“God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
In God’s plan to restore a fallen and disfigured world, Abraham became the father of all of us, the agent of blessing to everyone. Jesus completes what God started centuries before when He established Abraham’s covenant family. Those who put faith in Jesus and call Him “Lord” become part of Abraham’s faith family. Because God is gracious, loving, and merciful, men and women from every corner of the earth are not only declared right, but ultimately are made right as well. It happens through God’s actions—not our efforts—in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus who was crucified for our misdeeds and raised to repair what has been wrong all along. So the promises of God made long years ago are being realized in men and women who hear the call of faith and answer “yes” to it. (The Voice)
Since we have been acquitted and made right through faith, we are able to experience true and lasting peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. 2 Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. 3 And that’s not all. We also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer we develop endurance, 4 which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness. 5 And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love. (Rom 5: 1-5).
My, how you’ve fallen from the heights of heaven!
O morning star, son of the dawn!
What a star you were, as you menaced and weakened the nations,
but now you’ve been cut down, fallen to earth.
13 Remember how you said to yourself,
“I will ascend to heaven—reach higher and with more power—
and set my throne high above God’s own stars?”
Remember how you thought you could be a god, saying:
“I will sit among them at the mount of assembly in the northern heights.
14 I will rise above the highest clouds and
make myself like the Most High”?
15 Hah! Instead, you have sunk like a stone to where the dead abide.
You’ve hit bottom of the bottommost pit.
16 People peer down at you from above,
and their curiosity overflows.
People: Wow, is this the man who once terrorized the world?
Is he the one who rocked the earth’s kingdoms and threatened us with disaster?
17 Is he the one who turned the bustling cities of the world into a wasteland,
and never let the prisoners of war go home? (Isa 14)
Eternal One: 12 Son of man, sing a lament for the prince of Tyre. Tell him this is what I, the Eternal Lord, have to say:
You were a paradigm of perfection, human life at its best.
You had everything a leader needs: immense wisdom and perfect beauty.
13 You lived in Eden, God’s garden.
You were clothed in magnificent splendor, covered in jewels:
Sardius, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper,
lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald.
All the mountings were made of gold,
prepared for you on the day you were created.
14 I anointed you the guardian of the garden and stationed you at your post to protect it.
You were on the divine mountain, the holy mount of God.
There you walked among the fiery stones.
15 You were entirely pure from the day you were created,
until wickedness crept in and was found in you!
16 Too much buying and selling—a greedy obsession!
You became motivated to violence and did wicked things.
Polluted and disgraced, I drove you off the mountain of God!
I expelled you, O guardian protector, from the fiery stones.
17 Your heart swelled with pride because of your beauty and talents.
Your hunger for fame, your thirst for glory corrupted your wisdom.
This is why I drove you to the ground
and made an example out of you before a company of kings.
18 You desecrated your sanctuaries
by pursuing sin after sin and cheating in business.
I set a flame inside of you, and it devoured you completely.
I reduced you to a pile of ashes on the ground,
a sight for all to see. (Ez 28)
Additionally, when Satan tempts Eve, his wisdom and beauty distracts from his real character and purpose. He slanders God. God Whose emphasis is on relationship NOT religion, being NOT doing. God Who emphasizes His name from Genesis to Revelation, because His character is maligned by the Slanderer Satan.
