The Father's Love part 5
There's a reason why the Father loving His Son relationship is the biggest and best picture of God in the Bible. And it's a reason I didn't fully understand until I had a son and became a father. Ready? Jesus put it in slightly different terms in John 10:11 (NLT), "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep." The Father is ready, willing, and able to lay down His life for us. That's what I understood, in the twinkling of an eye, when my son was born. I would do ANYTHING for him. Including sacrificing my life for him. Without question, or thought, or contemplation. I love that little rascal more than anything. I care about him WAY MORE than I care about myself. And that's what that agape, sacrificial, God-love is all about. Look at Romans 5:6 (NLT), "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners." And, of course, this is where some people can get mixed up because they see a separation between "God" and "Jesus." But it (HE) is all the same thing. Jesus said, "The Father and I are one" (John 10:30 NLT). So Jesus dying for us is the same thing as God dying for us. Jesus IS God. So let's not get hung up. We think Jesus died for God. We think the Son died for the Father. But that's absurd if you really think about it. This idea that God HAD to kill someone in order to "satisfy His wrath" (or whatever), and He gave us a pass only because He substituted us... for Himself... like... I don't think that tracks. God had to kill someone so He killed Himself? Even though it was humanity who chose Jesus to die and humanity who nailed Jesus to the cross. But I digress. My point is that, "This is real love--not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins" (1 John 4:10 NLT). Did you catch that? Jesus didn't die to "appease God." He died to take away our sins. But again, I digress. The point is, when we had nothing to offer, God gave us everything He had and everything He is. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins He gave us life. And not just any life, HIS life. The abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love that is the gift of God! That's a Father's love. Laying His life down for His children. And, by the way, that's how we got our inheritance. Jesus died so we could have it, and then rose back up to insure that we experienced it and enjoyed it! Because we don't try to live Jesus' life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. We experience and enjoy His life by letting HIM live His own life in us, and through us, and as us! We be still and know that HE is God. We let Jesus take the wheel, but we don't bail out of the car. We're along for the ride on this (one more time) abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love! The Father's love equipping and empowering His Son to be who He is. Who He really is. Which is who WE really are. Which is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. Letting the God--the love--that is inside of us come out by knowing and believing that it (HE) is in there. Filling ourselves to overflowing with what we have already been filled with. Receiving and releasing the Father's love in order to truly live the life that He has given us. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. The Father's love gives us the life of the Son. That's who we are, and where we are, what we are capable of, because of who HE is and what HE did (for us and as us) and what He is doing in us, and through us, and as us! Living in the context of this Father/Son relationship is how we truly live!