God’s Redeeming Love for Us

MEMORY SELECTION: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” —Romans 5:8

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 1:3-14

GOD’S existence is from everlasting to everlasting. He had no beginning, and he will have no end. From him has proceeded all life—first to his only begotten Son, then to other spiritual beings, and finally to man. His great capacity for love is manifested to us in the giving of his Son on behalf of the sin-sick and dying human family. Let us attempt to comprehend God’s redeeming love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesian brethren, our attention is drawn to some of the wonderful blessings to be had from God’s hand. God was pleased to prepare a special place for those who would respond to the invitation to the high and heavenly calling: “According as he hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” (Eph. 1:4) Those who, during the present Gospel Age, have given their lives to God in consecration are promised a special blessing for their faithfulness—a place in that heavenly home as joint-heirs with Christ. Paul explains that God was preparing that heavenly home for his people from “before the foundation of the world.”

Sometime in that remote and far distant past God made plans to arrange to have a family on his own plane of being—the divine plane. That arrangement provided that his Son (who would be tested for his faithfullness as man’s Redeemer) would be the elder Brother in that divine family and that there would also be 144,000 others who would eventually share that glory. They too would need to demonstrate their heart loyalty to the heavenly calling and devote themselves to God faithfully even unto death.

The apostle points out that the Heavenly Father “in love previously marked us out for sonship through Christ Jesus for himself, according for the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious beneficence with which he graciously favored us in the beloved.” (vss. 5,6, Emphatic Diaglott) What a manifestation of loving-kindness on behalf of the followers of Christ! What an incentive to faithfulness!

The merit of our Lord’s sacrifice has been made available for the consecrated members of his body during the present Gospel Age. The Apostle Paul explains (Heb. 9:24) that “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

In the type, the high priest entered into the Most Holy of the tabernacle, which illustrated our Lord’s entrance into the heavenlies. And when Jesus ascended to the Heavenly Father’s throne, he presented the merit of his sacrifice on behalf of the members of his antitypical body. The apostle says he appeared “in the presence of God for us.” Throughout the Gospel Age that merit has been available as a robe of righteousness for the footstep followers of Christ. They are justified for the very purpose of presenting their own lives in sacrifice alongside the Lord’s.

The world continues to wait for the completion of the sacrifices for sin. Later, after the work of the sin offering has been finished, the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice will be applied on behalf of the world of mankind. The purchasing power of Jesus’ blood will have passed to the church members and then on to the world. The church does not add anything to the ransom, but they do have the privilege of sharing in the offering for sin.

The calling and selection of the members of Jesus’ body has gone along practically unnoticed by the world. Likewise the invitation and drawing power of God have gone unnoticed. But God has richly blessed his people, “having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”—Eph. 1:9,10

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