The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Café…
"The Most Important Relationship"
Part 2 - Through the Lens of Christ
The relationship between God the Father and God the Son is paramount in our lives because the Father relates to all who believe through the person, work, and merits of His Son.
"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (I Corinthians 1:3).
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4:9).
I have often teased congregations at venues where we conduct services that I know they only let me enter and participate because Frances is with me (I think I'm teasing!). Be that as it may, it does illustrate the truth that God receives and relates to us according to who Christ is more than who we are. The Father sees born again believers as spiritually united to His Son and enrobed in Christ's righteousness. "Through Him we have access by faith into this grace where we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2). God forgave and forgives us because of Christ. He spiritually birthed us because of Christ. He abides with us evermore because of Christ. He answers prayer because of Christ. He empowers us to trust and obey because of Christ. He will receive us into our Heavenly eternity because of Christ. We could go on and on, and we will forever go on and on in the light of the relationship between the Father and the Son that forms the center and circumference of our own relationship with God.
"For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).
So long as the love between God the Father and God the Son abides strong and steadfast, believers will be secure in God's love for us. Indeed, by a significant measure, it is more important that we know God loves His Son than it is He loves us. The Father relates to us by Christ, in Christ, and through Christ. This does not preclude His personal devotion and working in our hearts and lives based on who we are and how we respond to Him. However, His devotion and working regarding the Lord Jesus are always primary in His focus. He sees us through lens of Christ, as it were, and we must see ourselves accordingly. Because the most important relationship in our lives is the love of the Father for the Son, and the love of the Son for the Father, as revealed by the Holy Spirit to us and within us. No thought should more fill us with joy, assurance, and the prospect of God's devotion revealed to us in this day and forevermore.
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one… I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:20-22; 26).
Weekly Memory Verse
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulcher. But God raised Him from the dead.
(Acts 13:29-30)
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