THE REVELATION OF GOD'S LOVE - PT. 1

Written by Allison Sylvester-Conliffe

Have you accepted God’s Gift of Salvation, Jesus Christ, as your Lord and Saviour?

The revelation of God’s love and His intention for mankind was given to Paul the Apostle, and he expressed it as he wrote to the Ephesian Church.

By careful examination, one would find that the love of God for fallen man is revealed in Ephesians Chapter 1.  It is difficult to understand that God, in His
“bigness”, God in His great power and might – God in His Majesty, would think on mankind, who is oftentimes rebellious against His Word, and notwithstanding that, would proceed to create a plan to urge mankind to return to communion with Him!

Almighty God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in the likeness of flesh, in the same way as mankind is in the flesh. Though He is sinless, God would allow Jesus Christ to suffer the pain of rejection, physical pain, betrayal, and the discomfort of being misunderstood, in the same manner as we now suffer. He does this just to show us how we could overcome those very things, and thus live victoriously in this oftentimes selfish and cruel world.

Believers, let us look at the benefits when we chose to accept this Gift of Salvation.  The Lord our God has chosen by His own admonition, to bless us with ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ! Ephesians 1:3. Though other doctrines may teach contrary to this scriptural statement, God has made it clear through His Word that we cannot tap into those blessings except we come through His Son Jesus Christ.  This is explained in John Chapter 3.

We also see that God has predestinated those who would accept His plan of Salvation, to be His adopted children - again through Jesus Christ!  What kind of love is this?  God created mankind, and put a plan in place even before time began, so that fallen man can have an opportunity to be redeemed, and return to fellowship with Him.  He did so even though He knew before time began that the majority of His creation would reject that plan.  You may ask, how can you tell that the majority of mankind would reject God and His Son Jesus?  The answer is found in Matthew 7:13-14, as Jesus Himself taught saying –

 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

This is indeed a hard saying but it is true.  Though God is love and extends His love to everybody, the just as well as the unjust, not many persons acknowledge God so far as to commit their lives to Him.  Many persons would see the hand of God in their lives and may or may not opt to say “thanks” to Him for whatever blessing they may have received, but most persons continue to live their lives as they see fit.  I believe that this type of behaviour is called ingratitude.

to be continued....