(Thoughts) On the grace and love of God...

(Thoughts) On the grace and love of God...

Hi there,


You know what, for the first time in a long time I actually feel refreshed. Because of a reminder, a reminder of the love and grace of God, as shown and given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The reminder came to me while I read this book "Ragamuffin's gospel" by Brennan Manning. He brought up a a parable repeatedly in his book, that of the parable of " The Lost Son", and he also emphasized on the importance of remembering that we are all sinners(Christians and non-Christians alike) and fall short of the glory of God, but yet the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in redemption of our sin is more than sufficient to cover us completely in the process of sanctification - the process of restoration and reconciliation into fellowship with God our Heavenly Father.

What is the parable of " The Lost Son"? For the benefit of those who do not know, the story goes that there was a rich man who had 2 sons. The youngest son decided that he wanted to live his life as he wished, and so he went to his father to ask for the share of his inheritance(all this while his father was still alive!). What happens next is that he takes all this money and goes to a faraway land, spends it all up in wayward living - on the vices of the society. After using up the money he had, his life became hard, and while working at a farm one day feeding the pigs he thought to himself, "If only I were a servant in my father's household. For I remember that even those who worked for my father were very blessed indeed." So he thought and decided in his heart that he will return home to his father, and ask not to be as a son, but as a servant instead. As he made his way home, his father who had been awaiting his return for a long time saw him from afar, and ran towards him to embrace him. He gave him the signet ring, as well as placed a cloak around him - restoring him to a position of a son in his household. His father also threw a feast in celebration of his return. There are other parts to this parable, but I shall end the re-phrasing here, I will attach the actual references at the bottom of the page.

And yeah, so I was reminded from the parable of how truly richly our Father God abundantly flourishes us with His love, a love that we can begin and go through our whole lives trying to understand, and perhaps gain a better understanding - BUT never fully. Such is the beauty of that love that can never be fully described to man, or understood by him. In listening to this parable told we can imagine the images of the son coming back from afar, and the father in his old age rushing and stumbling up to him nevertheless. We can imagine how with his slightly shriveled and shaking hands he places that ring onto the son's finger and the cloak upon his body. We can imagine how he restores the son with his embrace and loving words, not asking or rebuking the son, but just restoration - knowing that the son was back safely was good enough. Such is the love that was shown - a glimpse of what is meant by the unconditional love of God, that which is given despite any circumstances, that which is so constant, so reassuring - that so many times we assume it to be ours to begin with. And when we take this love for granted, I pray that the LORD will in some way make this known to us as well, that we may repent of this heart of ingratitude.

So that was what truly impressed me yesterday, that of the unconditional love of God. May this reference from the letter to the Ephesians be our prayer as well.

"16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
- Ephesians 3:16-19


And I remembered as well the teaching of Jesus of that of love.

"43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
- Matthew 5:43-45

And that of the sinful nature of man, and the redemptive act of love by our Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem once for all, for us all from eternal death to eternal life. That is the message of salvation, a salvation not by our works, but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we must accept in order to attain.

"22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
- Romans 3:22-24

"10The death he(Jesus) died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."
- Romans 6:10

"12He(Jesus) did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption."
- Hebrews 9:12

" 1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. "
- Hebrews 10:1

"8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9not by works, so that no one can boast."
- Ephesians 2:8-9

And we have to remember as well, that the virtues of a "good man", is one that must outflow from the heart, in the thoughts of the mind and the intentions of the heart - this towards the acts of his hand and the words of his mouth. This cannot be achieved by pure human will, because of the tendency of the human heart to rebel to turn to its sinful ways. Remember that the path of righteousness is one that is narrow, but yet the LORD provides us with His Spirit to guide us in each step, to sustain our weary hearts that we may not fall. And actually my main point of mentioning all this is this: That the fruits of the Spirit are that which will outflow from our hearts, when we embrace the desire that he has given us to walk closely with him.

"13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
- Matthew 7:13-14

"16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature."
- Galatians 5:16

" 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
- Galatians 5:22-23

"17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
- 2 Corinthians 3:17-18


To me the teaching above, from Matthew 5:43-45, I remembered as that of "loving the unlovables". And I frequently asked myself, who are my unlovables? And in most recent times, I realised that for me, in fact the unlovables was not so much the lower rung in society, as much as the Christians whom by their manner of living selfishly, had deemed their own hearts unteachable. And the unteachable heart was really really detestable to me. But why? I questioned myself, and found that perhaps it is because of 2 main reasons, that these very people are those who proclaim so much the good news, and yet they do not live out the love of God in their lives, in a manner that bring glory unto the Father(And this not being that He 'needs' it at all). I realised that perhaps this was detestable, for it was such a reminder unto myself, of what I had been before the LORD had opened my eyes to the needy, for I became the most needy indeed. And the reminder of my detestable self was of utter disgust to me.

The other was that I realised in the teaching and reminding others of the importance of humility in one's life, in the cultivating of the teachable heart and spirit that allows the LORD to mould us according His purpose and will. In saying all that to others, in trying as hard as I may, in drilling it deep into my mind in understanding, in obedience in the outward parts, I had in fact created myself to become increasingly "self-righteous". I had judged myself, and others, and deemed us as unworthy, and detestable. This is not that it is not true, but that greater truth had I not reconciled, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us - this is love.

"6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die."
- Romans 5:6-7

" 16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."
- 1 John 3:16

And so I do apologise, if to any of you reading this who are my friends, brother and sisters, that if in my life I had discouraged you in any point, forgive me. For I was too caught up in zeal in fulfilment of the law, that I had not noticed that the law had already been fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord. And may we by the love of Christ given us, learn to encourage each other in our daily walk with the LORD, and learn to embrace each other in the various different circumstances that we walk in - because we are one, united in Christ, in his love.

And this will probably be one of the last few posts I'll be placing up for this period of time, till the next holidays. Will be embarking on some new things, of which I will be called "Coach" in the next few months. Continue to wait upon the LORD, and let's see together what He has in store for everyone of us. =)



In His love,
Jon


Additional Bible References:
The Lost Son
"11Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.
13"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

22"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

25"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' " "
- Luke 15:11-32