We are accepted in the beloved, redeemed,, ransomed and called by His Name. Jesus then puts HIS righteousness on us so that we can have a relationship with Him. He sees us through HIS righteousness.
That same righteousness equips us to see others the way HE sees them, and love them the way HE loved us! He doesn’t discount us because we fall, He doesn’t see us as failures but He sees our potentials, He sees us through His righteousness.
His righteousness is what equips us not only to have the right relationship with Him but to have the right relationship with others. We don’t impute their sin to them, but proclaim the truth that Romans 8.38-39 tells us, For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As Christ did as He walked, we can be mocked for loving the tax collector and sinner, because we know that God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. (Romans 5.8 AMP)
Before His righteousness sin blocked the way of our relationships with God and others. Because He took sin to the cross, we no longer need to hold people hostage for their sins, for what we need to receive from them (for we have all in Christ – He provides our needs according to His riches!), for how they fall short (ALL have sinned and come short of His glory! Romans 3.23).
In fact “love covers all offenses,” (Proverbs 10.12 – not only ours in the Lord’s sight, but others offenses are covered by US, thus covering OUR potential offenses against them as well!)
We KNOW the power of those “re-“ words I love so much: REstoration, REnewal, REvival, REfreshment, REconciliation, REpentence, REdemption, REformation, REcover, REvelation!!!!! We were there and we know what we REceived and we have been committed the MINISTRY of REconciliation!
In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn’t hold people’s faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others.(2 Corinthians 5:19 GWORD)
In Luke 15.11-32 we know the parable of the “prodigal son.” There are three main people in the parable: the father, the prodigal son, and the older son. To me, there are a few things that go without saying in the parable that God wants to show us:
- · There are many who “waste” their inheritance and live contrary to the will of the Father and choose the pig sty despite their ability to live in the palace.
- · The Father’s love is constant; He is waiting at the door for His son’s return. He gives the son his free will.
The part of the parable that concerns me with REvival is when the prodigal returns, the older brother doesn’t want to attend the celebration. In REvival, it is important that the “older brothers” that have continued to do the Father’s will, and have not “recklessly” and “loose from restraint” “wasted” their inheritance, are not able to celebrate when the prodigals “come to themselves” to come back to the Father. He piously states how he has obeyed and yet nothing “special” was done for him. Hear the Father’s Word: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it is fitting to make merry, to revel and feast and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!” If we are going to see REvival, we need to have the heart of the older brother—one with the Father knowing that all He has we have been given, especially His heart to rejoice when the lost are found and to REjoice with the heart of the Father! We older brothers need to get beyond what the Father can GIVE us to what we can do FOR and WITH the Father! As long as we are living the “God for me” baby mentality, we will never get to the maturity of “me for God”… what can I do for HIM not what He can do for me. And that will get us back to what God has us to be doing—drawing, loving and celebrating the return of the prodigals.
Let us fill our hearts and minds with His message on how to love! We need to see how the Lord continually draws and loves and sees what He wants to do with those who have fallen… the Davids after they commit adultery and murder while on the throne professing God, the Josephs with their broken dreams in prison falsely accused, the Jacobs grasping for all they can get until they wrestle with God…
In a separate blog, I will put some Bible verses to print: proclaim them; memorize them; LIVE them out through the power of God, and let’s show the world a REvival of what God wants to do through our REstored RElationship with Him that results in REdemption and REconciliation of others!
