Complimentary Story
What is in a name? God’s name is who He is. God said in the Old Testament, “I AM!” Everything in this world is changing, but God never changes. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! Since Jesus is God Himself, His character never changes. Exodus 34: 6-7, “And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’” The first thing we see here in Exodus when God passed in front of Moses is God is compassionate and gracious. In 1 John 4:16-18 God is love. “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment.”
The one who fears is not made perfect in love. Jesus’ love is not like human love. Because God who created every atom in the universe, everything that exists, Jesus is the foundation of love. Jesus is how love should be period! Human love depends on how people treat us, or how we feel today. Jesus is love. His character and glorious nature never change. What does this kind of love look like? First it is slow to anger. Jesus is patient, always. Humans, all humans, have flaws in their character. These flaws that we like to say, “well this is just the way I am” are called sin. Jesus never had any sinful nature because He was God and had the Holy Spirit in Him from birth.
Jesus was born supernaturally by the Holy Spirit of God. Matthew 1: 18, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” John 6: 35-40, “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen Me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me but raise them up at the last day. For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Why would Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh come down from heaven? Because God is love, and love is compassionate, and slow to anger, Jesus desires to save all people from their sinful nature. If we, as humans, could love as God loves, there would be no punishment for our flawed nature. (1 John 18). Because fear has to do with punishment. Are you perfect in love as Jesus is? If you think you are, you are believing a lie. All God’s commandments are about loving one another and God. The commandments are negative because they command us not to do things that will hurt others. Look at our world, do you see anyone keeping all these commands perfectly? We see all the chaos in our world because people do not and can not live these commands out in their lives. This is the reason Jesus came to earth to save people from their sins. His death and resurrection provide forgiveness for your sins and mine. (Read Romans 5).
God sent Jesus Christ into our world to die, pay the penalty for our sins. Because God is compassionate, and merciful He gives us Jesus who died in our place, and when a person puts their only hope and faith in Jesus, God takes away our sin and gives us the Holy Spirit so we can live like God wants us to live here on earth. Galatians 5: 13-26, “You, my brothers, and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
“The acts of the old nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
Read through these verses and ask God to reveal to you, are you living by the Spirit of God or by your own nature? Look up the meaning of verses 19-21. What do they mean? 2 Timothy 3: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
Does this Bible verse describe who we are in these days? Unforgiving — where do you see people really forgiving one another? We blame everyone but ourselves for the wrongs in this world. God wants everyone to repent and believe in the forgiveness only Jesus can give. People have a form of godliness, but they deny the power that only Jesus Christ can give people through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus said this!
Matthew 5: 43-48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Think about what Jesus says here. If you love only those who agree with you, if you love only those that treat you with respect, if you love only those who love you, then you are no better than pagans. The essential difference between “other faiths” and Christianity is Christ — the Savior of the world. The essential difference between paganism and Christianity is false gods versus the one true and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paganism is worship of the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). A pagan is a person who refuses to believe that Jesus Christ is the Only Savior of this world. John 3: 16-21, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
This is what Jesus Christ Who is God Himself says! Every person that has ever lived will stand before Jesus Christ after they die and either confess Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of the Father, or Jesus will deny them, saying “I never knew you.”
Philippians 2: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus Christ is God Himself! Jesus Christ was born of a virgin by the Power of the Holy Spirit! Jesus Christ lived a sinless life! Jesus Christ died as a substitute for you and me! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world! Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God’s Holy Spirit! Jesus Christ sits at Gods right hand yesterday, today, and tomorrow! Jesus Christ will judge you. Did you accept His gift of grace and forgiveness Only through the sacrifice He made? Did you live by God’s Holy Spirit in this life? Did you let Jesus Christ give you His life, a life lived by the Holy Spirit controlling you?
This is the ONLY message from God that will save you! Read through the book of John. These are not my words. This is God’s message to our world. Mark 1: 14-15, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ He said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”
The Kingdom of God and Jesus is not the kingdoms of this world. The Kingdom of God is living according to what Jesus Christ says! Period!
