God’s will
by Pastor Mark Gierus
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For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day (John 6:40).
What is God’s will for humanity, for the whole world? In our world today, many people ask questions about the existence of God. Then if people accept that God exists, they often ask things about the goodness of God and why bad things happen, especially to good people. Surely good people can get to heaven; after all, they have earned it.
But does it come as a surprise to you that God actually loves the world – the whole world? When God created the world and everything in existence, he saw all that he had made, and it was good (Genesis 1). So, God has a plan for the world after Adam and Eve disobeyed him. He sent his one and only Son Jesus to suffer and die for your sin and my sin and the sin of the whole world.
Jesus tells us what our Father in Heaven’s will is for all people. Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. God wants all people to be saved, but it is only by faith in Jesus that we have eternal life. It is not our goodness, our actions or our birthright. It is not even that we might belong to a Christian denomination that gets us into heaven. It is simply by faith. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, the only Son of God.
So when the world tells you that you must do more to earn favour with God, you can confidently reply, ‘It is by faith that I have eternal life. Faith in Jesus whom God sent into the world to save all people from sin and eternal death who look to him in faith’.
When the world says that you get to heaven because you are just a good person, you can say, ‘I believe in Jesus, for he has saved me, forgiven me and swapped my best efforts to be good with his goodness, love and grace. And in this world, I now have peace because I am made right with God, for Jesus has taken away my sin’.
Heavenly Father, may I always seek to do your will and not my will. Help me to be humble as I live each day following your Son Jesus and sharing your deep love with everyone I see this day. Lord, bless all people by your presence through your word by your Spirit. Send us each day to serve you as we serve others so all may see that eternal life is by faith alone in Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
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