Abba's Dearly Beloved

[God’s] perfect love drives out all fear, for fear has to do with punishment, the one who fears is not made in [God’s] perfect love

1 John 4:18 (NIV)

Many of us have read or heard this scripture, in some cases many times. But though in our heads we recognise the profound revelation that the author, the apostle John wrote of what the finished work of Jesus dying on the cross for us has achieved, our hearts remain distant from this reality and subject to bouts of uncertainty and fear. The veil of shame and fear separating us from intimate fellowship with God has been torn in two and the throne we now approach with boldness is the mercy seat of heaven on which our saviour Jesus now sits; the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Our hearts have now been grafted with the reclaimed ancient identity of sonship by the Holy Spirt, so that we now call out in intimate affection to God Abba, Father and his response is welcome home my son, welcome home my daughter. Yet instead of celebrating this, we still walk in the shadow of the judgement seat and shy away from believing that we can relate to God on more intimate terms as a Father.

Unfortunately, many of us do not see clearly that the picture of perfect love that witnessed Jesus whipped, pierced and given unto death for our sake, originated in the heart of God the Father. In this sacred place of the deep yearning heart of God as a Father, to reclaim members of a broken and lost humanity to be his very own beloved children whatever the cost is where the heart of the Gospel truly lies. That is the point of the victory Jesus won at the cross: that through the greatest act of sacrificial love ever to have been done, we would as the apostle John proclaims “be called the children of God and that…”, he says, “is what we are” (1 John 3:1). Do you really believe that you are a child whom God loves without condition, because you wear the righteous robes bought for you through the blood of Jesus? Are you tempted to caution such a profound statement with this familiar caveat, “yes but only if I am this or if I am doing that…”, will this apply to me! You and I did not purchase our new identity through our own efforts, toil or good behaviour. We were clothed with it, by the saviour we accepted who sat down at the right hand of God. When we question this or feel we need to qualify ourselves to be acceptable through our own efforts, then we undervalue the ultimate price that Jesus paid and open ourselves up to the arbitrary question ‘are we good enough’ which breeds insecurity. The message of the gospel, the sacrifice of Christ and the heart of the Father who willingly sent him in our place is clearly proclaimed as the good news it truly is in the joyful declaration found in Ephesians 1:

[God the Father] Having predestined us to adoption as sons [and daughters] by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:5-6 (NKJV)

It was according to Father God’s good pleasure and his sovereign will or passionate desire to adopt you and I as his children through our union with Jesus the anointed messiah who has triumphed over sin and death so that we are, without question, fully accepted in the Beloved; the object of Father God’s delight and joy (see Zeph 3:17)! The Holy Spirit himself reassures us of this glorious truth (Romans 8:15-16).

The much-loved author Brennan Manning beautifully sums it up this way:

“…the God I’ve come to know by sheer grace, the Jesus I met in the grounds of my own self has furiously loved me regardless of my own self. And why? For His love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods-of elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is reliable and always tender.”

Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God, p.35.

If only we therefore knew with great measure what undeserved but tender desire and passionate heartfelt love that lay in the heart of a God who wants to draw us home into his heart. The invitation is there to surrender to the truth of your acceptance in the beloved heart of the Father as one who has received Jesus and are united and raised with him. The words of the Father spoken in love to Jesus as he was raised out of the waters of his baptism also cries out to you from God’s heart:  “you are my son, you are my daughter whom I love with you I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17).

Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for what you came to do when you gave your life for mine, not only so that I could be free from all wrongful rubbish and shame in my life but that I could be reunited with God as a Father, whose perfect love silences once and for all any fear and doubt of my acceptance or adequacy before him. For he calls me His beloved child. Thank you, Lord, please grant me a fresh revelation of that today. In Jesus precious name, Amen.