For those of you who like love stories, and second chances, you will want to read this incredible love story. It is a little lengthy, but it’s the greatest love story ever told! God created the heavens and the Earth and everything that is in them, and He saw that it was good. Because everything worked just the way He programmed it to work. Then He created humans, in His own image, and gave them free will. He loved them and gave them free will because He wanted them to choose for themselves to love Him, not just because He programmed them to.
Example: A guy programmed his computer to say “I love you Daddy” whenever he walked into the room, and it did so. The same guy had a child who truly loved him, and would look him in the eyes whenever he entered the room and say “I love you Daddy.” Which one do you think affected the guy’s heart the most? In the same way as this guy made his computer say and do what he commanded, so God made all the rest of His creation. All the animals, the plants, the trees, the oceans, the earth, and the entire universe obey the commands God gave them. They have all been obeying Him perfectly for thousands of years. So He has plenty of programmed worship. He desired for the beings He made to look like Himself to make their own choice to love Him.
So He created a heavenly place for them on the earth and provided them with everything they needed, and He walked with them and talked with them in the Spirit. His desire was that they would choose to love Him also, because He knew if they loved Him they would also do what He tells them. So He gave them one command, and told them the consequences for disobedience was death. They didn’t have a problem keeping that command, until they were tempted to question God’s word. Satan told them a secret on how to become like God (which was a lie). But in order to receive what he promised, they had to disobey God’s command. With that temptation they had to make a decision, whose word would they believe? God had put in them a desire to be more like their Father, just like to this day He puts into every child’s heart to want to be like their daddy. So their desire to be more like God was not a bad thing. The real verdict was, whose word would they believe? We know the story, they chose badly. They chose to believe the deceivers word over the word of their Father who created them and gave them life. Their bad choice had staggering consequences!
Not only did they die spiritual death that day, they would now also have to die a physical death, because God in his mercy didn’t want them to stay in that horrible state for eternity. Because they chose to believe Satan’s word over God’s, they were now doomed to go with Satan to hell. It was the most hopeless day of all time for the human race. Why didn’t they just believe God? He had such great and awesome plans for them! God’s heart was broken. He had given His beloved creation free will so they would love Him by their own choice, but they chose to not believe Him and believed Satan instead, who was God’s enemy, and had already received his sentence for his rebellion against God. Because he had lost the battle against God and had already received his sentence, Satan was extremely angry at God, and jealous of the humans that they were loved by God. So now Satan in his cunning craftiness had gotten the humans to side with him over God, and by doing so also stole dominion over the whole world and everything in it, because God had given man dominion over the earth. It was a dark day, with absolutely no hope for the human race. They had chosen death instead of life.
God still loved the humans even though they had made this horrendous mistake, because He made them in His own image, and He was not willing to let them all perish with Satan. He wanted to give them another chance to choose life, but He had already told them if they disobey Him, the consequences would be death for them. Because God is a just God, he cannot simply overlooked error. He has to deal with it the way it was established. So how could He possibly give them another chance, since the verdict was disobedience equals death?…… It had to be death.
So the Son of God being full of love and mercy, seeing the heart wrenching sadness of His Father, and also not being willing that all people would be lost, said, “I will go and die for them. I will pay the price for their sin, so that You can dwell with them forever.” But the law of the Father was, it was the humans who committed the crime, so the humans have to pay the penalty. So They devised a plan. God would send the Son by the Holy Spirit and impregnate a human virgin, and she would carry His seed and bear Him a Son born of a human. So the Son of God would now also be the son of a human, which qualified Him to be the sacrifice for the sins of humans. He would live His life on earth without sin and carry out all the commandments of God without fault, and then give His life as a sacrifice, even unto death, to pay the penalty for the sins of all humanity. “But since humans have free will, what if they still choose to listen to Satan and You suffer all that and die for nothing?”….. was the question. “Surely at least some will repent and love You more than Satan,” said the Son. “Even if only one of them chooses You, I am willing to do it for You Father.”
The Father was very pleased with the Son for being willing to make a way for the humans He loved so much to come to Him, and promised the Son that He would then raise Him back to life and bring Him back into heaven. He would make the Son a throne right next to His by His right hand, to be the High Priest and advocate for all humans. The deal was signed and sealed, and the promise of a Savior was given to Adam and Eve and their offspring. Now there was a second chance! God taught Adam and Eve that whoever believed this promise of a Savior would need to do a sacrifice with an animal that had no blemish or defect, to show that they believe His promise. So from that time forward everyone who chose to love God made an effort to obey God, and made the sacrifices as He commanded, believing that the ultimate Sacrifice, the promised Savior would pay for their disobedience and sins against God. This was in effect until God did send the Son as the Savior like He promised, who lived His life on this earth without sin, and then gave His righteous life as a sacrifice to pay for the price of the sins of humans.
Jesus Christ the Son of God did come and fulfill that promise, to release us from the bondage and slavery of Satan. He is the only Savior of man kind! Jesus said that whoever loves the Father and believes in Him as the Savior, He would give eternal life. This eternal life does not start when we die physically. But whenever we choose to believe in Jesus and surrender our life to Him, He gives us eternal life. John 11:25-26, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” This is a mystery, and seems like foolishness to those who don’t believe. It can only be understood by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor. 2:14, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are discerned only through the Spirit. Unless we choose to open our mind to God and what He wants to tell us, we will never understand, and we will perish in our sins even though the penalty has already been paid.
When we realize that we have been disobedient to God and that there is no way we can save ourselves from the consequences of that sin, which is eternal damnation, and then hear how much God loves us, and to what great lengths He went to make a way for us to be united with Him, the Holy Spirit draws us to come closer. If we heed His beckoning and open our mind and heart to learn more, He will teach us many things. Whenever we choose to believe God, and put our faith in Jesus Christ, He will take our burden of sin and cast it away, because He has already paid the price for it. Now when we repent from our rebellion of being disobedient to God, and surrender our life to Jesus Christ making Him the Lord of it, He puts His Holy Spirit in our heart and gives us eternal life. When we surrender our screwed up life to Him and He exchanges it with His Holy life, it becomes possible for the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts, because we have the heart of Christ which is pure. Gal. 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
He then seals it with the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us in Heb. 13:5, and when this earthly body dies His Spirit will carry our spirit to the presence of the Father as one of His. 2 Cor. 1:22 “who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” That is what Jesus was talking about when He said, unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. Jn. 3:3 ‘Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” When we were born it was this physical body of ours that was born. The second birth is a spiritual birth. Jn. 3:5-6 ‘Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the physical birth) and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” If we are not born of the Holy Spirit, we are still in our sin, and will have to pay the penalty for it. Romans 8:9 –But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. The only way we can be born of the Holy Spirit is if we don’t have sin. And the only way we don’t have sin is if we believe, and accept the sacrifice that Jesus paid for our sins, and surrender to Him as our Lord.
So if you desire to know more about being born again, let’s walk through this together.(1) Do you believe God? If you believe God, that means you believe everything that He has said in His word, including Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And Romans 6:23, the penalty for sin is death.(2) Did you know God loves you, and went to that extent to make a way for you to be with Him?(3) Do you love God? 1st John 5:3 says if you love God you will obey His commands. This is a pretty good indication as to whether you love him or not.(4) Who is going to pay for your Disobedience to God? You or Jesus?
If you choose to pay for it yourself, you will do so, and spend eternity in hell with Satan. If you want the price that Jesus paid for your sin to apply to your life, there are a few things that you need to understand. If you want His atonement for your sins, you will need to give up (or surrender) your life to Him in exchange for His righteousness. You cannot continue to live your life as you please, and receive His righteous life (redemption). You have to be willing to give up your agenda and be willing to be obedient to His. 2 Timothy 2:11, –For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him. He never said He would repair our life and make it better, but that He would transform our life by giving us a new life in Him, by His Holy Spirit. Only those who confess their sins and are willing to repent from them, (remember the free will) and give up their life to Him and honor Him as their Lord will He give the new life, eternal life. Gal. 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Just like in the beginning God’s desire is still that we choose to love Him. His desire is to live with every ones of us forever after. He knows that if we choose to love Him we will also believe in the sacrifice of His Son for the penalty for our disobedience to Him, and take advantage of the second chance He gave us. I’m sure Satan has cried “Foul,” and “It’s not fair!” But I’m glad that liar and hater doesn’t get to make the rules for me. I have a loving Father who created me and saved me from my own folly by the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, who gets to say what happens with me, because I have given myself to Him to be His slave! He loves me, and I love Him. I am grateful for a second chance!
If we choose to forfeit the beckoning of such unfathomable love yet again, our loving Creator has no choice but to honor our decision to spend eternity in hell with Satan, because He will not violate our free will that He gave us. Think about your choices today. Have you been lied to like Eve, and caused to question God’s Word? Have you been promised fulfillment in something other than in God Himself? If you have, you’ve been lied to, whether you realize it yet or not. If you haven’t done so yet, choose life today! Don’t continue to choose death! Your choices matter! They make a difference in this life, and for your life ever after. By Eli Lee
