Jesus Fixed Our Broken Image of Abba
(5 minutes)
This is the life-giving message we heard him share and it's still ringing in our ears. We now repeat his words to you: God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in him. (1 John 1:5)
John the Beloved writes his letters to the church many, many years after he walked with Jesus, and of all the things that he could list as important, he finds one thing that trumps them all. He boils down the life-giving message of Jesus in these words: "God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in him. "
The chief thing that Jesus came to reveal to us all was that the Father is perfectly good and there is no darkness in Him at all. Jesus came to fix our broken image of God. Even though men of faith down through the ages caught glimpses of Abba, we were still confused about Him and how He felt about us. Until Jesus came, we couldn't see Him rightly.
No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God's splendor except the uniquely beloved Son, who is cherished by the Father and held close to his heart. Now he has unfolded to us the full explanation of who God truly is! (John 1:18)
No one has ever gazed upon God's fullness except the uniquely beloved Son. And He came to reveal the true nature of God as a loving Father, a revelation that people are still struggling to believe is true. Why? Because religion always painted the Father with darkness. Most of us grew up with a vindictive, distant image of God. The best picture that religion could paint was an image of the Father that made our earthly fathers look like saints. Religion hid the truth of God's unconditional love and told us that He was the angry punisher. He wasn't peering into our lives looking for ways to ambush us with love, He was peering into our lives waiting on us to make a mistake so He could unleash the punishment that Jesus was doing His best to protect us from. What a poor picture of Abba.
If we were honest, most of us would say that we are still recovering from this depiction of God. There are still some areas in our lives where we are struggling to see Him rightly, struggling to believe that He is perfect love. The life-giving message that Jesus came to give us: Abba is pure light. We will never find even a trace of darkness in Him.
Do you believe that?
Abba is coming after every area where we are still not fully convinced that He is good. He refuses to allow His own children to walk around confused about how He feels about them. He refuses to let us live with the delusional image that we inherited from religion. The most important thing to Him is that we see Him and ourselves as we truly are - loving and loved. We're looking for things in life to go well and go our way. He's looking for beloved sons and daughters who love being face-to-face with Him because they have no fear or doubts about His love for them.
We will never be as close to Him as we're designed to be if we are still suspicious about His nature. As long as we're hesitant and waiting for the other shoe to drop, we will always withhold a measure of ourselves from His presence, thinking that we're protecting our hearts from rejection and punishment. When He's trying to immerse us in His love, we'll wade out a little ways and then recoil for fear that we'll discover that He's not who He said He is. Parents, can you imagine one of your children living life with this much trepidation and fear? Can you imagine one of your children struggling to get close to you for fear of being rejected and cast out? What would you do to clear that up? How far would you go to fix that broken perspective?
Jesus is Abba's final word that this will not be our future. Jesus is Abba seeing our fear and inability to come close to Him and saying, "No! I will not allow them to live this way. I'll do whatever it takes for them to know who I really am."
As we stare into the face of Jesus, we will see the Father. No one has ever gazed upon the Father except the uniquely beloved Son, but now He has unfolded to us the full explanation of who Abba is! So let's stare at Jesus and let Him convince the unconvinced parts of our hearts that Abba really is good and really does love us with a perfect, unconditional love. There's not even a trace of darkness in Him.
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Worship: "When I Lock Eyes With You / Your Love Is Extravagant" by Harvest & Jon Thurlow
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
