Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, lived in absolute bliss. God placed them in paradise and no good thing was withheld from them. The Book of Genesis, chapter 1 tells us that Adam disobeyed God’s Word. He bowed to the devil and rejected God’s sovereignty. This was a mistake on a cataclysmic level. After the fall of Adam and Eve, human beings, by their own choice, became slaves to the kingdom of darkness. Romans 5:12(NLT) tells us, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” We must be ever so thankful to our Heavenly Father, because He did not leave us in this terrible shape. Through Jesus Christ, He provided a way of escape for us, and now we can live by the same power and love as Christ did when he walked upon the earth.
Genesis 1:26 tells us that God created us in His very own image. It was always God’s plan to make us His children, and He has given each of us a destiny to live and love through the power of His Holy Spirit. Our Heavenly Father is a God of order. He does only those things that are within His Word, because His Word is His Law. One of these laws is in Romans 6:23, and it says that the wages of sin is death. Many people overlook this but that is a very bad idea. Romans 6:23 is not something we can brush over. Every sin that we commit has a price, and that price must be paid. It’s God’s Word! And He never violates His Word.
Back in biblical days, people had to offer sacrifices to God to cover their sins, because they kept on sinning. These sacrifices didn’t get rid of the sin, because again, they continued to sin. The sacrifices covered up the sin so that God’s people living during that time would have some way to fellowship with our Heavenly Father. This was not the kind of relationship He predestined His children to have with Him. God wanted a family, but family had to be birthed according to the laws God ordained for life. In His laws, He ordained that a child in any family must have their father’s seed. Without their father’s seed, a child would not be an heir of that father.
James 1:18(NLT) says, “He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.” God’s law dictates that everything is born after its own kind. Monkeys cannot give birth to humans, and dogs cannot give birth to rabbits. We are made in God’s image because His Will is that we are after His own kind, just like His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is God’s “True Word”. John 1:14(ESV) declares, “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” By accepting the True Word, who is Jesus Christ, God offers us salvation. We receive God’s seed, which is the Spirit of Christ who comes to live inside us.
The Spirit of Christ is God’s Holy Spirit. Mary, mother of Jesus Christ became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are saved from destruction by that same power. Jesus Christ said in John 3:6(NLT), “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.” The Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside us. He is our teacher, friend, and guide. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13 that the Spirit will guide us into all truth, and will not speak on his own, but he will tell us what he hears from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
God made a way for us to be His powerful children through the salvation that His Son, Jesus Christ, offers us. Acts 4:11-12(NLT) says, “For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” This is an incredibly powerful truth. We can only be saved by accepting the love of Jesus Christ into our hearts, and after we do this, our new life begins.
2Corinthians 5:17-21(NLT) says, “17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
In this new life we have received from Jesus Christ, God has made us ambassadors for Christ, and our responsibility is to live through the love of Christ and to share his love with others. We are to tell our family members and friends about Jesus Christ, because we have been saved through him. We should want the same for them, because there is no other way to be saved.
Living through Christ is living a life of faith, and this faith must be backed up with action. James 2:26 tells us that faith without works is dead. Many of us think we are producing faith, but faith is backed up by what we do, and if what we do doesn’t equal sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ, we are living beneath our privilege. If the love of Christ is truly in our hearts, we will want our loved ones to be saved, because telling them about salvation through Jesus Christ is the greatest way to show we really love them.
Nothing is more important in life than being saved through the blood of the lamb. John 3:16(NLT) tells us, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” God wants everyone to be saved, and He has commissioned us through Jesus Christ to help with this. Many will not receive this Word of salvation, but some will, and God has charged us with the responsibility to do all we can for those who will accept Him. Do not sit on the power of the Holy Spirit that God has given you. Pray for your friends and family to be saved and do all you can to help them know Christ. ■
“How to Really Love Your Family and Friends”, written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!