleased. The bedrock of Jesus’ psyche, or mind, was His absolute confidence and trust in the Father and that all He (Jesus) said and did was approved of and commissioned by the Father.
2) THE KENOSIS EXPERIENCE of Jesus—Kenosis is the Greek word meaning “emptying” and has the sense of freely laying aside one’s rightful higher status in order to serve others for their benefit. (Read Philippians 2:5- 9.) Secure in the Father’s love, Jesus could act in human history without any need for ego-reinforcement and He did not need self-validation from any human source, because the love and fellowship of the Father was the absolute validation of His human personality. Jesus’ psychological freedom enabled Him to serve and minister to others and even forgive those who wronged Him and minister in this self-emptying mode with perfection. As a result, both the love of God (agape) and the power of God (dunamis) could flow through Him perfectly. Jesus was intensely aware of His role as the Servant of God prophesied in the Book of Isaiah. His statements in the Gospels about Himself as the Son of Man pointed to His lordship as a lordship of service and love for the Father and for others. Even in the parable of the unworthy servant who does all he is told without expecting a reward (Luke 17:5-10), Jesus is primarily referring to His own example of ministry and service.
3) THE LAW OF SOWING AND REAPING—The third active principle in the mind of Jesus of Nazareth was the constant awareness of the law of sowing and reaping. Every thought, word and action is a seed which produces a harvest. Every thought, word and consequences that are greater than the thought, word or action itself. This law was established by God in the act of creation in Genesis. Everything physically reproduces through a seed. This is also true in the spiritual and psychological realms of life. Sowing and reaping is the very essence of creative power in the Kingdom of God. Jesus often preached and taught about the law of sowing and reaping. The Apostle Paul, later in the New Testament, also framed many teachings in the context of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7- 9; 2 Corinthians 9:6-11).
4) THE ALPHA SEED AND THE OMEGA HARVEST—In other words, Jesus was always intensely aware in His mind that every act of His earthly life was a seed that would produce a glorified harvest for eternity. For example, He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey, but He will return to earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords riding a majestic white horse. He called His church a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14); the eternal city of the New Jerusalem is on a high mountain (Revelation 21:10). In His earthly ministry, He ministered to multitudes of sick, hurting, hungry people.
In Revelation 7:9-17, we see a multitude around His throne in heaven, redeemed by His blood, who enjoy eternal blessings and they will never hurt or hunger again. Jesus also told us that our lives have this same importance and that in and through Him we are “alpha seeds” who will have an “omega harvest” - “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth… But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 5:19-21). His Apostles left all to follow Him and their names are on the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14). Most important, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous, obedient life as the Alpha Seed so that in the resurrection, His Omega Harvest of eternal perfect righteousness could be imparted to each one of us who accept Him into our heart.
We are told to have “the mind of Christ.” To have the mind of Christ, we must have the Person of Christ. That comes by our saying “Yes” to the decision Jesus originally proclaimed, “Repent and turn to God, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we read that if any person is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old things have passed away and all things become new.
How do we become “in Christ” so we can become this brand new creation, this brand new person? The answer is that we repent of our sins and we ask Jesus to come live in our heart—in other words, we ask the unlimited, glorified, risen Jesus Christ to come live inside our inner man and His Spirit becomes intimately joined and one with our spirit (John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 6:17). His eternal life brings our dead spirit alive. Asking Jesus to come live in our heart is such a simple act but the consequences are of eternal importance. The risen Jesus lives in us and reveals Himself to us in the most intimate interpersonal way possible.
When we invite Jesus into our heart, He enters our very being through the presence and powerof the Holy Spirit. The act of asking Jesus into our heart is, in and of itself, a very simple action. But this simple act is of lifechanging, awesome, momentous significance because of WHO we are asking to come in.
In our book on GRACE (available free to those who request it from this ministry), we saw that grace is the free gift of the very life of God Himself, which He places inside of us. We also saw that the content of grace is the very inner life of Jesus Christ that God places within us, so that what went on inside of Jesus in terms of His love, faith, and intimacy with the Father is placed inside of us—so we can experience the very inner life that Jesus shared with the Father. We enjoy spiritual intimacy with both Jesus and the Father.
We read about Jesus as the Eternal Word in John 1:4—”In Him [Jesus] was life [zoe] and the life was the light of men.” We later read in 1 John 5:10-12: The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
In other words, God Almighty gives His own eternal life into the hearts of those who believe in His Son Jesus. If we believe in Jesus as the Son of God, we have eternal life and everything eternal or divine life contains. If we don’t believe in Jesus as Son of God, then we simply do not have true, divine, everlasting life in our spirit. The Apostle Peter tells us the exact same thing: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2 Peter 1:2-4)
In the Gospel of John, Chapter 16, we see Jesus on the night before His crucifixion telling His disciples something very important: I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. (John 16:12-14)
What an interesting statement. Jesus said, “I have so much more to tell you.” I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO TELL YOU—but you wouldn’t understand it right now. Only when I send the Holy Spirit after My resurrection will you understand it. Jesus was painfully aware of how limited He was in His ability to communicate to His disciples while He walked on this earth in His human body. In spite of those limitations, He was awesome in what He actually did communicate—but He knew there was so much more, so much more. He had so much inside of Him that He wanted to give to us, but it could only be put in us through the Holy Spirit. We see a HINT of that glory inside of Jesus being revealed before His death and resurrection in the incident known as the TRANSFIGURATION (Luke 9:28-35).
When Jesus went to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John, we read that Jesus began to shine like the sun—the hidden riches of glory within Him began to break through the very pores of His skin and be manifest for a moment. After His death and resurrection, Jesus was glorified and the riches and depths of His inner person was turned loose, and, through the Holy Spirit, the inner heart of Jesus could become intimately invited with the inner heart of anyone inviting Him into their heart. All the riches and power of Jesus’ inner self could be revealed in the most intimate depth to the heart that opens to Him.
In other words, we each can have a closer, more intimate spiritual relationship with Jesus than even two people who have had the best marriage on earth. Some marriages are beautiful and excellent and the man and woman get to know each other as well as any two persons can get to know each other. But even in the best marriage, there is still a point beyond which even the deepest human intimacy cannot go. In our relationship with Jesus, however, there need be absolutely NO barrier to full interpersonal intimacy.
Even in everyday relationships, we may get to know each other well, but we don’t know each other 24 hours a day. With Jesus, it’s different because of His inner perfection. To have His inner perfection abiding in us at all times is our life and our strength.
Some people wish they had been alive when Jesus walked the earth, so they could have seen Him. The truth is, we know Jesus far better NOW through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit than we ever could have known Him when He walked the earth in His limited physical body. We even know Jesus better now than His own Apostles knew Him before His resurrection and the Day of Pentecost.
The life of Jesus within us saves us from the four major consequences of sin. The Greek word for sin is hamartia—it means to miss the bulls-eye or target. Sin is also, first and foremost, the breaking of man’s covenant with God back in Genesis 3. Through Adam, all of us had a covenant with GOD— He gave us life and existence and we, in turn, were to love and serve Him.
The sin of Adam and our own sinful nature is a rejection of God’s love and care. And we suffer consequences.
1) Sin is punished—Sin is a rejection of God and brings separation from God, the Source of spiritual life and all other kinds of life. Romans 3:23 tells us the wages of sin is death. Jesus, on the other hand, gives us the free gift of life—the sharing of God’s own everlasting, eternal life.
2 Sin destroys our ability to love—Every sin is a negation of love. Every sin is a rejection of God who is love. All of our inabilities to love are always the end result of sin—either our own sin or someone else’s sin against us. But Jesus within us restores our ability to love. (Read 1 John 3:14-16.)
3) Sin is slavery—Regardless of the sin, we are trapped by it—it controls us, we lack our freedom. Sin, either one time or a habit, is an evil act that controls our will. In John 8:34-36, Jesus stated that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, but He, Jesus, sets people free indeed, or really free. The power of the risen Christ within us restores our self-control.
4) Sin results in loneliness and anxiety—The first result of the very first sin ever committed by a human, Adam, was broken fellowship and fear. When God came to fellowship with Adam, Adam hid. When God asked Him why He hid, Adam said, “I was afraid.” That broken fellowship was the origin of all loneliness and alienation in the world. The fear was the origin of all anxiety and stress. Jesus, however, restores our fellowship with God and with each other through the cross and He reestablishes peace and security in our heart.
Our spiritual life boils down to a very simple either/or reality. Either Jesus is in our heart and we have eternal life and all that eternal life brings with it—OR, Jesus is not in our heart and we have spiritual death within us and all that spiritual death brings. My personal question to you is:
No matter how mixed up or even ruined this planet is at times, if the sun rises and sets, and earth is still spinning on its axis, then God is not done with this planet yet. No matter how terrible your own life may seem to be going and no matter how great your temptation to give up in despair might be, if you are still living and breathing on this planet, then God is not done with you yet. In the midst of all the struggle and perplexity of this life, there is a gift from God called HOPE.
In 1 Corinthians 13:13, the Apostle Paul tells us there are three great virtues or strengths that God imparts to us. Faith, Hope and Love. Many are the times we Christians have heard wonderful teachings about Faith and Love. Few are the times we’ve heard studies about Hope. Basically, HOPE is the strength an dinner knowing placed in our heart by the Holy Spirit that
our life IS going somewhere definite, somewhere good, and our journey on this earth is not some random process, but a journey directed by the hand of God bringing us to a good destination, whether or not we can see or understand that destination at the present moment. The Apostle Paul gives a specific description of that hope in Titus 2;13 where he calls the return of Jesus Christ “the blessed hope.” The appearance and return of Jesus Christ is when all questions will be answered and all problems will be solved. As we look at current events, we more and more see the words of Jesus’ own prophecies about His return being fulfilled and the time drawing closer.
In Jeremiah 29:11, we read: “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promises His people that He has a plan, a future, and a hope for each of us. As we walk through this life, those of us who belong to Jesus Christ have a hope—the assurance from
God that this thing called life on earth is all going somewhere definite—we are not just subject to the random buffeting of accidental events and happenings, but the hand of Almighty God is upon each of our lives molding, fashioning, and guiding us to a destination—and that destination is the ultimate full union and sharing of God’s life with our being fashioned into the very image and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ for all eternity.
Hope tells us that we are headed toward this destination at every moment of our life in Christ whether we can clearly see or understand the present moment or not. Hope is this strength which is given to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit Himself in us is God’s down payment or guarantee of our final destination (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us there are three great virtues or strengths that God gives us—Faith, Hope and Love. Although these three are listed and studied separately, they often work together, and like all the things of God, are meant to work together. Paul tells us rightfully that love, or AGAPE, is the greatest. Then faith is ability to reach into the invisible world of the spirit, lay hold of a promise of God, and bring it to pass back here in the visible material world (PISTIS). Hope (Greek: ELPIS) is the assurance that our life is being directed by God to His goal for us. Paul tells us that we can have faith without love. We can also have hope without love. But love, or AGAPE, is so far superior that if we have love, we will also always have faith and hope. 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us that love believes all things, hopes all things, and never fails.
Nevertheless, hope is a platform when both love and faith can stop and rest during the difficult moments of life. Hope is a place where love and faith can stop and “catch their breath.” In Hebrews 6:18-20, the Apostle Paul calls hope the anchor of the soul. Just as an anchor holds a boat steady at its place in a harbor—hope holds us steady in our walk with God. The storm cannot shake loose a boat that is held by a good anchor. Hope is that “gut feeling” given to us by the Holy Spirit to keep us steady in the storms of life.
Hope works as a helper to both love and faith. Hope tells us to keep having faith even when it doesn’t seem worthwhile to believe anymore. Hope tells us to keep loving even when it doesn’t seem worth it to love anymore.
The prime example of a person of hope is Abraham. We normally think of Abraham as a man of great faith, and indeed he was. The Old Testament hada special title for him— “Abraham the Believer.” The New Testament calls him the Father of our faith. Abraham was also a man of great hope. He was a man who drew on hope when his faith had been stretched almost to the breaking point. He had been promised a son by God. The promise was made when Abraham was 75 years old and his wife Sarah was barren. For 25 years, he waited, and waited, and waited. So much time passed and nothing happened. Humanly speaking, the fulfillment of the promise was more than impossible. The word “impossible” was optimistic. But the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans, Chapter 4, that Abraham “hoped against hope.” He drew on hope when not only faith seemed foolish, but even hope seemed ridiculous.
Abraham would continually tell his wife Sarah, “Sarah, this is all going someplace good.” And no doubt, Sarah would half-humor him and probably say, “Yes, I know, Abe. It happens every day—a 100 year-old man and a barren 90 year-old woman have a son.” And Abraham would probably counter and say, “No, Sarah, that’s just the point. It doesn’t happen every day, but God promised ME it WOULD happen to us. That’s why I have faith and hope.” And Paul writes that Abraham, in hope, grew strong in faith and trusted God to perform His promised—and God DID, and Abraham had a son named Isaac.
The opposite of hope is despair. Despair is when we feel there is no reason to go on, no reason to keep living, no reason to believe that anything will ever change again for the better. Hell is the place of eternal despair. The Lord Jesus gave some very detailed descriptions of hell—a place of darkness, fire, and torment, a place of separation from God where lost souls eternally cry and scream out in agony. But the real hell of Hell is that there is no more hope, ever again. There is the realization of everlasting despair.
In fact, we see the beginning of that hell of despair even in this life in all those who do not have Jesus Christ as their Lord. The Apostle Paul describes such people in Ephesians 2:12—Paul states that if we are separated from Christ, we have NO hope in this world and we are not partakers of the promises of God. How true that is. In our own nation of so much prosperity, we see so many people who own so many possessions, but have such empty hearts—hearts that really have NO hope, for true hope can only come from peace with God through His ஒன்லி begotten Son Jesus Christ. Hope and fulfillment cannot come by owning “one more thing,” or one more better possession.
We also learn from this same scripture in Ephesians that we have two reasons FOR hope if we are in Christ:
1) The Word of God and His promises and covenants and the DURABILITY of those promises and covenants. The entire Word of God is a testimony to the faithfulness of Almighty God to His promises and covenants—He fulfills His promises time after time after time—so that we have a certain hope in them.
2) Jesus Christ and His durability and reliability. He is the only one that God Almighty raised from the dead and miracle power is released whenever His resurrection is proclaimed. On the basis of that reliability and durability, we have a certain hope that we will share in His glory (Colossians 1:27) and we are promised His return to earth to set up a righteous Kingdom of love, peace and holiness. Paul calls this the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). Just as His resurrection and enduring power remain, we know for certain He will return.
Finally, hope is what keeps us faithful during the battles of this life. The Lord Jesus said no person can serve two masters. The trials of life force us to choose at a given moment what is most important to us—God or some thing.
Hope causes us to choose God. One preacher once said that it’s hard to really embrace or hug someone with a lot of things in your hands. Hope causes us to say we’d rather empty our hands of all things, if necessary, so that we can hug God more tightly. But when we do let go of those things rather than lose God, we find that we are hugging the God who is owner of all things and can fill our hands with all the things we let go of, and more.
More important, He has filled our hearts with good things. Faith, Hope, and Love always work together. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul states love never fails. In Romans 5:5, he says hope is never disappointed.
So, if love never fails and hope is never disappointed, faith will always work.
