Daddy's Eyes part 4
Do you know what grace does? Or rather, what grace DID? It doesn't sweep sin under the rug. It OBLITERATED sin. Look at Romans 5:20, "Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Notice that this verse is PAST TENSE. Why? Because the law entered BEFORE the cross. Sin abounded BEFORE the cross. And then, ON the cross, grace abounded. Grace freed us from sin. "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). And, again, this doesn't mean, "You can sin and not get in trouble because you're not under the law, but under grace." It means, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, becuase he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). When we understand that sin is unbelief--not what we DO, but what we believe, because what we do FLOWS from what we believe--then it's easy to see that a believer cannot sin. By definition, a believer cannot unbelieve. Right? So what does this have to do with seeing ourselves how Daddy sees us? Simply this: He doesn't see as a sinner. So we need to stop seeing ourselves (and each other) as sinners. A sinner who was saved by grace (two thousand years ago on the cross) isn't a sinner anymore. A transformation took place. The old died and the new came forth. We were conformed into the image of God's Son. The image that we were created in in the first place, but couldn't see because the heaven and the earth (the mind and the body, US) was dark and void and without form. That's why God spoke and said, "Let there be light." That's why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And that's why (again, on the cross) the Word stopped dwelling AMONG us and took up abode IN us! So that we would be able to see things clearly. And in seeing... believe. Because seeing IS believing. Jesus came to SHOW us the Father. Jesus came to SHOW us what love is by laying His life down for us. By giving His life FOR us, and giving His life TO us. He showed us the Father... by showing us our true selves. By showing us what it means to truly live in the context of that unconditional Father/Son relationship. And what did He REALLY show us? A man, "...who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). That's who Daddy is. Someone who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that we could believe in Him and LIVE. Guys... to live is to love, and to love is to live. When we see through Daddy's eyes we don't see sinners who need to "shape up or ship out." We see all the different parts of our own body. HIS own body. And when we understand that connection of love, that connection of being part of the same body, then we can cherish each other (and ourselves) because the grace in His eyes lights everything up and makes the darkness flee. The grace in His eyes doesn't IGNORE sin, or sweep it under the rug. Love is NOT blind. Love sees clearly. The real you. The true you. The apple of Daddy's eye. The perfect One. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body.