God’s Purpose is Accomplished by His Life in Us (2)
God created man with the intention to impart His life into the created man so that God could be expressed through man. God’s life and His expression, not saving us from sin, is God’s goal.
Redemption is necessary now because of the fall of man and it opens the door for God to impart life into us. The previous post presented this using Galatians 3 and 4.
Acts 2:38 records Peter speaking to the listening crowd, “Repent and each one of you be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Forgiveness results in the Spirit, who imparts life, being received by man.
Colossians 2:13 declares that God “made alive together with Him [Christ], having forgiven us all our offenses.” By His life lived out through us God will express Himself to the universe now and much more in New Jerusalem.
First John 4 also puts redemption and life together. “In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him. Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins” (v. 9-10).
God’s Son accomplished propitiation so that “we might have life and live through Him.” We have life and live it on the path to New Jerusalem and will continue to live this life for eternity.
Photo courtesy of NASA.
In 1 John 4 life is before propitiation. This sequence is not according to our time-line thinking. There are other examples in the Bible where God’s desire is stated before the supporting action. Contact me if you want examples.
Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The New Testament of this Bible, with its outlines, is at online.recoveryversion.org; this too is © by LSM.
Posted by Don on March 2, 2022
