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Eric Aboadwe
August 22, 2017 ·

GOD’S EVERLASTING LOVE

Our Scripture reading for this New Day is taken from Jeremiah where God says:

“The LORD has appeared of old to me saying: “Yes, I have LOVED you with an EVERLASTING LOVE; Therefore with LOVINGKINDNESS I have DRAWN you. Again I will BUILD you, and you shall be REBUILT...” (Jeremiah 31:3-4a).

When we read God’s wonderful and touching words which He declare to us, then we will agree with David when he said, “Oh, give THANKS to the LORD, for He is good. For His mercy endures forever. Let the REDEEMED of the LORD say so, whom He has REDEEMED from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, from east and from the west, from north and from the south” (Psalm 107:1-3).

After THE FALL OF MAN, it was appointed for all men to “die once” and face the ETERNAL punishment and JUDGMENT of hell (Hebrews 9:27). However when God looked at human beings who were “created in His IMAGE and LIKENESS” (Genesis 1:26), He could not simply sit down and remain unconcerned for man to PERISH in his “transgression.”

Therefore His “EVERLASTING LOVE” propelled Him to “make Himself of no reputation, taking the form of BONDSERVANT” (Philippians 2:7), and coming in the “likeness” of our “sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). The Lord God Almighty did this out of His “EVERLASTING LOVE” for us, so that as we have partaken of FLESH and BLOOD, He Himself “Shared in the SAME, that He might destroy him who had the power of DEATH, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

To achieve this, the LORD accepted “the SIN of the world” upon Himself through His water baptism, died and resurrected. And by doing this, JESUS the Mighty Savior “Disarmed principalities and powers” and “Made a public spectacle of them, TRIUMPHING over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

This is the SALVATION which God achieved for us through JESUS CHRIST our LORD. Therefore when God says in our Scripture reading that, “Yes, I have LOVED you with an EVERLASTING LOVE; Therefore with LOVINGKINDNESS I have DRAWN you,” We must know exactly what God is talking about here. The word “DRAWN” means “to pull something out.”

Therefore when God says “I have drawn you,” it means we had actually SANK deep in SIN, but the moment JESUS bore our SINS upon Himself and went down into the WATERS of Jordan and coming “OUT” of it in His “RESURRECTION,” God “DRAWN” us from SIN.

When you “DRAWN” something, you either pull it through the ARM (hand) with a rope or anything that can serve that purpose. Therefore when JESUS pulled the SINKING SINNERS “OUT” of SIN through His baptism, death and resurrection, it was God’s “ARM” (JESUS CHRIST) which “brought Him SALVATION.”

That’s why God said in Isaiah, “Therefore My own ARM (JESUS CHRIST) brought SALVATION for Me” (Isaiah 63:5). This means that God works through His own “ARM” to pull us “OUT” from SIN, and this “ARM” is JESUS CHRIST. This is the reason why King David said, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song! For He has done MARVELOUS things; His RIGHT HAND and His HOLY ARM have gained Him the VICTORY” (Psalm 98:1).

Every Christian must therefore know that “VICTORY” over SIN is not by their own might or power of determination to obey the LAW of Moses, but rather it is through the “RIGHT HAND” and the “HOLY ARM” of God (JESUS CHRIST) who gave us the “VICTORY” over SIN. It was God’s “EVERLASTING LOVE” which propelled Him to “ACT” through JESUS our Lord for this wonderful SALVATION.

Therefore when the Apostle says that “Even so through one Man’s RIGHTEOUS ACT the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:18), we must know that he is talking about the “HOLY ARM” of JESUS which pulled us “OUT” of SIN through His water, blood, and resurrection. It was not by our own “acts” of obeying the “LAW,” but it was one Man’s “RIGHTEOUS ACT” of pulling us out of the dungeon of “hell” which enabled the “free gift” of SALVATION to come to all men.

Many Christians do not understand SALVATION, therefore God used so many definitions of the same kind to teach us exactly what SALVATION is about. Through our Scripture reading in Jeremiah, God is telling us that SALVATION is His own “ACT” that “DRAWN” us or pulled us “OUT” from the sea of SIN.

This is God’s “EVERLASTING LOVE” for the humankind, and He said He did it with “LOVINGKINDNESS.” When God says “I have DRAWN you,” it means “I have SAVED you.” There is a saying that “A DROWNING man cannot SAVE himself.” But many religious people believe in doctrines which tells them to SAVE themselves.

We must know that our own ARM which is “the works of the LAW” (Romans 3:20) cannot give us SALVATION or the “justification of life.” The PULLING work was done by JESUS CHRIST, and we just have to BELIEVE in what He has done and give him all the glory, the praise, and the adoration.

In our Scripture reading, God also said that, “Again I will BUILD you, and you shall be REBUILT.” Therefore let us put it at the back of our minds that we cannot “BUILD” ourselves through the “deeds of the LAW.” Those who attempt to “BUILD” themselves by their own “deeds” have “fallen from GRACE” (Galatians 5:4), and God will destroy them unless they repent.

We must understand that when God says “You shall be REBUILT,” He is talking about the “RESTORATION” of the formal dominion which we lost through our ancestor “Adam.” But JESUS is the “Word,” and God spoke the “Word” saying, “I will BUILD you, and you shall be REBUILT.” This is the God-Man who said, “Let there be light and there was light” (Genesis 1:3), but many Christians do not believe in His “Word” for him to “REBUILT” them.

But King David has something to tell those who want to “REBUILT” themselves. He said, “UNLESS the LORD builds the house, they LABOUR in VAIN who BUILD it...” (Psalm 127:1). Therefore if God says “I will BUILD you, and you shall be REBUILT,” and you reject His Words by tying to “LABOUR” through the “LAW” to “BUILD” yourself, the Word of God says that you will “LABOUR in VAIN.”

But those who understand God’s “EVERLASTING LOVE” will enter into God’s “REST,” and they will also “CEASED from” their “WORKS as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:9-10).

BLESSED are such people.