God is God with Us 

God is fully apart from us and the world that He created. Not only that, but He is also with us. Professor Bruce Ware says, “The Bible teaches that God is a God who is with us, that is, he not only is a God far-off, vast and mighty, big and full of all good things, but he also is a God who has chosen to come near to us, to live with us, to make himself known to us, and to provide for us all that we truly need.”  

God created the world and everything in it. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” He created the world and it was good. Humanity is also God’s creation. Genesis 1:26-27 tells us, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image,   in the image of God he created him;  male and female he created them.” Humanity is the crown of God’s creation. He did not need to create humanity but chose to create. 

While God showed his love and goodness in creating humanity, it wasn’t long before humanity sinned against God. Genesis 3 gives us the account of humanity’s sin against God. Adam and Eve were told not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. While being tempted by the serpent, Adam and Eve chose to eat of the tree, thus, sinning against God. In this regard, Bruce Ware says, “We must remember that after God created us, we turned against him, rejecting his goodness and wanting to live our lives our own way.” However, God still chooses to love humanity and make himself known to us, despite our sin against Him. “While God is fully God apart from us, amazingly, God is also a God who has chosen to be with us.” (Ware) 

God’s Love 

God’s love for us is amazing. He chooses to offer a relationship with Him through Christ. “Even though God doesn’t need us, he loves us, and he wants us to receive from him all of the goodness, blessing, and joy that he has for those who will be humble and dependent before him.” (Ware)  God’s love is described in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Another important reminder comes from 1 John 4:10. It says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” He chose to provide a way for humanity to be forgiven of their sin against Him. 

Bruce Ware writes, “God chose that he would come to be with us in the person of His own Son, who would live a perfect life in all of the ways that we as sinners had failed to do. As one who was perfect and sinless, God’s Son, Jesus, could then pay the penalty we deserve to pay for our sin.” When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, the Father placed our sins on Jesus, “paying the penalty of death that we deserved to pay.” (Ware)  Our sins were paid for by Jesus, thus, paying the penalty of death that humanity deserved. 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “For our sake he [God the Father] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

Humanity’s Response

Humanity has an opportunity to admit their sin against God. “What God calls us to do is to admit that we have sinned against him, that we deserve death for our sin, and now to believe and trust that Jesus died in our place, paying the penalty we deserved for our sin. When we turn from our sin and trust in Jesus’ death as a full payment for our sin, God promises to forgive us of our sin and to make us clean before him.”  Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Even in our sin, God provides a way for us to be forgiven of our sin and turn to Him. In conclusion, “God is holy and sinless, he has come near to us, especially in his own Son, providing a way for us to be saved from our sin and brought us into his presence forever. God truly is a God who is with us- with us forever through faith in Christ.” (Ware) 

Questions for Reflection

     1. Do we think that we deserve God’s love? How has he shown his love towards sinners like 

        us?

     2. How should we respond to the great love that he bestows on us through Christ? 

Key Verse

Romans 5:8 – “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

References

Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God by Bruce Ware

All references and quotes come from Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware.