"The True Image Of God"

Here's a really BIG QUESTION for you to consider:

"DID JESUS' DEATH ON THE CROSS CHANGE HOW GOD SEES US, HIS HUMAN FAMILY?"

All of my life I had believed that God was angry at me because I fail at total obedience to him. The preaching and teaching I grew up with constantly "dangled" me over the fires of hell unless I did everything right, which meant absolute obedience to God's word. I tried, I really did, but could never quite get it right. Living in fear of God was a benchmark for most of the teaching I was exposed to. And as a young preacher I repeated the same mantra that I had been taught in church and in Christian college about God.

Then one day a few years ago, for the first time, I looked at something very familiar and finally it hit me right between the eyes. All those years I had spent living in fear of God and urging others to do the same, came flooding back to me with deep regret. Check this out -

     "Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the
      Holy Spirit whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still
      powerless, Christ died for the ungodly." 
     "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
      died for us." Romans 8:5,8 NIV

I had often studied and even memorized much of Romans, especially the above passage, but because of the teaching that had formulated an assumption in my brain, I had never really seen that image of God. In fact, I had been taught and I often repeated the old mantra that "God loves the sinner but hates the sin", as though the two things can be separated. There is just enough truth in that statement to keep guys like me in a daily state of frustrated spiritual limbo.

Now please don't interpret that to say that God approves our sin or that there is no punishment for our ignoring his words. The Bible is absolutely clear on the subject of sin and constantly warns us of the eternal outcome of turning our back to God. However, God has given us two key gifts of his grace that train us to see our Father in a totally new way ....... the gift of his own Son and the gift of his Spirit.

What I slowly came to realize is this - Jesus' death on the cross didn't occur because of God's anger AT me but because of his love FOR me. Then, because that wouldn't be enough to get me where I need to be, he put his own Spirit IN me to train me to know him as ABBA, FATHER. I cannot begin to count the number of times I read Romans 5:8, John 3:16 and many other verses that depict my Father in this way and just simply didn't get it. Sadly, for 20+ years I failed to depict God's grace and love in a true way.

So, I now see that Jesus' death absolutely forgives all my past, present and future sins, not unconditionally, and the Holy Spirit is like an internal "hard drive" who constantly comforts, instructs and trains me to hear the voice of God and incorporate his words into my life. Without these two indescribable gifts, I have no hope of
living forever in the house of God.

Here's the bottom line -

JESUS' DEATH DIDN'T OCCUR BECAUSE OF GOD'S ANGER BUT BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE!

                                                                                                                    HALLELUJAH!!!!