Faith is Loving God Back

It’s something we have to choose to do.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I have described True Love as coming from God. It is a part of his nature. It is built into the fabric of the universe He created and is behind God’s declared laws like the Ten Commandments and every other instruction he provides us for our best good.

I have also pointed out (and it certainly is not original with me) that True Love pursues the object of his love within certain self-imposed restrictions in order to always permit free choice. This is the permission of the Beloved to reject God’s love and strike out on her or his own. We need look no further than Adam and Eve choosing to disobey God’s clear instructions to see that (1) God accepts their decision to disobey, (2) their disobedience sets up a chain of horrific events, and (3) God changes his strategy on how he can pursue people trapped behind enemy lines.

This, by the way, describes quite well where we live. No longer does he walk physically with us as he did in the garden until the time of Christ. That’s when Jesus the God-man once again walked on earth among people like us. And some accepted him by faith and others did not, on down to today.

Photo by Tan Kaninthanond on Unsplash

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Matthew 4:23-25 (ESV)

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Matthew 27:24-25 (ESV)