{"id":12847,"date":"2024-04-16T14:50:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T20:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theclarion.org\/?p=12847"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:50:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T20:50:38","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bible-161","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/?p=12847","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behold What Great Love, Part 2<\/strong>
\nby Joey Carroll, Corinth Missionary Baptist Church<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week I left you beholding the greatest of all spiritual truths \u2013 if you have been born again, you are a child of God. We lack the vocabulary to describe the wonder and joy of our new birth. It is totally a work of the grace and power of God, and yet we place our trust in the person and work of Christ in the moment of new birth. Some are under the false idea that salvation is our work. They think, \u201cGod has done all that He is going to do, and now the rest is up to you.\u201d But such a notion is contrary to many passages of the Bible that describe our sinfulness. The truth is that apart from the power of God through the Holy Spirit, we would remain dead in our sins. But the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, awakens us from spiritual death to everlasting life by causing us to be born again (Titus 3:4-7). New birth leads to repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

I know of no other suitable response to God\u2019s grace toward us than the giving of one\u2019s life in worship and service to Him. One of my favorite songs is \u201cJesus, Thank You\u201d written by Sovereign Grace Music. The second verse says, \u201cBy Your perfect sacrifice, I\u2019ve been brought near. Your enemy You\u2019ve made your friend. Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace. Your mercy and Your kindness know no end.\u201d What great reasons we have to spend all our days in worship to our heavenly Father!<\/p>\n

Our new birth comes with consequences. He does not leave us as we were before salvation. What we are has changed. What we should be and what we shall be also changes. Now that we are the God\u2019s children, our relationship to the world is different. John says \u201cFor this reason the world does not know us,\u201d (1 John 3:1, NASB). That seems strange \u2013 the world in which we were originally born no longer knows us. The reason is \u201cbecause it did not know Him,\u201d (3:1). John is referring to the hatred that was displayed toward God\u2019s Son. When you consider the crucifixion of our Lord, it should amaze you. He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, fed thousands and taught us to love our neighbor. And yet when He was nailed to a tree, the mass of people shouted \u201ccrucify Him, crucify Him.\u201d Any person with a logical mind would respond in the same way Pilate did, \u201cWhy, what evil has He done?\u201d (Matt 27:23, NASB). But the reason is simply this: He was God, the Son of God, who had come in the flesh, and since Genesis 3, man has hated God. The idea that God exercises His dominion and rule over His creation sets man\u2019s teeth on edge. Man, since Adam, has always wanted to exercise dominion over himself, and we would go so far as killing God to do so. Since the world hates God, it hates the God\u2019s children (John 15:18-19).<\/p>\n

As the children of God, what we should be is changing as well. \u201cIf you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him,\u201d (1 John 2:29, NASB).<\/p>\n

John loves the word \u201cpractices.\u201d It refers to our manner of living. As Spirit-filled, born- again children of God, our manner of living changes. We begin to live like our Lord lived on earth. This is one of John\u2019s \u201csigns\u201d that we have truly been born of God. This too is simple logic. We all share the characteristics of our earthly parents. We share many of their looks, mannerisms, and ways. Once we are born of God, we begin sharing in His ways and His characteristics \u2013 like selfless love and service as well as forgiveness toward others. How can we be unwilling to forgive when we have been so lavishly forgiven?<\/p>\n

Lastly, as God\u2019s children, what we will be has changed. \u201cBeloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is,\u201d (1John 3:2, NASB). What a glorious thought! One day, we will be changed, and we will be like Him – holy, sinless, in perfect communion with God, and enjoying God forever, as we were always meant to be and do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behold What Great Love, Part 2 by Joey Carroll, Corinth Missionary Baptist Church<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12848,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847\/revisions\/12848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}