ALL INCLUDED

Today I am posting a question that Neil asked Bruce on his web site recently and I will try and put my views after the question and other’s views are welcome of course as always.

This is further to Neil’s first question which I posted here on September 12, 2006. The following is the question and my comment follows.

 Good Evening Bruce

Once again, many thanks for your answer to my question about falling in love with God. I’m sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I haven’t been sure how to answer you. I really enjoyed your answer and have read it over and over again….I mentioned, in an email recently to Roy, that much of this teaching, I am having real trouble accepting. Some of it, ok, lots of it, is going completely opposite to what I have been taught/learnt in church and small groups and while I am never completely closed minded, some things I find so hard to accept or embrace. But, the one thing I have found these past three weeks or so, is how i am being drawn into wanting to know more and more about what people like yourself and Roy has to say on this topic. While my head is saying “no, it cannot be truth”, I find myself continually being drawn back, wanting to know more and more. And the one biggest influence drawing me back, is the life of peace and certainty that you seem to have and the view you have of our Father and how he views us. I have never had a problem accepting God is love and how much he loves us, but I have always feared that he is waiting with a big club, ready to whack us when we continually foul up.I hope you don’t mind me asking you one more question.

In your answer, you said that we have to wait to be drawn into Gods love. If all mankind is saved, do we all know Gods love already and in that case, just waiting and being drawn in, to understand it more fully? Hope you know what I mean here, as I sometimes have trouble trying to explain myself in the way I wish.Thank you so much Bruce for your time and answers.

Neil.

My Comment

I don’t think we have to be drawn into God’s love as such because God’s love is complete and never changes and is already resident in us. He shed His love abroad into our hearts a long time ago when He brought us into Christ which of course was at the cross. Another thing I will address here Neil is that all men are not “saved”. The word saved always refers to the salvation of the soul (mind, will, emotions) which is the process of the renewing of the mind.

All mankind is redeemed as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. If He didn’t redeem the entire human race at that time then there is something wrong with that verse or God failed at what He sent His Son to do. As the renewing of the mind happens in our lives of course we begin to understand God’s love better and better. Do we all know God’s love? No, sad to say we don’t. Is it already resident in us? Absolutely because the Godhead dwells in us as we are His temple.

One very important thing to remember here is that beginning to understand the things of God like His redemption, salvation, perfection, holiness etc is not something that comes inside of us when we hear it from someone or even when God reveals it to us. When we hear it, it activates something that is already in us. We must remember that a revelation of Jesus Christ is a revelation of someone that is already in us as well as in all of mankind. All the revelation does is reveal something to us that is already there and this revelation simply draws it out.

So to be drawn into God’s love would mean to me that love is drawn from my spirit where God dwells and placed into my heart (soul, mind, will, emotions) which begins to give me an understanding of what is already in me which of course in this case is His love. To understand it more fully simply means I am getting a better understanding of it and my whole outlook on myself, others etc does a dramatic change.

Try to remember that the fullness of God’s love is already resident in you Neil and as you experience His salvation more and more, then your understanding is enlightened and you begin to see what is already in you. One thing I know is that Gos is not waiting for anyone with a big club. All judgment was placed upon Christ and God is no longer angry at anyone. He took His wrath out on His Son on our behalf. That is the awesome reality of the cross. That is a love that we can never fully comprehend but nevertheless very true reagardless of what we believe or know about it.

If I have not explained what I mean plainly please let me know Neil and I will try and explain further. One thing I know is that it was an excellent question and deserves an explanation.

In His Grace and Peace.

Roy 

One thing I have learned recently is that what we know of God is not something that comes from the outside in.

When we hear the Gospel of Grace and Peace it is something that simply activates something in us that is already there. To preach this Gospel to people is not trying to get them to receive something and say a prayer or go to an altar call. It is telling them what is already in them as God dwells in all. I know that as we look around us we may not see that in everyone but it is none the less there. I am learning more and more that when I look at the word of God it is not that I am trying to understand God because that is never possible. The Bible is about how God looks at us and not about how we look at God. He looks at us the same way He looks at Jesus…this is my beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased. God is no longer angry at anyone.