Commended Love
What is Father God’s motive in His redemptive plan for man and creation? A
motive is a purpose that causes motion or incites one to action. It moves the
will causing a choice to be made out of an emotion. An emotion from the heart
of Father God caused Him to move in behalf of His creation. God’s purpose for
all that He did, all that He does, and all that He will do, is for the love He has for
man and His desire for fellowship with His creation.
Romans 5:8 (KJV) says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The word ‘commend’ means to
represent as worthy of notice, regard, or kindness. In other words, God
considered us worthy or valuable in placing His love on us. Commended love is
the Father’s motive and His love for us caused Him to respond to man with full
redemption for all men. Other translations intensify and enlighten us to this
love from God to man. The Revised Standard Version (RSV) says, “But God
shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” The
Letters of Paul by F. F. Bruce says, “But God confirms [continually
demonstrates] His love to us by the fact that Christ died for us when we were
still sinners.” In the works of Conybeare and Howson entitled the Life and
Epistles of Saint Paul, Romans 5:8 is translated “But God gives proof of His own
love to us, because, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” In The Holy
Bible From Ancient Eastern Manuscripts by George Lamsa (Lamsa Translation)
Romans 5:8 says, “God has here manifested His love towards us, in that, while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” And finally in the New King James
Version (NKJV) it is translated “But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” These translations point
to the great love that God has for man as the reason for the reconciliation of all
men and affirm that God’s love is not hidden from man but fully extended from
God’s heart before man could even know and receive His love.
How did Father God demonstrate His love for man? What did He do to
confirm His love toward us? A motive causes a response and answers the
question why. Why did God send His Son? Why did God respond by redeeming
man? How did God move in our behalf? Romans 8:32 tells us how Father God
responded.
Romans 8:32 (NKJV)
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
God did not spare, or as one translation says, “He did not withhold His Son.” He
did not just say, “I love you” but He gave proof or evidence of His love for us by
giving Jesus who redeemed us out of death giving us His life. God extended His
love through Jesus even before one man received and accepted Him. God did
not leave man in death but entered death and removed man from its grasp.
The gift God gave was His Son. It was more than Jesus dying on the cross.
It was also what Jesus did in the spiritual realm while His body was on the
cross. He dominated our adversary for us. Jesus rose from the dead both in
body and spirit. He gave to man the reality of the New Creation—a new man
indwelt by God Himself. What is the demonstration or the fruit of human love?
Is it not a child born out of that love? Jesus is the product or fruit of Divine
love. He is the picture of the motive of Father God who unveils Himself in
Christ—God Incarnate. Just as we identified with Christ in dying with Him, being
made alive with Him, raised with Him, and made to sit at God’s right hand with
Him (Ephesians 2:1-6), God identified with us through His Son. He forever
identified with His creation by being made flesh and putting on the clothing of
humanity and submitting to death (Jesus was not killed but yielded up His Spirit
according to Matthew 27:50) so we could live.
Philippians 2:8 says that Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient or
succumbed to death by the death of the cross. In the KJV and NKJV it says He
became obedient to “the point of” death but these three words are italicized
which in these translations mean they are not in the original manuscripts but
were added by the translators for clarity. With these words added it seems to
make death a force but in reality Jesus did not bow the knee to a force but to
the spirit of death. Jesus took the complete penalty of man’s sin. Death both
physical and spiritual is an enemy and Jesus yielded to our enemy with us and
overcame that enemy. If Jesus had been killed then there would not have been
a sacrifice but a murder. Jesus was not murdered but He yielded Himself to our
enemy which is death. He who knew no sin became sin for us (II Corinthians 5:
17).
Look at Ephesians 2:8. Does it not say that God shows us His grace and
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus? The first four books of the New Testament
which are commonly referred to as the gospels (Matthew through John),
demonstrate God unveiling His Son and Jesus unveiling His Father. These first
four books show Jesus as the Redeemer and the surrounding events regarding
our redemption. We do not yet see what was exactly accomplished in that
redemption until we investigate the writings of Paul. But it is different in Paul's
writings. In the Epistles of Paul, Father God is uncovering the work He Himself
did IN and THROUGH His Son. You also see something else in Paul’s writings
that you do not see in the four gospels. Paul unveils or reveals the family of
God, the Body of Christ, and the sons of God. God’s motive is clear, revealing
Himself in His Son and we see that love demonstrated to us in grace and good
things that God gives to us. God demonstrated His love by defining the penalty
for sin and then paying the penalty He Himself decreed.
Did Father God have any part in man’s redemption? Yes!
Titus 3:4-6 (NKJV)
4. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward
man appeared,
5. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
6. whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior,
It says that the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared or was focused
towards man. Some say, “Oh, that’s just referring to Jesus”. Well it can’t be
because the Trinity is seen in these verses. Holy Spirit is identified in verse 5
and Jesus is seen in verse 6, therefore, the “God our Savior” in verse 4 is Father
God. The kindness and love that was commended to man came because of the
mercy of Father God resulting in our salvation by the Holy Ghost. The kindness
and love of God is demonstrated in and through Jesus Christ whom God gave
(John 3:16).
Did you see the true motive of our Father? What was the kindness and love
of God that appeared? Or let me ask it this way, what did the kindness and love
of God for man appear as? God demonstrates His kindness and love by the gift
of His Son Jesus who reveals love and redemption. His love and kindness is also
seen in the proclamation of the Gospel of Righteousness, the GOOD NEWS of
our right standing with God and all that our kinship to God as sons provides. We
also see His kindness and love in the working of Holy Spirit causing the Kingdom
of God to be manifested in our daily lives.
Remember, the New Testament saints in Matthew through John saw God
though they did not see Him as Father. The religious leaders became very
agitated when Jesus called God His Father. God's love was demonstrated to
man in the appearance of Jesus, God in the flesh, so that man could see Him,
walk with Him, and learn from Him again. Jesus revealed God to us by actions
and words; He showed us the nature of God, who He is, what He is like, and His
thoughts and heart towards man.
Luke 4:18-19 says that God anointed Jesus to do what was and is the will
and heart of Father God. We wonder what God is like and we want to know
what His thoughts toward us are. The heart of Father God is like the heart of
Jesus Christ who died for all men.
Acts 10:38 says God anointed Jesus. To anoint means to “rub into and smear
all over” and God rubbed into and smeared all over Christ His own heart for man
and the resulting action from this anointing was Jesus went about doing good
things and healing all that were oppressed or overpowered by the adversary.
Let me say it another way, God placed His heart in Jesus and what Jesus did is
what God would do. He did it in and through Christ-God in the flesh. He did
these things because God was with Him. Jesus simply demonstrated to creation
how Father God felt about man. Jesus was demonstrating to the natural realm
Father God’s heart. This is the Gospel, the Good News of the love our Father
has and the revealing of His plan to have us in His household and His kindness
and love appeared when the Gospel was given. The Gospel reveals our right
standing with God and our privileges of fellowship with the God of heaven and
earth.
Love Demonstrated
John 17:23 (NKJV)
I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that
the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You
have loved Me.
“Oh, God can not love me because of what I did, what I thought, or what I
said”. How many times have you heard someone say that God did not love
them? This verse in John 17 says God loves us as much as He loves Jesus. The
Weymouth Translation says “...with the same love....” The “same love” was to
exemplify a perfect union between God and us. So what did the union of God
and Jesus in John chapter 17 show the world? It showed the world that God
loves us as much as and with the same love that He loves Jesus, and because of
that love He has united us with Himself and His Son by Holy Spirit.
Well, God can’t love me as much as He does Jesus—can He? Does it seem
beyond hope, that God loves us like that? It would not seem so farfetched if we
had not been told all of our religious church life that we were only “sinners
saved by grace.” We are not sinners saved by grace. His grace can do much
more than leave us as a sinner with a hope of heaven someday! We are a New
Creation in Him (II Corinthians 5:17) and we are no longer sinners, we are sons
of God. I John 3:2 says “Beloved, now are we the sons of God...”, and in
Galatians 4:7 it tells us that we are no longer servants but sons and because we
are sons then we are heirs. Being sons makes us heirs of God, co-heirs with
Jesus according to Romans 8:17. Being co-heirs with Jesus does not mean we
get half and He gets half, but we get all of what Jesus gets due to our
relationship with the Father, the One who begat the New Creation.
He loves us as He does Jesus. I John 4:8 says the man who does not love
others, love himself, or love God does not know God because “God is love.”
Love is a word that is hard to define. Is love tangible? If love is given to a person
does that love have to be received to be called love? An American Dictionary of
the English Language by Noah Webster, 1839 Edition says that love is “an
affection of the mind excited by beauty and worth of any kind”. God is not “an
affection of the mind” but He is love.
Scripture gives a true definition of love. In I Corinthians 13 Paul says that
love is longsuffering and kind, it does not think evil, it does not rejoice in
iniquity, and love does not fail! This definition of love must also describe God if
God is love. If love suffers long and is kind then Father God is long suffering
and kind. Love does not harm then God does not harm. Let God’s Word give us
a proper concept of God rather than religion.
The Exceeding Riches of His Grace
When we were identified with Christ in His redemptive work and He took
our standing before God and gave us His standing as a son, God by Holy Spirit
not only raised us up with Jesus but He (God) seated us beside Him (Jesus) also
according to Ephesians 2:4-10.
Ephesians 2:4-10 (NKJV)
4. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us,
5. even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6. and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus,
7. that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His
grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9. not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
These verses fully demonstrate the motive of God our Father. While the KJV
says in verse 4 that it was “for” God’s love the Revised Standard Version says
“out of” that great love He made us alive. The love of God caused or motivated
Him to redeem us. What does redeem mean? According to An American
Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster 1839 Edition it means in
part, to purchase back, to ransom, to liberate or rescue from captivity or
bondage, to liberate and rescue from any obligation of liability, to suffer or to be
forfeited by paying an equivalent, to repurchase what has been sold [so as to]
regain possession of a thing alienated by paying the value of it to the possessor.
This definition is instantly made clear by Colossians 1:13 which says God has
(right now) delivered us from the power of darkness, and has (right now)
translated us into the kingdom of his Son. When did Ephesians 2:4-6 occur?
When were we made alive, raised, and seated with Him? We were made alive,
raised, and seated when Jesus was! We are right now in the “ages to come”
referred to in verse 7.
Although our redemption is a finished work, Jesus’ Ministry is on going. He
is not sitting in heaven twiddling His thumbs waiting for us to get there. Jesus is
a merciful and faithful (Hebrews 2:17-18) High Priest who has put away our sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. He has done what no earthly high priest has ever
done. He completely removed sin not just covered it up.
He is our Advocate, One who pleads a cause and defends. He is not
defending us to God but He is the family Attorney who covers our faults and
protects us from our adversary and evil men, those who would try to bring a
charge against the New Creation man. He is the Surety of the New Covenant
(Hebrews 7:22) in making certain we do not allow His blood to lose its
effectiveness in our lives. Jesus is most assuredly involved in other ministries to
man but be certain He is not idle at the right hand of Father God. He is there
making sure we stay on the path to get to our Father God and He is there
pointing the way. If a child has been alienated from his father he would be
ignorant of his father’s character and heart towards him. Therefore, that child
would need someone, an advocate, to show him, to demonstrate and explain to
him how his father really feels towards him. Jesus does this for us towards our
Father God. We see God’s heart in Jesus as He expresses God to man (Hebrews
1:3).
The Purpose of Our Seating with Him
Verse 7 of Ephesians chapter 2 indicates that “in the ages to come” God is
going to reveal His riches to us and in us. This is not in the “sweet by and by” or
“when we all get to heaven.” This verse tells us that from the time that
redemption was purposed in the heart of Father God or more specifically
manifested and evidenced to us through the resurrection of His Seed Jesus, God’
s goodness would be evidenced on earth towards man. In other words, God’s
goodness was seen when He gave Jesus as the sacrifice for man’s sin. So, God
knew that redemption was needed and He provided that redemption in His Son.
The death of His Son provided a means of God’s riches and His “good things”
(Matthew 7:11; Romans 10:15; Hebrews 9:11; James 1:17) to get to us in a
creation now infected with death.
Why are we seated with Christ in heavenly places? Look at these various
translations of verse 7 of Ephesians chapter two. The Holy Bible in Modern
English by Ferrar Fenton says “... so that He might show to the coming ages the
surpassing richness of His gift with which He had benefited us in Christ Jesus.”
The New Testament in the Language of Today by W. F. Beck translates that
portion of Ephesians 2:7 as “... to show in the coming ages the immeasurable
riches of His love by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.” And in The Bible, A New
Translation by James Moffatt which says “... to display throughout ages to come
His surpassing wealth of grace and goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.” We
are seated as examples of being born into His family—the family of God. He did
all the work and we get all the benefits which is a perfect definition of God’s
grace toward us. He did the dying and we being placed in Him get His life. We
get it all now before heaven. Tell me; don’t you need His benefits here while on
earth? Down here is where the light bill has to be paid. This is where our
children get sick. And here, before we get to heaven, is where man needs to
see there is a loving provisionary Father whose heart is to be a Father—Provider
to them.
Jesus’ death initiated a transfer of good things, the blessings of God to His
kids. The Testator Jesus was resurrected, He “stood up again” by the Spirit of
God to make sure we get the full benefits that the blood of Jesus paid for
starting as a pathway for man to see the love and kindness God has for His
creation.
FEARLESS FELLOWSHIP WITH OUR FATHER