I believe that one of the primary reasons God gave us the responsibility of having our own children was to understand how he loves us.
You don't sit down to colour in a picture or play a game with your child or any child for that matter in order to show your superiority over them, do you? Instead, you choose to limit yourself so as to assist the progress of forming and honoring that relationship.
You'll even go as far as losing a competition to accomplish love. It's not about winning or losing but it's about love and respect.
When God sent his son Jesus from heaven to earth, they both placed limits on themselves in order to bring us into their relationship of love.
They placed limits on themselves out of respect for us because they love us so much.
True relationships based on love are not about power, and God through his son avoided the will to power by limiting themselves in order to serve us.
Think about this for a moment: John 3:16-21 (Message bible)
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
“This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
Think about the reason why God loves us. He wants us all to experience that same relationship that his firstborn son Christ has right now.
Hebrews 2:5-12 "It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
When Adam and Eve chose to have an independent relationship from God they were thrown into darkness, dependant on themselves. Jesus came to put the world right again. Independence from God clearly revealed it's futility and God wants us to return to him.
The Bible is a book based on the independence and dependence on a relationship with God. The ultimate example of a relationship with God was found in Jesus who became the pioneer or leader to God. He came down to us to show us the way back to him.
What can all those who return to God expect in the future?
Revelation 21:2,3 "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
We can see that ultimately, all who follow their leader Christ to the end will be glorified and dwell with Christ and God in a relationship which has been perfected in love. That was Gods will from the start and it will be accomplished in the end.
You don't sit down to colour in a picture or play a game with your child or any child for that matter in order to show your superiority over them, do you? Instead, you choose to limit yourself so as to assist the progress of forming and honoring that relationship.
You'll even go as far as losing a competition to accomplish love. It's not about winning or losing but it's about love and respect.
When God sent his son Jesus from heaven to earth, they both placed limits on themselves in order to bring us into their relationship of love.
They placed limits on themselves out of respect for us because they love us so much.
True relationships based on love are not about power, and God through his son avoided the will to power by limiting themselves in order to serve us.
Think about this for a moment: John 3:16-21 (Message bible)
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
“This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
Think about the reason why God loves us. He wants us all to experience that same relationship that his firstborn son Christ has right now.
Hebrews 2:5-12 "It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
When Adam and Eve chose to have an independent relationship from God they were thrown into darkness, dependant on themselves. Jesus came to put the world right again. Independence from God clearly revealed it's futility and God wants us to return to him.
The Bible is a book based on the independence and dependence on a relationship with God. The ultimate example of a relationship with God was found in Jesus who became the pioneer or leader to God. He came down to us to show us the way back to him.
What can all those who return to God expect in the future?
Revelation 21:2,3 "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
We can see that ultimately, all who follow their leader Christ to the end will be glorified and dwell with Christ and God in a relationship which has been perfected in love. That was Gods will from the start and it will be accomplished in the end.