Everybody knows the little song, "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." But does the Father also love us? And did He love us before Jesus died for us? YES! "God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . ..." (John 3:16). If He so loved us BEFORE Jesus died for us, then was He reconciled to us BEFORE Jesus died? YES! Did the sacrifice of Jesus reconcile the heart of the Father to us? No, for He was already in a state of being reconciled to us, not that any change in Him was at any time necessary. This reconciliation of the Father to us was not accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus. The correct word to say is that the sacrifice of Jesus demonstrated the fact of His already being reconciled to us (Rom. 5:6-11, 15-21). So let us delete the word "accomplished" by the cross and substitute the right word, which is "demonstrated" there.
But what does this actually mean to us? And what does it mean to the souls for whom we pray and to whom we want to witness? It means that the Father has no chip on His shoulder against anyone personally; He loves "all men," even "the world," sinful as it is. It follows therefore that God treats every person as though he/she were righteous, even though he/she is not. God loves the person, but He still hates the sin; but the sinner (that's everybody) must learn to believe that the Father loves him just as much as the Son loves him, and the Father loves him as much as He loved His Son (!!). But the Father loves the sinner so much that He wants to separate him from the sin--which otherwise will actually kill him/her. But the problem is that the sinner (that's everybody) loves the sin; how can we be separated from that which we have been born and bred to love? The answer: at the cross--where the Son of God built that bridge across the dark chasm of our alienation from God. He also suffered alienation from His Father when He cried out on the cross, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). No sinner ever felt such horror of separation from God as did Jesus in that hour! He was "made to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). Now the message of the cross says to us, "You be reconciled to God!" (5:20). The Father has proven His reconciliation to us; now let the truth melt our stony hearts. --Robert J. Wieland--
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