A Vessel Unto Honour

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 

This verse has been so widely used that almost everyone knows it, Christians and non Christians alike.  The key to this is that God so loved the world, that He GAVE his son.  Many unbelievers see the God in the old testament as a tyrant with no mercy on those who rebel;  but this could not be further from the truth.  When we look back before He flooded the earth we can see what His heart was, though mans wickedness had gotten so far out of hand, that all the thoughts of a man’s heart was only evil all the time.

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Genesis 6:5+6

Observe that God’s heart is first filled with grief, not anger or rage but sincere regret.  This same God who gave us the ten commandments, which when obeyed would be perfect love in action, had a plan to redeem man from the very beginning, starting over with Noah and his family.

This gift is free because it does not require anything on our part but to believe and receive.  We must believe Jesus for who he claims to be and receive the gift of salvation.

“For the wages of sin is death;  but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord.”

Romans 6:23

We inherited the sin nature through Adam’s bad decision thus we are born into sinful flesh. (See sin nature in children)  In order to be freed from our sinful nature we must be born again.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3 

We need to come to the end of ourselves and accept the free gift of the Holy Spirit.

“But not as the offense, so also is the free gift.  For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many.  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift:  For the judgement was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.  For if by one mans offence death reigned by one;  much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.  Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation;  even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto the justification of life.  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:  that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our lord.”

Romans 5:15-21

As Adam has passed on the sin nature to us and we are prone to sin, so through our being born again and accepting the free gift of Christ in us, we can live a new life free from the old nature. Jesus is God’s free gift to us and His faith and righteousness is granted to us by God’s love.  It is a free gift because God expects nothing in return but to embrace his Son and in so doing you obey God.

“And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life:  and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:40