89. The Love Of The Father Series

89. IN GOD'S IMAGE - THE LOVE OF THE FATHER

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

We have reached that point in the narrative where God has achieved His goal of creating “man in His image” and as a consequence, God and man can dwell face to face in the New Jerusalem.

• God through His work has created for Himself a holy people within whom he can now come and dwell (Revelation 21:3).

• We have been looking at what insights we can discern from scripture on what life will be like in heaven.

• I have purposely left the major benefit of life in heaven to the last and that is, we will come to know the God who is the Trinity in not only His majestic glory, but also in a very personal way.

• Hopefully through this series we have come to regard the God we Christians worship in a totally new light.

• Rather than being regarded as a remote abstract concept described with terms such as “almighty, omnipotent, omniscience, infinite, transcendent, etc., we have also come to regard Him as a loving parent who wants an intimate relationship with all His children, in other words, a personal God who cherishes relationship with others.

• Although these abstract terms are accurate ways of describing God, to place undue emphasis on them to the detriment of the personal God we have learned about is to do great harm to our understanding of the true nature of God.

One of the objectives of this series has been to address the misconceptions (usually negative) surrounding God’s character and nature, and to highlight the vast love God has towards His creation and the ends to which He has gone to reach this point where God and humanity now live side by side in eternity.

• In contrast to the hierarchical concept of God that has developed in western Christianity usually depicted by a triangle, John of Damascus, a Greek theologian (7th century) pictured the Trinity as three dancers holding hands dancing around together in joyful freedom.

• He coined the word, perichoresis, peri (as in perimeter) means “around,” and choresis literally means, “dancing.”

• Rather than thinking of the Trinity in a hierarchical and individualistic sense, this description invites us to think of a community of persons in complete unity who love each other and live together in perfect harmony.

• This is the existence and inner life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

• Of course this is difficult for us to fathom because of our four-dimensional limitations. However we get an insight into this life from Jesus’ statement in John 10.

• John 10:38 “But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

• John of Damascus’ concept of perichoresis gives us a completely different perception of the inner life of the Godhead than the Western hierarchical model.

• Gone is the person in isolation, gone is the hierarchical structure of first, second and third in importance, gone is the competition and rivalry of who is in charge, gone is the conflict over opposing ideas.

• Unfortunately, some of these negative characteristics have made their way into our current church structures.

• Instead, with perichoresis, we get a picture of a community of equals living and sharing with one another in self-giving love.

• It is into this divine circle of love that humanity has been drawn through the combined efforts of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

• No longer is it a society that places it’s emphasis on “looking after number one,” or of dominating others, but of all working together in the best interests of all.

• And it is now humanity’s privilege to get to know this God in a personal and intimate way in all His manifest glory, not only as the God who is creator, almighty, omnipotent, full of wisdom and knowledge, but also the God who is loving, graceful, merciful and kind and calls Himself “our Father.”