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Pastor's Blog January 16, 2020
"Deeper Love"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
We know God the Father loves Jesus, who is God the Son, with an infinite and eternal love. But did you ever think it was possible for the Father to love Jesus more than he already does? Ellen tells us in Steps to Christ that Jesus' message in John 10:17 is, "My Father has so loved you that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem you" (5; 1977 edition).
It is the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf that enables him to have an even deeper and closer relationship with the Father than he ever did prior to the cross (5). This is an astounding idea! We are used to thinking of the kind of love relationship which Jesus and the Father share as being fairly static. After all, God does not change, so we conclude that God's relationships don't change. Throughout eternity, God loves the same, never growing or lessening in love - so we reason that the same holds true for how much the Father loves Jesus.
But Ellen points out three reasons why the love that has always existed between the Father and Jesus can be the same and does not develop, yet can and does deepen between them.
First, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross reveals the love which the Father has for sinners. Jesus' death not only enables the Father to be just and to justify those who believe in Jesus, it is also the expression of the Father's heart to save humans from corruption and death - and all the more so, because only Jesus could reveal the Father's love to us (5).
Second, Jesus' incarnation is the demonstration that the Father is giving Jesus to us forever; just as "He who was one with God" showed us the Father as God incarnate, so for the rest of eternity he will be "one with the race He has redeemed" because he will forever be a human also (5).
And finally, because Jesus is God incarnate and reveals the Father to us, Jesus is able to make us sons and daughters of God: to turn sinful humans into true children of God by adoption in and through himself (5-6). O joy of joys and wonder of wonders! How amazing all this is! And all of this is ours already - Jesus, the Father's love, and adoption as his sons and daughters - because the eternal Son of God became one of us to save us as the Son of man (5)! Let us rejoice and be glad in this.
(*) Steps to Christ 1977 edition
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
