"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly ... God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6,8).
While we were spiritually dead, cut off from God, with no spiritual purity or strength, God manifested redemption.
Jesus came forth in the body of a human, in the designated fullness of time, to bring redemption for those that came before him and to those that came during or after his time on earth.
God, the Father, demonstrated his personal love for mankind when he sent Jesus in the form of a servant.
God demonstrated his personal love for you when he sent the Holy Spirit into you at your new birth.
Jesus didn't die for godly people, he died for the ungodly.
You've not been merely declared legally godly by the Supreme Court of Heaven, you've been literally rendered holy and godly by the very life of Heaven that now resides in you.
Since God gave Jesus up for you when you had no relationship with him, how can he hold anything back from you now that you are a member of his family?
You're not merely a member of God's family by association, you're a member by transformation!
God highly favored us even when we were spiritually dead, and he engineered our redemption for his personal desire to be in fellowship, friendship and membership with us.
With the favor of God to us, with us, in us, for us and through us, how can we not succeed in this life?
We've already succeeded in eternity, as kings and priests unto the Lord in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus, and as children of God eternally!
We have the life of God, the love of God, the spirit of God, the grace of God, the nature of God and joy and peace of God, and the authority of God's Word: How can we settle for being defeated or depressed?
Now that he is your (heavenly) father, God has only good and perfect gifts for you, his child!
You are accepted by God, approved by him, adopted by him and have full and free access to him: You are more than a conqueror in life and eternity!
Christopher Longgrear (D.Min., Ph.D.) of Fresh Fire Ministries International is senior pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Marietta, Parkersburg and Athens. Thoughts of Faith is a weekly column written by various ministers and lay people. Those interested in scheduling a date for writing a Thoughts of Faith column should contact Janet Gossett at 376-5446 or jgossett@mariettatimes.com. Or, if a Thoughts of Faith column is written at the writer's convenience and sent to The Times, it will run the first available date.
