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Your value to God is measured by the price He was willing to pay to ransom you. 

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)

We were purchased. Both 1 Corinthians 6:20a; 7:23a begin, “You were bought with a price…” What price? The Messiah’s blood.

You know that you were redeemed from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors—not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with precious blood like that of a lamb without defect or spot, the blood of Messiah. (1 Peter 1:18–19)

How valuable, in God’s sight, is the Messiah’s blood? It is worth more to God than anything, or all things combined. People highly value silver and gold. Peter’s analogy is appealing to our sense of value. You are worth the blood of the Son.

People are willing to do practically anything for the right amount of silver, or gold. This is illustrated in the record of Churchill’s interaction with a wealthy woman.

Churchill: “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”

Socialite: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course… “
Churchill: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”
Socialite: “Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!”

Churchill: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price”

For the right price this “socialite” was willing to sell herself. She valued money more than her honor. What did God value more than the life of His beloved Son? Peter knew. Father valued you …, me…, all of us.

What word do these two verses have in common? The word, “inheritance.” It is the same Greek word in the New Testament and the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures).

For the LORD’S portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:9) 

what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints  (Ephesians 1:18b) 

God treasures you. Like Jacob, you are God’s valuable inheritance. His treasure. You are a treasured one.

They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. (Psalm 83:3) 

God has demonstrated your value to Him. We don’t understand our value. God does. Father is not a fool and He ransomed you.

“just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) 

Messiah Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. (1 Timothy 2:5c-6) 

Consider your worth in God’s sight. Measure your worth by the price your God was willing to pay for you.

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

God rewards the type of faith which provokes earnest seeking.

for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

The word “rewarder” sounds noble. Frankly, although it sounds less sublime, the Greek word essentially means “one who pays wages.” I think it is helpful to keep that in mind.

Wages (rewards) are earned. Wages (rewards) are commensurate to the value of the work, or service, rendered. Wages (rewards) are due. It is right that God should reward those who seek Him.

God deals justly.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Genesis 18:25b)

God acts righteously.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

He is the God of Jacob. Our Creator is willing to unashamedly enter into a quid pro quo with those who serve Him.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.” (Genesis 28:20-21)

If you seek Him, you will find Him.

If you seek Him, He will let you find Him (1 Chronicles 28:9b)

If we want to receive the power to grasp God’s love we should pursue God for the release of that powerful enabling-favor. Paul prayed that the Ephesians receive this grace.

that (Father) would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  ¹⁹ and to know the love of the Messiah which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

As you regularly pray this prayer for yourself and those you love you will be rewarded. It is absolutely true that all good things come from God. However, He  has set it up so that He repays. God is no man’s debtor. Let faith arise.

for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Love we know exists, being made real by the Holy Spirit. 

the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5b)

This verse describes the subjective experience of knowing God’s love through the Holy Spirit. Paul describes this as if God’s love is like a liquid and our hearts, receptacles.

Later in this chapter we find Paul speaking about the objective demonstration of God’s love. There, he qualifies the type of love which we have received.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, (our) Messiah died for us. (Romans 5:8)

In verse 5 Paul describes the outpouring of the Spirit as an experience of God’s emotions. Although this love Father is pouring out is an experience of His emotions it is not necessarily an emotional experience. Let me explain.

You can experience a beautiful day no matter what your emotional state is. You can be optimistic or depressed, happy or angry. It’s still a beautiful day.

In the same way you experience a beautiful day you can experience God’s love no matter what your emotional state is.

He always loves us. This affection is not dependent upon our emotional state. He is willing to reveal His love to us no matter our circumstances or emotional state. As we rely on this reality we experience Him the way He really is. This loving Father really loves us. We attract His love to the degree that He pours His love into us. We are called to both experience and understand His great, holy, unsurpassed love. The experience is like this:

the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5b)

Pray for grace to interpret the presence of the Holy Spirit as the presence of God’s holy love for you.

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Paul appealed to the Lord to reveal the sacred subjective knowledge of His love to the Church (Ephesians 3:14-20). Thank God for the call to experience God’s love. Paul also appealed to the believers to behold and believe in God’s love based upon objective evidence.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time the Messiah died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, the Messiah died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

The word “demonstrate” indicates something similar to  a scientific proof. God demonstrated His love. He proved it. How? At Calvary. For those who believe the Biblical testimony, the fact that God loves us more than life itself is unassailable.

Called to walk in the light of this word, we are to meditate upon the reality of His love.

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)

O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. (Psalm 119:97)

In the light of this reality we are called to offer thanksgiving to the God who redeemed us.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Subjective knowledge … objective knowledge. What should we emphasize? Both experience and evidence are important.

The experience of God is to lead us to the Scriptures God gave. The experience is to be interpreted by the believer through meditation on the Word. Our minds are to be renewed.

The disciple is called to study the reality of God’s love manifest in the Gospel. The result of that study is that the exegesis leads to faith. Living faith opens the door to experience.

Subjective experience is intended to lead us to God’s objective word. God’s objective word is to lead us to subjective experience.

Our initial discipleship is initiated when, hearing the voice of the Lord, we believe the Gospel.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (John 5:25)

 

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20)

When we believe the Gospel we are appropriating the news of God’s love and are applying it to ourselves.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time the Messiah died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, the Messiah died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

We are to believe the good news: God really does love us.

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

The Church fulfills the roles of Jesus’ manifest presence and dynamic activity in the world.

And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23)

Strategically, our Father has determined to pursue His goal of filling the entire cosmos with His goodness through giving the Messiah to be head over all things to the church.

There is a difference between omnipresence and manifest presence. This flies in the face of those who are intellectual and mystical. Here’s something from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, Aurora Leigh,  that illustrates this confusion:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

Paul thought that he had vision, then he had an open-eye vision and was blinded. His knowledge of God, up to that point, was primarily intellectual. After he received his sight, he knew God’s manifest presence.

So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 9:17)

Like Paul, those who know the manifest presence of God honor God’s omnipresence.

for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ (Acts 17:28)

Those who are familiar with the Biblical narrative know there was only one bush amongst many that was ablaze with God’s presence.

The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.  ³ So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” (Exodus 3:2-3)

The Lord’s people are to be ablaze with God. The Father has determined that the manifest presence of the Messiah would be present in the Church. The fullness of Him who fills all in all with Himself is intended to be experienced in the believing community.

Why might this take place? Because the people of God are increasingly grasping the love of the One who fills all in all.

and to know the Messiah’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us… (Ephesians 3:19-20)

Let’s grasp this together: the omnipresent God in whom we live, move, and exist, loves us. Let’s seek to consciously live, move, and exist in His love. As we do we will be the location within creation where the Creator’s fullness resides.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City