Compelling Love

(Photo credit: http://olusamuels2.blogspot.com/2012/11/gods-eternal-love.html)

God’s love for the whole world is declared in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  He is not willing that any should perish, as 2 Peter 3:9 declares: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 

Jesus came to share with people of every nation the eternal love and glory He had with the Father before the world was made:

John 17
²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Luke 2 describes how an angel of the Lord came to announce the Savior’s birth to shepherds living out in the fields – “good tidings of great joy which will be to all people”:

Luke 2
Glory in the Highest
⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

A just and devout man named Simeon described the salvation, light and glory that Jesus would bring both to Israel and to the nations:

Luke 2
Simeon Sees God’s Salvation
²⁵ And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, ²⁸ he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

²⁹ “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation
³¹ Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
³² A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:9-10, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus came not to bring us to heaven, but to reconcile heaven and earth,
as pastor and teacher Joshua Ryan Butler explains:

“God’s purpose in Jesus is not to get us out of earth and into heaven, but to reconcile heaven and earth from the destructive power of sin. To redeem creation to himself.”

“Jesus became fully human in our flesh and walked our dust; he lived the life we couldn’t live and embodied the kingdom he proclaimed; he took our sin, corruption, and death into himself on the cross and was raised victorious as the beginning of a glorified humanity in a reconciled earth. Jesus conquered the power of hell to reconcile creation to God.”

”God’s purpose is to create through his own eternal, holy life a multi-ethnic, international body from every nation, tribe, and tongue, constituted by worship in relation to himself and communion in relation to one another. God is on a mission to heal the nations.”

[The Skeletons in God’s Closet: The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War (pp. 101, 102, 126). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition]

Revelation 21 describes the new heaven and new earth which will be the fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose for Creation:

Revelation 21
¹ Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. ² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Those who have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ are new creations, ministers of reconciliation, and ambassadors for Christ:

2 Corinthians 5
¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/  12/18/2016