Because God Loved Us

Because God Loved Us

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,  but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
One of the arguments I get all the time when I talk to people about Jesus is; How can God enter His creation? Or Why would he become a man? It just seems foolishness.
My answer to the first question is God being all powerful can do anything He wishes. To say he can’t do anything is to diminish His power.
My answer to the second question why would he become a man is this.
Ultimately we will be judged by God. If God is a fair and just God as I believe He is. Then I believe he needed to have more than an intellectual knowledge of what it is to be a man.
 It’s one thing to intellectually know something. It’s an entirely different thing to experience it. It also comes down to optics for lack of a better word.
I believe had God not entered the world and experience everything it is to be an man, we could stand before him and honestly say you don’t understand what it is to be human. You’ve never experienced it first hand.
As it is in Jesus God experienced all it was to be human. From the mundane things such as feeling the rain, or the sun against His face. To the love of family and friends.
Through Jesus God experienced what it was to celebrate at a wedding from a human perspective.
He experienced temptation and all the emotions man experienced. The shortest verse in the Bible say’s “Jesus wept.”
He also knows what it’s like to fall pray to political enemies. To be beaten unmercifully. To be condemned to death for simple political expediency.
On top of all of this because God is all knowing. He knew beforehand what would happen to Jesus. Yet He still sent him. In doing so he showed his love for us. As the apostle Paul wrote,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
In other words God loved us even while we were not following Him. While we were falling short of His ideal for our lives.
Please think about it.

In Microcosm

In Microcosm
“Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.  
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.  
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” 
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” 
There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?  
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’” 
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”Luke 32-43.
The above is Luke’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus. Here we see in microcosm society.
First of all not present were the disciples of Jesus. Who feared what was happening and left him to his fate.
They after his resurrection and ascension would finally put all the events of Jesus life into perspective and go on to evangelize their world. A process that is going on to this very day.
Secondly, there was the crowds who did nothing to help Jesus, nor speak in His defence.
Then there was the Roman soldiers doing what they were told to do. They had beaten Jesus mercilessly and crucified him on the order of the Roman governor. They as the say, were carrying out orders it seems without any pity.
There was the Roman governor who had found no fault with Jesus. The Roman governor a gentile, a non-Jews who could have refused to execute Jesus yet for political expediency didn’t.
Then there was the Jewish religious leaders of the day, who sneered at him. And said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
Thy too could have believed Jesus was all He said He was and prevented His death. Yet they chose not too. They instead seemed to see Jesus as a threat to their authority.
Then there were two criminals who by their actions showed how we get to heaven. One denied who Jesus was. He wanted Jesus to show who he was by getting himself and them down from the cross. The criminal even at the hour of his death refused to believe Jesus was the Messiah. This man didn’t it seems even fear God, into who’s presence he would shortly enter.
The second criminal believed Jesus was all he said he was. He believed Jesus was dying innocently. This man confessed his sin to Jesus to which Jesus said,
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The other two who were at the crucifixion were Jesus God the Father and Jesus. Jesus who on the night before his crucifixion prayed,
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  
Luke 22:42.
Jesus knew his fate and was committed to doing the will of God the Father.
On that cross, that day hung the very Son of God who was dying for our sins.
Jesus speaking of Himself tells us why when He said,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. John 3:16-18.
I firmly believe all people in our society today can look at the crucifixion and find themselves in one of those groups.
To many today however the words of the Apostle Paul ring true,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,  but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
Please think about it.

A Truth

A truth

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”...
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
Ecclesiastes 1:9,14.
Does your life seem like you are chasing after the wind? Does your life have meaning?
I would go as far as saying most people live their life in relative obscurity. They are born and die within a few hundred kilometres of where they were they were born. Throughout their life they may travel to different places but they are known to few.
The accomplishments of the average person are minor and although they may have brought a great deal of joy and happiness into the lives of those around them. Within a hundred years of their death they are only remembered if they are lucky by a name on a tombstone.
 A few years ago as the Voyager space craft was billions of Kilometres  from our solar system, NASA turned it around and it took a picture of Earth. It was described as a pail blue dot. That dot is not much bigger than the head of a pin.
It shows that in the vastness of space earth is very small yet it is where we live. It is where all of mankind since the dawn of time have lived.
If there is no God we as a species could pass into eternity and no one would ever know.
I believe there is however a God who loves and cares for us. A God who created not only that pale blue dot but he universe and everything in it.
He is a God who cares so much He, in the form of Jesus Christ, entered the world to show the world that he cared for each and every person.
John’s gospel records,
“In the beginning was the Word,(Jesus) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 
                                                                                      John 1:1-4, 12-14.
It was this Jesus who said,            
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. 
                                                                   John 3:16-18
It is through Jesus we can have a fulfilling life.
 Jesus said,
“...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
                                                                                      John 10:10.
I as a Christian have found those words to be true.
The word I quoted above I believe to be completely true. The apostle John saying,
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
I know that this may not make sense to those who don’t know Christ but the apostle Paul even noted,
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
                        1 Corinthians 1:18
Ultimately it comes down to an act of faith. Either you believe Jesus is all he said he is or you do not it is your choice. The writer of Hebrews stating,
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him"
                                  Hebrews 11:6
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." 
                                                                                                                        Hebrews 11:1
Please think about it.