1. Relationship:
It is like what a famous Chinese author Bing Xin wrote,
冰心： "妈妈，你为什么这么爱我？"
Bing Xin said, "Mom, why do you love me so much?"
妈妈回答说：”不因为什么，只是你是我的女儿。“
Her mother replied, "There is no any other reason than it is just because you are my daughter."
It is unconditional and eternal.
2. Performance Base:
We heard often, and we are likely to do the same as well, parents telling their children, "If you behave well, study well,... then we will love you."
妈妈会跟孩子说：”你要有好行为，成绩要好， 要乖乖。。。妈妈才爱你。“
You have to earn the love or favor. It is actually a business transaction. A transactional relationship that depends on performance and hence it is not eternal but temporary. You are loved as long as you perform well.
God's love for us is the first kind - based on the relationship of Creator and Created (giving birth to us) and it is unconditional and eternal.
1. We are created in God's image.
Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."
2. We are predestined to be with Him as His Children before the foundation of the earth
Eph 1:4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.
Eph 1:5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.
3. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:8 But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
4. We don't have to do anything except to believe and receive Jesus.
Love cannot be forced on people. It is venerable. It can be received or rejected.
John 3:16 "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:18 "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
The Gospel is not to make people good but to make dead people alive.
Col 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
We are born on earth, in a state that is separated from God. We must be rebirthed as God's children in order to have a close relationship with God.
A parrot can speak like a man but is still a parrot. Man can whistle like a parrot but he is a man. Man can have parrots as pets but the relationship cannot be intimate. So Jesus Christ needs to come first as a man to communicate with men and then died for men's sins and be resurrected and give new life to men born now by the Holy Spirit as children of God; the same kind as God to have close fellowship with God.
May you embark on a journey to discover the truth and reap the benefits.
Lim Liat (c) 13 Nov 2018
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