Beneficiaries

“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1John 4:19)

This verse exemplifies everything we need to know about God. Everything about our relationship with God was initiated by Him. Beginning with the creation of man, God desired to make man, to love man and to bless man. He made man to be in fellowship with Him. “For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16) We will not be looking into the creation of the universe, but only to man’s relationship to His Creator.

Salvation was God’s initiative. After man failed God, He still went and still goes after errant man. God still wanted and wants fellowship with man. But man’s composition cannot tolerate the holiness of God. Man dies in the presence of His holiness because of our sinful and worldly flesh. But God provided a solution. Jesus, God the Son, was sent by God the Father, to be a man, but One Who could defeat sin, death and the flesh for all mankind. “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.” (John 3:16) Sounds like a fairy tale. We’ve been fed so many fairy tales that they have polluted our ability to believe the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. This defilement made man impervious to the Truth of the Gospel of Salvation. But our Scripture of study says it all. We love God because He first loved us.

It's because God made that provision first that we are able to know about Him, come to know Him and love Him. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation concerning our sins.” (1John 4:10) As one pastor said, “It’s all about God.” Man is so egotistical, we think it’s all about us. But it isn’t. It’s about God, His desires, His purposes and His Will. He made this known to the Israelites. It wasn’t about them either. “Jehovah did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because Jehovah loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, Jehovah has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore, know that Jehovah your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-9) And Jesus made it known to us. “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” (John 15:16)

The Scripture in Deuteronomy makes it clear. “It’s all about God.” The reason He keeps His promises is because of Who He is. It has nothing to do with us. God loves us because He is love. “The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love.” (1John 4:8) God is merciful because He is mercy. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us (even when we were dead in sins) has made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7) God is good because He is Goodness. “And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except one, God.” (Mark 10:18) And we are the beneficiaries of His love, His goodness and His mercy.

Yes, all mankind is a beneficiary of His love, His mercy and His Goodness. But not all mankind is living in God’s love, mercy and goodness. It’s a gift God offers. And not everyone has accepted His love, mercy and goodness. “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” (Ephesians 2:8). It’s a gift that we must accept. First, we must believe God is offering us this gift. Then we must accept and receive this gift to be showered with His love, His mercy and Goodness. The question that one should ask is: “What must I do to receive God’s gift?” It’s believe and repent. Peter told the crowd at Solomon’s portico, “Therefore repent and convert so that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19) Repent is a word many fear to say and many fear to hear. But all it means is to turn away. Make a decision to turn away from sin. And that sin is being god of our own lives. So believe in God’s gift of forgiveness through Jesus the Son and repent of being god of your own life and give your life to God. Let Him be the ruler of your life and accept Jesus as your Savior. Then wonderful and miraculous spiritual things happen which we come to know as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord and in relationship with Him.

We then can surmise, God is all in all. His love, His mercy and His goodness is what enables us to have a relationship with Him. His promises will not fail because He does not fail.