Who or What – Part 1

The important question people need to ask themselves is this, “Who or what am I?”

There are a lot of people today who have the impression that God loves each of us.  That impression is true, but not in the way the vast majority of people think.  People have also been known to say that Jesus accepts each of us just as we are.  That is also true, but again not in the way the vast majority of people think.  Still, others feel that there is a contradiction between an all-loving, all-accepting God and a God Who would send people to a literal Hell.  That would also seem to be true, except that it isn’t.  The reason there seems to be such a contradiction is that people misunderstand the application of two words which make all the difference between these two ‘conflicting’ Gods, which some people perceive as irreconcilable.  Those two all-important words are who and what.  In God’s eyes, there is a substantial difference between who someone is and what someone is.

Matt 7:21-23

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!   (NKJV)

God loves each of us because, first of all, He is love (1 John 4:7-8).  He loves each of us because we are made in His image (Genesis 1:26), and in a physical sense we are His sons and daughters.  From the highest of the high to the lowest of the low, rich or poor, black or white, male or female; God loves each of us because we are His offspring.  He does not care about what you have or don’t have, or what your political leanings are.  Regarding His love, He does not care about what you’ve done (either good or bad) or not done (either good or bad).  He loves you because you are a human being.  The best news of all is that His love never stops; His love never fails.  You can’t earn it by being good enough, and you can’t stop it by being bad enough. The real problem is that we have been separated from God due to Adam’s sin. We inherited the nature of rebellion when Adam (not Eve!) chose through disobedience to follow Satan instead of God. This is called the similitude of Adam’s sin. When he made that choice he divorced human nature from godliness (God’s nature). Not only that, he effectively forever changed the nature of every single human being born after him – men and women alike. As human beings, we are all separated from the nature of God.  The Bible refers to this spiritual separation as sin, which is a nature apart from the life and nature of God and godliness.  Because of this separation, we have assumed the nature of God’s enemy, Lucifer. His nature is one of rebellion, deceit, lust and self-centeredness. It is a sin-nature, which is who we are. Why do you think you don’t have to teach someone to lie? Why do people get so mad that they become capable of murder? How about stealing? Abusing authority or power in order to exert that strength over others? You get the idea. All these character flaws originate from a life apart from God and His nature, which is who we are – ALL of us.

This is Part One of a multi-part series. Keep an eye out for the next installment!