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What I see here is the anchoring down of truths that have long been buried under lies about God. Paul is bringing the truth to light to dispel many of the religious mis-notions that have distorted our view of God.
| In the old way of thinking we believed that God caused both good and evil to come into our lives. | God is actually at work constantly behind the scenes working for the good of everyone who gives Him permission by opening themselves to His presence and work in their hearts. |
| We have usually assumed that as sinners we are headed for hell and wrathful judgments of God unless we can figure out how to get Him to save us. | We have been predestined to become just like Himself as revealed in the life of Jesus. This is the purpose of the invitation He has given to us. He has justified us and is sanctifying everyone who does not determinedly resist it. The result is being glorified which means we take on the character attributes of God Himself. |
| We have thought that God was against us, that somehow we had to placate His anger and appease Him enough to be saved. We even thought that Jesus came and died for our sins so that He could get His Father to calm down and allow us into heaven through some sort of legal maneuver. | God is not against us but is all for us. Jesus did not come to placate an angry, vengeful Father but to reveal the compassionate heart of the Father to us. God did not send us Son to appease Himself but to change our mind about Him. They both allowed us to torture and kill Him to get us to see the true nature of the wickedness of the sin that is so deeply rooted in every one of our hearts and realize our desperate need to be healed. |
| We thought that God had to be bribed and manipulated to give us the things we need or want. We thought we had to earn His favor and His blessings with more and more perfect obedience to His rules. | God not only gave up His most valuable possession – His only Son – but is so outrageously generous that He is putting everything in the universe at the service of anyone willing to believe in His love for them. |
| We thought that the judgment was all about arraigning us before a stern judging God and recounting all of our sins and mistakes to shame us and remind us how worthy we are of condemnation. | Far from ever wanting us to feel condemned, Jesus came to reveal to us that it is not God but our own hearts and minds that cause us to feel condemned. Because we have a strained relationship with the Source of life we are feeling suffocated and think that it is the Source itself that is depriving us of life. But Jesus came to lay down His own life so that He could guarantee our eternal life if we will allow Him to live in our heart. |
| We thought that Jesus intercedes for us before God to change God's opinion about us. | God, who already knows everything about us does not need changing. It is us who needs our minds changed about Him and it is our minds and hearts that Jesus is wanting to change by His intercession. |
| We think that when bad things happen to us that God must be unhappy with us and when things are going well we must be doing something right. | Irregardless of any circumstances whatsoever, we can know that God's love is unwavering and unquestionable. No matter how we may feel or think we cannot change the impassioned heart of God from loving any one of His created children no matter how messed up or rebellious they may be. When we choose to allow this love to fill us we will find ourselves to be overwhelming conquerors. |
| In conclusion, it needs to become clear in our minds and hearts that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all in complete agreement and harmony in their passionate love and pursuit of us. Nothing but nothing, not even death itself, can keep us away from the immense, love-filled heart of the great Ruler of the whole universe. | |
