SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2018
12:48 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “Salvation is by Love”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 2:4
Message
of the verses: “God, being rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,”
Salvation
is from sin and by God’s love. The word
for mercy in the Greek is “plousios”
and this word means “1) wealthy, abounding in
material resources 2) metaph. abounding, abundantly supplied 2a) abounding
(rich) in Christian virtues and eternal possessions.” This comes from my Online Bible Greek/English
dictionary. God’s mercy is seen here as
being very rich, overabounding, without measure, unlimited and that says much
about His mercy. As I study the Bible in
preparation for my Sunday school lesson on the 15th chapter of
Revelation I am and have been learning much about God’s wrath, and yet throughout
all of His wrath we also see His mercy.
The tribulation period will be the worst time for humans to live in as
by the end of it there will have been many great judgments from the Lord on
planet earth which will kill many millions of people, and yet as stated
throughout this time period there will be more people saved than any other time
period in mans history on planet earth, and that is because of God’s mercy.
John
MacArthur writes “The two words ‘but God’ show where the initiative was in
providing the power of salvation. His
great desire is to be rejoined with the creatures He made in His own image and
for His own glory.” Probably many people
do not think about this subject of God wanting to be rejoined with the creatures
that He made in His own image. That
image was changed when sin entered into the human race, and through the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ it can be restored, and that happened because
of God’s love and mercy. I have to say
that it also happened because of God’s wrath as He took all of His holy wrath
out on His Son during those long and difficult hours He hung on the cross when
the earth went dark.
On
man’s side was the rebellion and rejection, but because God was rich in mercy
toward us and because He had great love for us, He provided a way for us to
return to Him. Let us look at Romans
11:32 “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to
all.” Paul is saying the same thing in
this verse from Romans. Now we want to
look at 11:36 “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be
the glory forever. Amen.”
God’s
motivation for salvation for unregenerate man is His great love as we see in
our verse for today: “because of His great love.” When man sinned it was not only against the
Lordship of God, but it was also against His love. I wonder if Adam and Eve knew what they did
when they listened and followed Satan.
John
MacArthur conveys a story to help us in our understanding of this: “If a person were driving down the street and
carelessly ran down and killed a child, he probably would be arrested, tried,
and fined, and imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter. But after he paid the fine and served the
sentence he would be free and guiltless before the law in regard to that
crime. But paying his penalty before the
law would do nothing to restore the life of the child or alleviate the grief of
the parents. The offense against them
was on an immeasurably deeper level. The
only way a relationship between the parents and the man who killed their child
could be established or restored would be for the parents to offer
forgiveness. No matter how much the man
might want to do so, he could not produce reconciliation from his side. Only the one offended can offer forgiveness,
and only forgiveness can bring reconciliation.”
This
story illustrates that God is the One we have offended because of our sin
against Him, and God who is rich in mercy and His great love has offered
forgiveness and reconciliation to us as He does to every repentant sinner.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am so thankful for God’s mercy and for His
great love for me that was seen at the cross of Christ as He paid for my sins.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Remember the great price that Christ paid for
me as I go throughout my day today.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “A mustard seed” (Luke 13:19).
Today’s Bible question: “In the parable of the pounds, how many
pounds did the second servant’s pound gain?
Answer in our next SD.
12/19/2018 1:32 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment