Oh! How He loves us

Oh, How He Loves Us!

Pre sin
When were we the closes to God?  The most like Him in character – blameless, righteous, in relationship with and totally reliant on God?
 In the Garden of Eden. –
 God, after creating everything including man, saw all that He had made and it was very good.  Genesis 1:31
 Adam had 1 commandment.  Genesis 2:16-17
 The lie of the enemy that if they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, “they would be just like God” – Genesis 3:1-5

Post Sin
With the eating of that fruit, came separation between God and man – Adam, Eve and God.  No longer were they blameless, righteous or totally reliant on God. –  Their character became ungodly with that one act of disobedience, their intimacy with God was broken.
 Immediately, they made coverings for themselves in order to hide their shame. (prior: Genesis 2:25).- Genesis 3:7-8. 
 They hid from God out of fear Genesis 2:9-10 (but we were not given a spirit of fear) 2 Timothy 1:7. 
 They cast blame on each other – Genesis 3:11-13.

Three of our biggest struggles in life right now when we live for ourselves, are:
1. We lean to our own understanding which is evil – Proverbs 3:5- 8
2. We want to be God, the lord of our own lives  Romans 8:5-8, (Who is god/God Head Trinity in your life? Is it “me, myself and I” or is it God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit?
3. We naturally hide from the One true and living God, hating the Light for fear that our evil deeds will be exposed.
John 3:19-20

What Wondrous Love is This
 God so loved the world - John 3:16
Easter or Resurrection Day
We focus on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. 
This is so important to us as Christians, about to the Almighty Power of God and the fact that we do not serve a dead God. Acts 2:22-24,  1 Corinthians 6:14
 We indeed serve a risen Christ!  God’s not dead, He’s surely alive!!!
Yet… we somehow slide past the love of God poured out on us through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Every offering that God established in the Old Testament was fulfilled through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 

 *Unintentional Sin Offering: The world says, “What you don’t know, won’t hurt you.”  The Word of God tells us, that statement is not true.  Hosea 4:6 – My people die for lack of knowledge, Leviticus 5:17
 While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us - Romans 5:6-11
 Only God Himself was perfect, without blemish, able to fulfill the wage of sin.  He became our Passover Lamb – John 1:29, 36; 1 Peter 1:18-19
 The wages of sin are death – Romans 6:20-23
 Though He is the Son of God, Jesus, God, Emmanual (God with us) – Matthew 1:18-25 – when stepping into humanity, He did not consider Himself equal with God – Phil 2:5-8
 Though the devil tried to tempt Jesus with the same type of lie, Jesus did not step into his trap the way Adam and Eve did  – If you are the Son of God…Matthew 4:1-10
 The Lord Jesus Christ was called forth by God to bring justice and deliver us from darkness .  Isaiah 42:1-9
 He rescued us from the domain of darkness - Colossians 1:13-14
 He was marred more than any man – Deut 25:1-3 / Isaiah 52:14 NLT / Matthew 26:57-68, Matthew 27:1-2, Matthew 27:27-31 NLT.
 Then they made Him carry His own cross and crucified Him on it. Yet, as He hung on the cross He said, “Father, forgive them… Luke 23:34
 He bore our grief’s, sorrows and transgressions Isaiah 52:13 – Isaiah 53:12 NLT
 God loved us and sent His Son as propitiation / payment for our sin – 1 John 4:9-10
 We are now reconciled back to God the Father as Adam and Eve once were in the Garden of Eden - 2 Cor 5:16-19
 You are precious in My sight, honored and I love you - Isaiah 43:1-7