Indescribable

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever has faith in Him will not perish, but possess everlasting life."

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelled among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father's only son, full of grace and truth."

We must understand, especially in this Christmas season, that the world in which we live is damaged and broken. We know it is broken because we see the pain and hardship of people we know. And as time and life progress, we begin to experience the various pains of our existence. We see unjust governments exploiting the poor, women devalued sexually, people dying because they do not have simple remedies to common ills, women murdering babies because they are inconvenient, society pocketing the weak because they cannot support themselves, and many other injustices that may come to mind as you read this list. And then, we are left to examine ourselves. We see that we are unable to love and protect the ones dearest to us from our selfishness; that is, we see that we cannot reach even a reasonable standard of human decency. We sow division, discord, hatred, disrespect for parents, envy, impurity of all sorts, anger, greed, and sexual immorality. We emanate coldness to others from the coldness that resides within our hearts. The world is moving a profound rate of what is opposite to love and is quickly heaping up a massive reward. All of this is based on the fact that we have within us, when we are born, an inward inclination towards doing what is evil. This in an of itself separates us from life given by God and condemns us to the judgement of eternity. When we stand in the day of our death, we will have to give an answer for how we have failed in this life - why we have participated in damaging others and ourselves. We will have no reason that is adequate to excuse ourselves from being rewarded the consequences of our faults. God's judgement is simply receiving what you have lived in your life, so none of us can stand naked before the unraveling of our days and say that we have received some injustice from His hand. The most distinctive way to put together the revealed person of God as given by Scriptures, is to say that He is the Holy, Loving, and Consuming Fire that has burned bright for eternity past, present, and future. Because He is all of this and man is made in this image, man will stand before him and be judged according to the pattern being shown forth from his heart, and into his life. Therefore, we are all condemned to receive eternal punishment for being who we are, and living that apart from life.

Because man is enslaved at his birth to a cycle of sin and death, God poured Himself out completely in order to establish a pattern of life for humanity, restoration of man from His brokenness, and perfection of a right relationship of man with God (faith). In the sacrifice of Jesus, grace and truth have been poured out fully upon man for his salvation. In other words, these things have been medicinally applied to the heart of man in order that he may be restored and completed by God. Thus man may know that God loves him: God gave everything up, even limited Himself, in order to be with us, know us, and heal us. The profound God of the ages who cannot be approached by any man needs to walk with us, experience life with us, and make us a true people for our good and His glory. He has met us in the brokenness of who we are in Jesus, and in Jesus alone can we live in peace and completion. Because of God's need to interact with man, Jesus gave Himself over in death to place an eternally continuous life into the hands of mankind. We now have no fear of perishing before God because God has given us a good faith and made us possessors of everlasting life.

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"