Christ came to His own people (Israel) but the majority of them did not believe in Him.

John 1:10-14 “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

But to all people who believe in Jesus Christ, He has given the full glory as Sons and Daughters of God Himself. This was not something that we could attain by our ancestry, blood relations, willpower and good works. It was given to us by God’s will and desire. 

No man had seen God before Christ.

But when Jesus came, He revealed God Himself – filled with unconditional love and grace. God who would do anything to make you His children – even die on the cross for our sins and make us righteous and perfect as God Himself!

John 1:15-18 “John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’” From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.”

Christ is God who existed long before people like Moses or John the Baptist. 

Moses was a mere man who brought the law that could not save anyone.

But when Jesus Christ came, He came from the warm embrace of the Father so that they can embrace you too! The grace and truth of God is not by the righteousness of the Law but is found in salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The Law was mediated by God’s angels who punished every violation (Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19). But Grace was given by God’s Son Jesus Christ who took all our punishment. This is not just “grace” but it is the fullness of grace upon grace, one after the other – never-ending grace for the believer in this life and in heaven forever!

The believer is part of God’s family. We are God’s beloved children calling Him our “Daddy / Abba / Papa” and Christ is our beloved bridegroom. 

If we believe in Christ, then God is not our judge but He is our Father who loves us!

When a person believes in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and lives in our hearts. The same Spirit of Jesus the Son comes into our hearts and we know God as Father.

Galatians 4:6-7 “And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

We are no longer slaves and outsiders but we are sons of God receiving the same inheritance of Christ having His righteousness and eternal life by grace through faith.

1^st John 3:1-3  “See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.”

When Christ is revealed at the resurrection, we will receive immortal bodies like Him.

But till then in this world, we are exactly like Jesus because His Spirit dwells eternally in the believer.

1^st John 4:17 “In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world.”

We have the same intimacy that Jesus enjoys with the Father. 

There is no more fear of judgment because we have the Father’s love for us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5-8). 

John 16:27 “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God”

Look at how much God loves us! We were dead in sin but when we believed in Jesus Christ, He made us alive with Christ having forgiven all sins (Colossians 2:11-15). 

The Father not only made us alive but He seated us with Christ in heaven as glorious children of God.

Ephesians 2:4-9 “But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.”

A spiritually dead man can do nothing to become alive. 

We could do nothing to make ourselves righteous by our works.

Therefore, God in His great love, did all the work for us!

We were spiritually dead in Adam but then God included us in Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven when we believed.

This is grace – we did nothing but Jesus did everything to save us!

How much does Jesus love you? He has taken away our sins if we believe.

John 1:29 “The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

When Jesus rose from the dead, He said that God is His Father and our Father too!

John 20:17 “Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The Father is fully known by Jesus Christ the Son. When we believe in Jesus, He reveals God as our Father and no longer our judge – this is the truth that frees from all burdens.

Matthew 11:25-30 “At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Look at the love of Father in what He has done for us in Christ Jesus:

Ephesians 1:2-8 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,”

God our Father & our Lord Jesus Christ send us grace and peace.

Grace means that God saved us through faith without our works. 

Peace means that God has taken away our guilt and condemnation by Christ’s blood.

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ in heaven where we are spiritually seated with Him – having forgiven us all sins.

He did this even before we were born and before the world was created. 

God knew that we would believe in Christ using our free will and therefore He made us holy and blameless in His sight. He blessed us with every spiritual blessing. 

Can you imagine that? We are blessed with everything in Christ and He did this with great pleasure. He did not do it out of obligation, but with great pleasure and happiness!

When people are truly in love, they don’t condemn each other’s flaws that are exposed over a long time. God loves us much more because He knew us before we were born and loved us in spite of all our flaws. God made us His sons through Jesus Christ and we are accepted in the beloved. God only called one person as His “beloved Son”, when He poured His Holy Spirit on Jesus when He was baptized by John.

Matthew 3:16-17 “Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God made us His beloved children in Christ by faith.

We did not choose Him by our works but He saved us by grace through faith. 

He lavished His riches of grace by eternally forgiving us. 

This gave Him great joy and pleasure in blessing us His beloved children!

He did not do it stingily, but by lavishly pouring out the riches of His grace. 

He gave us Jesus who is our salvation – He gave us Himself!

God is the Father of Christ and our Father too! God does not want employees or servants; He wants you to know that you are His darling son.

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.”

Ephesians 1:11-14 “We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.”

God is our Father and He has given us the family inheritance by making us His beloved Sons in Jesus Christ. When we heard the Gospel, we believed in Jesus Christ apart from our works to receive the Holy Spirit who lives in our bodies.

The Holy Spirit is the down-payment of our inheritance in heaven. 

He is the guarantee for every believer to receive glory and immortality in heaven.

Jesus unites us with the Father.

When Jesus was on the earth, the reason He was crucified was that He claimed to be the Son of God, being one with the Father – therefore being equal to God Himself. 

John 5:18-23 “For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus therefore answered them, “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires. For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.”

Jesus forgives because God forgives. Jesus saves because the Father desires the same. Whatever God does, He showed it to His Son Jesus to do the same. When we honor Jesus as the Son of God, we are actually honoring the Father. When we come to Jesus in faith then we are giving Him the same honor as the Father. This is the meaning of praying in the name of Jesus – that we see Jesus as One with the Father. 

John 5:26-27 “For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.”

The eternal and abundant life is in the Father and He has given that life to Jesus Christ His Son. And now, the Lord Jesus has given His everlasting life to us who believe. 

We have become one with the Father and Christ in the same family.

John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”

The eternal life is to personally know God as Father and Jesus Christ as our bridegroom. The Jews knew all the scriptures but failed to come to Christ for life.

John 5:39-40 “ You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me. Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life”

We are supposed to search for Jesus in the scriptures because Christ Himself is life.

John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’”

When we look to Jesus and trust Him, we are seeing the Father!

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”

Jesus is One with God. It is because Jesus is Lord and God. 

Jesus forgives our sins by faith because He is God.

Mark 2:4-7 “When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Nobody can take away salvation from us because we are held in both the Father’s and Christ’s loving hands (John 10:27-30). It is because Jesus and the Father are one.

John 6:63,68-69 “It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.”… Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Christ is the Word of God and He is God Himself. The words spoken by Jesus are eternal life. He tells you that your sins are forgiven and you are the righteousness of God in Christ. Do you believe in Him to receive this life? The flesh (human effort) cannot attain salvation but true life (immortality) is found in Christ because He is one with God.

John 14:10-11 “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

John 14:18-21 ”I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”

When we believe in Jesus, we are keeping His word and then we receive the Holy Spirit so that the Father and Jesus come and live in us. We become their Home Sweet Home.

John 14:23 “Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.”

God the Father has given everything He has to Jesus Christ. The Father and Jesus are one in everything! But now Jesus has given His entire glory to the believer!

John 17:10,20-26 “All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.….Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

God is not stingy but He is the most generous Father! He did not withhold Himself from us but came to live in us through Jesus Christ. The Father is fully in Jesus and if you believe in Christ then they are fully in you! God loves you exactly as He loves Jesus! 

In the Old Covenant, God could not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8) because Jesus had not died. But now in the New Covenant every believer is one with the Father and Jesus sharing their full glory. Jesus is the Son of God who is equal to God the Father. 

Every believer is also a Child of God and therefore God has made us equal to Christ and Himself, sharing His glory and righteousness with us! 

God loves the believer as much as He loves Jesus because we are His children!

John 17:25-26 “Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

God’s fullness was manifest when Jesus came to the earth in the flesh. 

Those who believe in Christ have become complete in Christ having received the same fullness of God (Colossians 2:9-13). We became one with Christ when we believed and were raised and seated with Him in heavenly places next to the Father as His beloved glorious sons being one with the Father and Jesus, because we are forgiven all sins as believers (Ephesians 2:4-10). This place in Christ next to the Father is the secret place and the shadow of the Almighty where we have salvation (Psalm 91:1-2).

Romans 6:5 “For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;”

Jesus is Alpha and Omega, Creator of all things, Lord and God. He became one with us on the cross so that we are one with Him in His resurrection. What a glorious gospel!