Tag Archives: born of God

OVERCOMING FAITH

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OVERCOMING FAITH

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith (1 John 5:1-4).

John was soaked in the teachings of Jesus. One can feel his love for his Master pulsating through every word he wrote. He had taken Jesus’ instruction seriously about the Holy Spirit and His role in their lives. John had built his life on the foundation of Jesus’ words and it was now his task to pass them on to his readers so that they would also have a solid base on which to build their lives. 

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Jesus spoke these final words to His disciples before they left the upper room and made their way to Gethsemane. He had taught them about the Holy Spirit and His role in their lives after His return to the Father. He had assured them that He had overcome the world and that they would have victory over sin and Satan through their faith in Him.

What did John mean? This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Without the background of Jesus’ teaching, John’s encouragement would make no sense to his readers. He must have taken for granted that they knew what he was saying because he had already inspired them with Jesus’ words.

What did Jesus mean by His words, “I have overcome the world”? Jesus’ world at that moment was the world of God’s people, the Jews among whom He lived. Their religious leaders, who tried slavishly to obey the teachings of Moses, demanded that the Jews also keep their unreasonable requirements. His people’s “world” was the burdensome system of religion as well as the oppression of their Roman overlords. They were taxed so heavily that many of them lived in poverty. Their fellow-Jews who served Rome as unscrupulous tax collectors, added to their burden, demanding more tax than Rome required to enrich themselves.

The world had overcome them. Instead of responding to Jesus’ teaching, like their countrymen, Jesus’ disciples reacted to the oppressive world system in sinful ways; with resentment, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, adding to their burden of guilt.

Jesus modelled the response that would not permit the world to overcome Him. He did not resist arrest. He submitted to the soldiers’ torture without threat or complaint. He accepted injustice without accusation. Peter’s summary accurately describes Jesus’ attitude to the “world” which rejected Him and treated Him unjustly and cruelly despite His innocence.

When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed (1 Pet. 2:22-24).

How did Jesus overcome the world? He absorbed in Himself everything evil that was levelled against Him. The worst that human cruelty and hatred did to Him could not move Him to retaliate. He forgave and prayed for His tormentors. He proved both to the powers of darkness and to the world of sinners that it was possible to live in obedience to the Father and without sin despite what the world did to Him.

In His life, He demanded of His enemies, “Who of you accuses me of sin?” to which no one could reply. In His death, He remained unaffected by those who hated Him. He steadfastly trusted in His Father’s love. His resurrection proved that He had no sin because death could not hold Him.

Jesus provided both a model for us under unjust suffering and he also provides the power to overcome the sin of others against us. What was His secret? He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. By entrusting Himself to the Father, Jesus turned His attention away from His suffering to the one who sustained Him. The assurance of His Father’s love enabled Him to endure the cross.

Likewise, for us who have given Jesus the right to reign over us, we are free to trust the Father to bring good out of the worst of circumstances. It is true that we will suffer in this life because human suffering is part of this fallen world, but God works for our good in all things for one reason – He is restoring in us the image of His Son.

Jesus loved the Father and trusted in His love to the extent that He submitted to the Father’s will and obeyed Him in everything. Submission and obedience are to be the hallmark of God’s children, based on confidence in His perfect love.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

REAL AND UNCHANGING LOVE

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REAL AND UNCHANGING LOVE

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4: 7-10).

This is one of the most profound passages of Scripture in the whole Bible. Strange that it should come from the pen of one who was once nicknamed, together with his brother James, “Boanerges”, sons of thunder. These two brothers were real hotheads.

Jesus had to rebuke them for wanting the fry the Samaritans in a certain village in Samaria for refusing hospitality to Jesus. It’s quite understandable that the Samaritans didn’t want this Jew in their village. After all, it was the Jews who despised the Samaritans, not the other way around. Why would they accept Him into their homes and then have Him ridicule them to their faces? Of course, they did not know Jesus. 

This same hothead wrote these words, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. What brought about the transformation?Just being with Jesus and being loved by Him! Three years in the Master’s company did wonders for the disposition of these two brothers, but it was even more than that. John himself was loved – deeply loved by Jesus. Jesus loved him not only for who he was but also despite who he was. Did you get that? That’s the miracle of God’s love. It’s so different from human love.

We love those to whom we are drawn because of their looks, their personalities, their way of treating us etc. Our love is mostly reciprocal. Have you ever watched a new father gazing into the face of his new-born baby? There is nothing but wonder and love in his eyes. He holds in his arms a helpless little person who is utterly dependent on him, and he rises to the occasion. He resolves in his heart to protect, provide, and care for the little one for the rest of its life.

However, gradually things change. The helpless baby becomes a stubborn, self-willed toddler who throws temper tantrums, refuses to obey, and causes the father great frustration and embarrassment, especially when the child kicks and screams in rage on the shop floor when he cannot get his way. The same father who adored his baby son now beats him mercilessly or shouts at him endlessly when the child begins to show the same characteristics that are in him.

By the time his son reaches teenage, father and son have lost connection with one another. Love has given way to indifference or ever rejection. Why? Because the child did not come up to the father’s expectations, or even worse, the son was so like his father that the father couldn’t bear to have him nearby. Where is the love for his child now? 

The love of God is not like that. God loves because He cannot help it. Love is the very essence of who He is. God loves us, not because of but despite who and what we are. We are His offspring, made in His image, alive by His breath in us. He loves us because of Himself, not because of us. Nothing we do or do not do changes or affects His love. He cannot love us any more or any less than He loves us now.  

Is it any wonder that the devil works so hard to keep us from believing in the love of God? Who would run from a love like that if we really grasped the enormity and the reality of a love that embraces the worst of us and transforms us from hotheads to lovers of God?

How can we be sure of this love? Love is an action, not an emotion word. Love reveals its nature by what it does. God’s love reached its highest point in the gift of His Son to a world that hated and rejected Him. How great that love gives, but what about a love that gives the very best you have, to have it thrown back in your face? That’s what His people did to the Father. He knew it would happen, but He gave anyway.

It was not only the Father who gave. The Son also gave – His life for the sins of the world. No one will ever know what He endured for the sake of love. His love was written in blood on the soil of His beloved land, spilled at the feet of those who hated and crucified Him. How reciprocal was that!  No, God’s love is pure giving love.

It is this love that melts our hardened hearts and calls for a response of love. We love because He first loved us. It was this love that melted John’s heart and transformed a hothead into the apostle of love. It was this love that changed Paul from a murderer to a passionate lover of Jesus who was unafraid to pour out his own life blood for his Master.

If you gaze at this love long enough, you too will be transformed. 

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A CLEAR DISTINCTION

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A CLEAR DISTINCTION

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love his brother or sister (1 John 3: 8b-10).

John makes a very powerful statement here: No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. To what does this “seed” refer?

It’s amazing how many things begin with a seed. Take the natural world for example. God placed the blueprint of every plant and animal in its seed. There is a power pack of information inside every seed, from the biggest to the smallest and, given the right conditions, the seed will grow and become a replica of its parent.

God also has a “seed”. Jesus told a parable about a farmer who sowed seed in his field. In Luke’s version of the story, Jesus identified the seed as “the word of God.” Peter remembered and wrote in his letter:

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Pet. 1:23).

God’s Word has in it the DNA of everything that God is and, when it is sown into the heart of a human being, in the soil of faith and obedience, it grows and begins to reproduce the nature of God in the recipient. It is impossible for a seed to reproduce anything other than what its DNA contains. A bear, for instance, cannot reproduce lion cubs. In the same way, a person who has received the seed of God’s Word by faith cannot go on reproducing the fruit of Satan’s occupation in his life.

Being “born again” implies that he has begun a new life from a different Father. In this case, however, although he has a new nature, he still has the power to choose, and he can choose to follow the old nature which is still in him. But the new nature in him, the nature of God draws him towards doing what is right according to the DNA of God which is in His Word.

John concludes that it is impossible for those who are born of God to continue to rebel against God by doing what is contrary to the nature of God as a way of life, just as it is impossible for a lion, for example, to eat plants and to hibernate in the winter like a bear. A bear’s way of life has not been written into its DNA.

This has huge implications for those who claim to be children of God and yet still live like the children of the devil. It isn’t what they say that reveals who their father is, but what they do. Of course, this does not mean that the devil gave them natural birth. Satan has no power to create. He only has the power to deceive. Every person born into the world carries the spiritual DNA of the evil one since Eve was deceived into believing Satan’s lie that he, not God, is in charge. Adam was not deceived. He disobeyed God because he had received God’s instruction which he chose to ignore.

The first pair changed allegiance and took on a new nature – the nature of disobedience. Through the work of Jesus on the cross – His perfect obedience to the Father through His life and death – He undid the work of Satan. He revealed that He is Lord, which the Father confirmed by exalting Him to the highest place and giving Him the title of Lord. He destroyed the devil’s work, and gave those who believe in Him the right to be called children of God. God’s DNA was restored to those who believe in Him, enabling them by the power of His Spirit, to reflect God’s nature in the way they live.

There is a clear distinction, then, between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who belong to God have the nature of God and do the works of God, not perfectly but purposefully because God’s Word is in them. What are the works of God? The way we treat other people – with love, mercy, and generosity – shows those around us whose seed is in us.

Malachi describes this distinction in the beautiful words of his prophecy 400 years before Jesus came to earth.

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured His name. ‘On the day when I act,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not (Mal. 3: 16-18).  

God’s DNA is in us. Let us show the world who our Father is by the way we reflect Him in our lives.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Sin That Leads To Death

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SIN THAT LEADS TO DEATH

If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who is born of God, n of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them (1 John 5: 16-18).

John seems to be speaking in riddles here. What is the sin that leads to death?

First of all, we know that all sin leads to death. “The soul that sins shall die,” said Ezekiel (Ez 18:20). Sin brings death. Adam and Eve died to God when they sinned in the Garden of Eden.

Through Christ, however, God has forgiven all sin and he forgives the sin of those who repent and turn to Him. How, then can there be a sin that leads to death?

Jesus spoke of two sins that God cannot forgive, and for a very good reason. The first is the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to attribute the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil. If we deny the work of the Holy Spirit, there is no one who will apply the work of Jesus to our hearts.

Jesus had just driven a demon out of a man when the Pharisees accused Him of driving out devils in the power of the devil.

All the people were astonished and said, ‘Could this be the son of David?’ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.’ (Matt. 12: 23-24).

Jesus knew their thoughts. He responded by reminding them that a divided kingdom would not last. The Pharisees were uttering dangerous words. They accused Jesus of casting out demons in the power of the devil. Jesus, however, knew that He had been anointed by the Spirit of God to release captives from Satan’s power.

If it by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you (Matt. 12: 28).

Then He spoke these sobering words to His accusers:

And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come (Matt. 12: 31-32).

The second sin which God cannot forgive is the sin of unforgiveness. Peter asked Jesus a question:

Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times? (Matt: 18: 21).

Peter thought he was being big-hearted by being willing to forgive his brother seven times for the same sin. Seven is the number of completion – the number of God. Peter believed that seven times was enough to please God.

 

Jesus responded to Peter’s question with a story about a king who called his servants to account for the debt they owed him. One servant owed him an unpayable amount. The king was about to sell him, his family and all his possessions to pay the debt. When the servant pleaded for mercy, the king has compassion on him. He cancelled the debt and released him.

The same man found a fellow-servant who owed him a small amount of money. Instead of treating him with the same compassion as he had received, he grabbed the man by the throat and demanded immediate payment. No amount of pleading would soften his heart. He had his fellow-servant thrown in prison until he could pay.

The other servants reported him to the king who recalled him, reinstated the debt and handed him over to the jailers to be tormented until he repaid the full amount. Jesus concluded His story with these words:

This is how my heavenly Father will treat each one of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from you heart (Matt. 18: 35).

The issue is not how many times must I forgive but why I should forgive. The unforgiving servant did not appreciate the measure of the king’s mercy towards him. God has forgiven us so much that any debt that our fellow man owes us is minuscule compared with the debt we owed God.

Jesus said that these two sins are unforgivable. Therefore, it is useless to pray for anyone who has committed either of these two sins because God will not forgive them, even if we pray for them.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

Overcoming Faith

Bible Study, , , ,

OVERCOMING FAITH

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith (1 John 5:1-4).

The teachings of Jesus filled John’s mind. One can feel his love for his Master pulsating through every word he wrote. He had taken Jesus’ instruction seriously about the Holy Spirit and His role in their lives. John had built his life on the foundation of Jesus’ words, and it was now his task to pass them on to his readers so that they would also have a solid base on which to build their lives.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Jesus spoke these final words to His disciples before they left the upper room and made their way to Gethsemane. He had taught them about the Holy Spirit and His role in their lives after His return to the Father. He had assured them that He had overcome the world and that they would have victory over sin and Satan through their faith in Him.

What did John mean? This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Without the background of Jesus’ teaching, John’s encouragement would make no sense to his readers. He must have taken for granted that they knew what he was saying because he had already inspired them with Jesus’ words.

But what did Jesus mean by His words, “I have overcome the world”? Jesus’ world at that moment was the world of God’s people, the Jews among whom He lived. Their religious leaders, who tried slavishly to obey the teachings of Moses, demanded that they also keep their unreasonable requirements. His people’s “world” was the burdensome system of religion as well as the oppression of their Roman overlords. The Roman government taxed so heavily that many of them lived in poverty. Their fellow-Jews who served Rome as unscrupulous tax collectors, added to their burden, demanding more tax than Rome required to enrich themselves.

The world had overcome them. Instead of responding, like their countrymen Jesus’ disciples reacted to the oppressive world system in sinful ways; with resentment, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, adding to their burden of guilt.

Jesus modelled the response that would not permit the world to overcome Him. He did not resist arrest. He submitted to the soldiers’ torture without threat or complaint. He accepted injustice without accusation. Peter’s summary accurately describes Jesus’ attitude to the “world” which rejected Him and treated Him unjustly and cruelly despite His innocence.

When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed (1 Pet. 2:22-24).

How did Jesus overcome the world? He absorbed in Himself everything evil that people levelled against Him. The worst that human cruelty and hatred did to Him could not move Him to retaliate. He forgave and prayed for His tormentors. He proved both to the powers of darkness and to the world of sinners that it was possible to live in obedience to the Father and without sin in spite of what the world did to Him.

In His life, He demanded of His enemies, “Who of you accuses me of sin?” to which no one could reply. In His death, He remained unaffected by those who hated Him. He steadfastly trusted in His Father’s love. His resurrection proved that He had no sin because death could not hold Him.

Jesus provided both a model for us under unjust suffering, and he also provides the power to overcome the sin of others against us. What was His secret? He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. By entrusting Himself to the Father, Jesus turned His attention away from His suffering to the one who sustained Him. The assurance of His Father’s love enabled Him to endure the cross.

Likewise for us who have given Jesus the right to reign over us, we are free to trust the Father to bring good out of the worst of circumstances. It is true that we will suffer in this life because human suffering is part of this fallen world, but God works for our good in all things for one reason – He is restoring in us the image of His Son.

Jesus loved the Father and trusted in His love to the extent that He submitted to the Father’s will and obeyed Him in everything. Submission and obedience are to be the hallmark of God’s children, based on confidence in His perfect love.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?