GOD'S LOVE FOR US IMMEASURABLE

Have you ever considered how much our salvation cost Father God and His Son, Jesus? Even the highest price and the worst suffering was not too much for the Lord to pay for us to have the chance to spend eternity in heaven with Them. This important truth shows us all how much God loves us! His love for us immeasurable.

God knew from the beginning of creation what every human being would or would not do, starting with Adam and Eve and ending with the last man that will ever live on earth. God was outside of time, when He created the earth and the whole universe. God knew how history would develop and how much sin there would be on the earth, so nothing could ever surprise Him. That's why it seems incredible that even after mankind has proven how evil and malicious we could be, God continued to love us with His perfect love. Not even the fact that Jesus would be terribly rejected, mocked, unloved and unappreciated by God's people first and later by the rest of the world, this did not prevent God the Father or Jesus from changing their minds about the salvation plan. Jesus endured mockery, humiliation, whipping and even death by crucifixion (the most shameful death of those times) without fighting back, fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament.

All this shows us that God's desire is for us, not against, and that we should “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Then the apostle Paul says:

• Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

When we truly understand who we are and what we have in Christ Jesus, we know that all that is good comes from Him, including the desire to continue to be faithful to Him and that He continues to help us live for Him until the end.

• John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one..”

Jesus calls us His sheep and Himself the “Good Shepherd.” If we hear His voice (Holy Spirit), we are known by Him and we follow Him. It is such a blessing to know that nobody can “snatch us from His or His Father's hand.”

We are not only in Jesus' hand, but at the same time we are in Father God's hand. There is no one higher or more powerful than the Lord in the whole Universe, and we are protected in His hand, so we will make it to heaven and be there with God forever! What a marvelous gift! What an amazing promise! Because He created us with free will, if we would choose to leave Him, He would let us go. It is up to us and only us, to accept Him and stay with Him or not. The Lord wants us to make it, to be able to defeat any of the devil's attacks and overcome any hardships caused by our own bad decisions or even by our enemies. Father God wants us to be able to fight the good fight, to keep the faith and finish the race as Paul did.

• 2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good (worthy, honorable, and noble) fight, I have finished the race, I have kept (firmly held) the faith. [As to what remains] henceforth there is laid up for me the [victor's] crown of righteousness [for being right with God and doing right], which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me and recompense me on that [great] day—and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved and yearned for and welcomed His appearing (His return).

Carmen Pușcaș