What is Eternal Life? Before going to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays in John17:3(Amp), "And this is Eternal Life; it means to know, to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand You (God), the Only True and Real God, and likewise to know Him, Jesus, as the Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent."
Our salvation and Eternal Life are more than just going to Heaven, they are knowing God. So many of God's children still don't "know" Him. Carnal minded men have turned what Jesus did on Calvary's cross into a religion, instead of a relationship. We struggle with man's idea of Who God is, because they're based on the first covenant under the Law of Moses and not on the Law of Love, which brought forth the relationship of Father and family. We've missed out on coming into God's Presence, in order to know Him as Father, like God dreamed and planned.
Many believe God is displeased and angry with our slightest mistake, instead of seeing a Father watching His children grow. We keep trying to please Him with our efforts and works, instead of the prescribed way found in Heb.11:6(Amp), which says, "But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must necessarily believe that God exists and that He is the Rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him out."
Why is it so important to be in faith, when we seek Him out? Because, the only way to really know God, is by faith in His Love and His Word. When we approach the Father in any other way, it's by our own efforts, instead of the avenue His Love has provided. When we come to Him in faith, we believe what He's done, more than what we have done. We keep trying to become righteous in God's eyes by our own efforts, instead of by faith in His Great Love which made us righteous by Jesus' Sacrifice.
When we come to know God, we can, by His Love, trust Him as Father, instead of what man's opinions teach He is. When we come to know Him like a child knows his/her father, we can stop reaching out to man-made religious laws and traditions. We seem to forget that it was by God's Own will that He gave birth to His Own offspring. It pleases God to have us in His House.
Why do we continue working to earn or qualify what God has already provided two thousand years ago, when He raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him as Lord and the Firstborn of the family? We don't have to earn righteousness, because it's already been provided. We don't need to qualify for God's Blessing, because it's already been Promised and provided. Man's quest for God has fostered "hoops" which we contrive to jump through. Man's way lists certain tasks we're to perform, in order to make God move on our behalf. These come from not knowing God.
God's children still try approaching Him, like those under the Law did. This fails to please Him. If God had been pleased with this approach, then He wouldn't have needed a new and better covenant through Jesus. God didn't want us in the Outer Court, but wants us to come boldly into His Throne Room of Grace, any time we wish to enter. We don't need to work for God's Blessing, but need to receive it by faith in what Jesus has already paid for on our behalf. When we try earning it through another way, then we're disregarding and not having faith in what Jesus did.
When we spend time in the Father's Presence, talking and listening to His heart, we discover what the "rest" Jesus Promised is. Jesus said in Matt.11:28-30(Amp), "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and over-burdened, and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and relive and refresh your souls Take My yoke upon you and lean on Me, for I Am gentle, meek, and humble and lovely in heart, and you will find rest, relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet for your souls For My yoke is wholesome, useful, Good not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant, and My burden is light, easy to be bourne."
Heb.4:9-10(Amp) says, "So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete sabbath-rest reserved for the true people of God; for he who has once entered God's Rest also has ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors, just as God rested from those labors, peculiarly His Own." Heb.11:1(Amp) goes on, saying, "NOW FAITH (no longer Law, sacrifice, ritual, tradition or observance of holy days), but NOW FAITH is the assurance (confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses."
It pleases the Father when we have more faith in what He has done and rest in this faith, rather than relying on our our works.
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