Perceive what manner of love the Father has given us, that we may be called children of God! And we are! Therefore the world does not know us, for it did not know Him
First Epistle of John 3: 1, Concordant New Testament
I was once again reminded this morning through a message from the author Wayne Jacobsen of just how it is that God looks upon me. Now, this has been a sensitive subject for me personally in the past, as my sense of self worth often revolved around my own physical appearance or how it is that those around me saw me. Growing up, it was ingrained in me that I was nothing but a sinner struggling for Gods acceptance. This was the message given to me from the pulpits of the mainstream church. Therefore, it came as no surprise to me that I began to feel that this is indeed how the Lord looked at me, as a condemned sinner. The deck had already been stacked against me. I was a sinner, but somehow God loved me. I was a sinner, yet He loved me enough through my sin to dispatch His Son to die for me {Johns Account 3:16-17}. So, despite looking upon me as a sinner, God did love me. That much I was assured of. But if I was a sinner, why was it that God still loved me? Hadn't I disappointed Him through my sin and disobedience? Again, this was the church speaking to me. I had no idea how it is that God really saw me. You can imagine the damage that this way of thinking could do to a persons own view of God as well. I saw God not as a loving Father, but as an overseer who judged me each and every day according to His holy standards. How could I ever get on his good side? Yet one passage of scripture began to get me thinking that I was seeing the Lord in the wrong way. This passage is found in the Epistle of John where the apostle explains the one true nature of God. That being, love {First Epistle of John 4:8}. How is it if God is love that He could continue to condemn me? Better yet, how is it that God could abandon His own creation? These were the question that I began asking. Not of those within the church, but for myself.
It was not until I stepped away from the mainstream church that I began to see more clearly how it is that the Lord looks upon me. Being free from the constant reminders of my sin freed me to see the Lord for who He truly is, my loving Father. A Father who loved me enough to save me despite my condition. A Father who loved me enough to create me in His likeness {Genesis 1:27}. In fact, I would argue that everything which the Father has done in my life up until this point has been done out of His love for me. Now, some might bristle at this thinking and bring up the obvious negative circumstances which we all go through. But I would say that we do not see what God sees. We are not privy to the behind the scenes knowledge that He is. We're told that His ways are not our ways {Isaiah 55:8-9}. God has never based His decisions on who is the most popular or most affluent. No, God bases His every action based on his one true nature, and that is love. In our limited understanding, we sometimes see an uncaring God in the midst of our tragedies. This in no way means that God no longer loves us. What it does mean is that we continue to see Him through the eyes of the world and not as a loved child of God {First Epistle of John 3:1}. It has taken me some time to come to that realization that despite all that is happening in my life, that the love of the Father remains. So, does God still see me as a sinner as the church continues to proclaim? No! It is written that I am His loved child. It has also been proclaimed by Christ Jesus that my life remains in Him {Johns Account 14:20}. When He looks upon me, He sees His beloved Son {Paul to the Galatians 2:20}. No church ever taught me that lesson.
Who rouses Him from among the dead, you also being dead to the offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He vivifies us together jointly with Him, dealing graciously with all our offenses, erasing the handwriting of the decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and has taken it away out of the midst, nailing it to the cross
Paul to the Colossians 2: 13-14, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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