No one loves you more than our Almighty Triune God…no one!!
1 John 4:7–12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love…
It was hard for those under the law to embrace the freedom of grace in Christ Jesus! In Hebrews Paul wanted to prove to them that Jesus is their awaited Messiah and King.
It is finished!
In his book New Morning Mercies, Paul David Tripp expounds on what it truly means for Jesus to be our Redeemer. He writes: "Jesus didn't simply come to rescue disembodied souls. Yes, he saves our souls from eternal damnation … But he also came to unleash his powerful restoring grace … He came to restore every single thing that sin has broken.”
No matter what we face today, we can take our cause to Jesus, leave it securely in His hands, and trust Him to redeem and restore what has been lost.
Jesus Himself said not to repay evil for evil; He even called on His disciples to love and pray for their enemies (Matthew 5:44). Actions like these can only come from a heart that wholly trusts Jesus to redeem.
The more we trust Him, the more we can confidently say, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31b). First5
Somewhere along the way, every one of us has wrestled with death (mental and emotional darkness) and disillusionment or defeat (only exacerbated by a disappointment in ourselves).
And we wonder, if there is hope.
We wonder if resurrection (rebirth) is even possible.
When any demeaning narrative wins, we live confined and resigned.
You know. Like a tomb. After all, that is the end of the New Testament story, right?
Oh, wait. Is it possible that death is not the final word? That the stone is rolled away?
Here’s the deal: the power of Easter is the paradigm shift. Resurrection has the final word.
Live this day, with this self, without holding back. Today; savor, doubt, embrace, question, wrestle, give, risk, love, fall down, get up, accept your incomplete and fractured self, know that anything worth doing is worth doing badly, speak from your whole heart, and whenever you can, lavish excessive compassion and mercy and healing and hope and second chances and grace and restoration and kindness on anyone who crosses your path. Who knows, we may love one another into existence. I'm sure God won't mind. Sabbath Moments
John 3:12-17
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. The New King James Version
Jesus is alluding to His heavenly origin. Since He comes from heaven, He is qualified to speak authoritatively about heavenly things. The implication is that no one has both ascended to heaven to receive divine revelation and descended to earth to give an account of that revelation in the same way that Jesus has as the incarnate Word of God.
The Son of man be lifted up alludes to the events of Numbers 21:9 and presents the Son of Man as superior to Moses. It alludes to both the crucifixion and the exaltation of Jesus in His death and resurrection.
This verse presents a concise summary of the gospel message, tying the events of Jesus’ death to God’s love for the world He created. The statement is remarkable in its depiction of divine care for the entire world—not just His chosen people, Israel.
Jesus’ inherent relationship to the Father, that as the eternal Son He is “begotten [gennēthenta], not made” by the Father. John prefers to refer to Jesus as the “Son” and God as the “Father”. Jesus’ reflection and representation of the Father is complete. As one sent by God, Jesus fully represented Him on earth. Faithlife Study Bible
Earthly things refers to things that occur on earth, like the new birth, the wind, and perhaps miracles. Heavenly things refers to events like Christ’s ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Nicodemus may have believed in Jesus’ miracles the majority of the Jewish council did not. Nicodemus, referring to the new birth, asks, “How can these things be?” Here Jesus answers the question. New birth is by the Son, by the Cross, and by faith.
Every time the words lifted up occur in the Gospel of John there is a reference to Jesus’ death. When Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, those who looked at it lived. So it is with the Son of Man.
This is the first time eternal life is mentioned in John’s Gospel. When a person trusts Christ, he or she is born again and receives eternal and spiritual life, God’s kind of life.
God’s love is not restricted to any one nation or to any spiritual elite. World here may also include all of creation.
At His first coming, Jesus came so that the world through Him might be saved. When Jesus comes again, He will come in judgment upon those who refused His offer of salvation. The NKJV Study Bible
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Acts 2:34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:‘The LORD said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand,
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