"Your life is transformed to the degree that your mind is renewed. Cornel's book goes a long way to removing the hindrances to that renewal."
-Curry R. Blake, John G. Lake Ministries
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You would think this would be a straightforward question that most people could answer easily. What is your answer? Why does God love you? Is your answer, ‘because I obey all His commands?’ Popular answer, but wrong. Guess again. Is your answer Jesus? Well, that’s a much better guess, but it’s still not the right answer. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus is amazing and what He did for us is incredible, but Jesus is not the reason why the Father loves you. What Jesus did was a result of the Father’s love FOR you. He sent Jesus BECAUSE He loves you!
Many people think the Father did to Jesus what He actually wanted to do to you. That He actually wanted to crucify you, kill you and make you suffer, but thankfully Jesus jumped in the way and the Father did to Jesus what He really wanted to do to you. That is nonsense.
If the Father wants to punish people and Jesus is jumping through hoops trying to stop that, then the Father and Jesus are not united in their will. That means the Father wants one thing and Jesus another. A kingdom divided cannot stand. Therefore it cannot be true that the Father wants to punish and Jesus wants to save. They both want to save!
2Cr 5:19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them
God was in Christ reconciling you back to Him! The Father’s will is your reconciliation, not your punishment. He does not want to punish anybody, and He is not counting ANY PERSON’S SIN against them, saved or not!
He is not judging anybody, and neither is Jesus! They are both for you and not against you. So why does the Father love you? Because He created you to be the outpoured recipient of His love! You have been made to be loved by Him. You have always been the object of His affection. Not because you do good and try not to do too much bad, but because you are His creation, His offspring!
If you are trying to hide in the bushes because you don’t feel worthy of His love, come and see the sacrifice He made to remove your guilt and shame. Come and see Jesus, the result of the Father’s love for you. What happened to Jesus was to show the Father’s love for you, but we have made it all about punishing sin instead of a display of love. The cross is God’s love for you! Come out form the bushes, come out form where you are trying to hide, even those of you trying to hide behind Jesus and run to Him!
You are not hidden in Christ because the Father is trying to find you and punish you, thinking as long as your hidden away He can’t find you and then you’re OK. You were hidden in Christ by the Father! You are hidden away from sin, from death, from corruption, not from the Father. So don’t try to hide from the Father or hide in Jesus, come out into the open shouting ‘ABBA FATHER!’
Col 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight
You are holy, blameless and ABOVE REPROACH! Repent! Change your mind! You merely thought you were the Father’s enemy, IN YOUR MIND, because of sin. Realize He is not your enemy, change your thinking and your life will be transformed! He never hated you, you were just made to believe He did in your mind. Therefore the good news is merely this: THE FATHER LOVES YOU. ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL!
Peace-out!
Cornel
This is my dad. In 1 month’s time I get to see him again. (Along with the rest of the family of course.) I haven’t been home in 5 years. My dad is stronger than your dad. Haha. No, seriously. He is.
My Dad has made many extremely huge personal sacrifices in order for me to enjoy life and live out my dream and purpose. Admittedly, I was a typical teenager growing up and I am sure I made him grey before his time, but no matter how big of a mess I made, my Dad always helped me get out of that mess. We have also had our share of fights, arguments and disagreements (99% my fault…) just like any normal father and son do. But one thing that I will never forget about my Dad is that he found it extremely difficult to punish me. I think I can only remember 3 times in my whole life that he gave me a hiding. (And I gave him ample opportunity to improve on that number…) The school principal beat me more in a week than my Dad did his entire life.
Yet my Dad’s amazing love for me pales in comparison to my Father’s irrevocable love for me. If my Dad found it hard to punish me, how much more difficult was it for God to punish Jesus? Especially since Jesus was innocent! Far too many people see God as this vengeful angry God who lives for punishing disobedience and Jesus is just the poor punching bag who can take the hit for us. Jeff Turner uses the example to show how some see God almost like an evil step-father who comes home drunk and wants to beat his younger son but big brother Jesus pushes his little brother out of the way and lets drunk dad take out his anger on him. Jesus didn’t save you from the Father! The Father, in Jesus saved you from sin!
I think I need to say that again. Jesus didn’t come to save you from the Father. The Father was never out to get you, kill you or destroy you. The Father, in Jesus came to save you. His wrath and His anger was not kindled against you. It was kindled against that which was harming you, His wrath was against sin. Sin was punished in Jesus’ body. God’s wrath was poured out on sin. When the Bible says Jesus is our only mediator between God and man, we often think of God on one side, we are on the other and Jesus in the middle trying to hide us behind him so God won’t see our mistakes and switch over to kill-mode. That is utter nonsense.
For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself! When you mess up God is not suddenly angry again and Jesus has to then quickly run and remind Him that you are forgiven.
Jesus: “No Father, don’t kill them, you already killed me in their place!”
The Father: ‘Oh, yes. That’s right. I like you. I don’t like them, but if they are in you I like them too. Thanks for reminding me. Phew! I almost killed them that time!’
Do people honestly think the Father and the Son have such opposing agendas? That God is out for vengeance and Jesus is just trying to hold Him back? No! If that were true there would be an inter-trinitarian breakdown of unimaginable consequence! The Father and Jesus have the same will! One is not reminding the other to not destroy and curse us because we just can’t seem to get it right.
If there is anything the church needs to repent of (change their mind about) it will be in regards to how they view the Father. They see God as the bad-cop out to get us because of His justice and Jesus as the good-cop trying to save us because of His love. Love and justice are not opposing forces! Love and justice work together in your favour! The Father justly punished sin because He loves you! And then He united His Spirit with your spirit to ever testify to that fact and to remind you of His goodness and favour every second of the day!
The goodness of God leads to repentance. That means when you realize how good the Father is you will change your mind about how you see Him, approach Him, interact with Him and live with Him! HE IS ALWAYS GOOD! And not only is He ALWAYS GOOD, HE IS ALWAYS GOOD TO ME!
This is my Father, and I love Him with my entire being! This is my Dad and I love him just as much!
Cornel
Is God wearing Jesus-glasses? Is God looking at you through these glasses that block out your sin and shortcomings so He only sees Jesus instead of you? I highly doubt it. I myself have said this and believed this in the past but thankfully now I know God does not wear Jesus-glasses, and He is also not playing Jesus-dress-up. When He looks at you He looks at you. He sees you as perfect, holy, righteous, sanctified and just. Yes, you. He is looking straight at you. Not through Jesus, not with Jesus ‘covering’ all your bad spots. Straight at you!
If God were wearing Jesus-glasses and these glasses were hiding your shortcomings so God couldn’t see them and then treat you like He would Jesus, it means you still have shortcomings. It would mean you are merely living under the illusion of being perfected while underneath it all you are still imperfect. God is not playing make-believe. Jesus didn’t create blind spots in God’s vision on the cross so He wouldn’t see your imperfections and sins. No! He took them all away! That means you can stand in front of God in full assurance of faith that you are accepted, righteous, beloved, holy and perfect because you don’t need Him to wear Jesus-glasses.
What Jesus did perfected you. It didn’t place a perfect image of Christ over you to make God not see your imperfections. It perfected you. You are perfected through Christ! When God looks at you He doesn’t see Jesus in your place, He sees you as you. The unique redeemed individual being He created you to be. He doesn’t need Jesus-glasses to look at you because you were created in His righteousness and true holiness.
In the same way you don’t need to wear a Jesus-mask before God. He is not interested in you wearing a Jesus-mask. He is interested in you. Trying to wear a Jesus-mask is just being religious all over again, trying to hide your apparent shortcomings behind a mask. You don’t have shortcoming to hide! You are fully accepted! Believe it!
“But Cornel, I still mess up.” I know. Me too. And guess what, you will also mess up tomorrow, and the day after and the day after that. And not for one inkling of a second does that change anything about how God sees you, thinks about you, feels towards you, acts towards you or desires things for you. Because of Jesus your messes are no longer an issue between you and God. But as long as you try to cover up something that isn’t even there, you are denying what Jesus did and missing out on a deeper intimacy with your ever-loving Father!
Get intimate with your Dad because you are worthy and qualified and your messes will disappear as a result. Don’t try to qualify yourself or make yourself worthy. Jesus did that already! If you think God has to wear Jesus-glasses to relate to you, you still don’t see who He created you to be.
YOU ARE HIS BELOVED!
Cornel
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- Incomplete Vs. Complete Forgiveness November 25, 2011
- 20 Rob Rufus Quotes On Law vs. Grace November 23, 2011
- When Kids Pray… November 20, 2011
- Why Does God Love You? November 17, 2011
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