God so loved that He gave

By Pastor Ric

Pastor Ric, traces the incredible Love which God has shown and demonstrated toward us, from the foundation of the world, to the triumph of the cross and resurrection, thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pastor Ric
• Release date: Feb 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224221233

Pastor Ric

Having Pastored a mainline Christian Church for many years, I am now producing Mobile apps, ebooks and paperback books on many Christian subjects, you can download them from https://noprisoners-ministry.com/.

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Table of Contents

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Chapter 1 - Before the foundation of the World

Chapter 2 - Before time began the plan of God was conceived.

Chapter 3 - When did Time begin?

Chapter 4 - Where did Jesus come from

Chapter 5 - Where did satan come from?

Chapter 6 - False evidence appearing real

Chapter 7 - Who do men say that I am?

Chapter 8 - Understanding the soul

Chapter 9 - The battle is in the soul

Chapter 10 - Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Chapter 11 - From faith to Faith Part 1

Chapter 12 - From faith to Faith Part 2

Chapter 13 - From the unlimited realm.

Chapter 14 - God's plan of Salvation in scripture, established before the foundation of the world

Chapter 15 - The Plan of God in Ephesians Part 1

Chapter 16 - The Plan of God in Ephesians Part 2

Chapter 17 - The Plan of God in Scripture - Part 3

Chapter 18 - The Plan of God in Ephesians Part 4

Chapter 19 - The Plan of God in Ephesians Part 5

Chapter 20 - The Plan of God in Ephesians Part 6

Chapter 21 - Testimonies

Receiving Salvation

Receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Landmarks

Body Matter

Table of contents

Cover

Chapter 1 -  Before the foundation of the World

Before time began, before the earth was created and before anything existed, our eternal Father God , together as One with the Word and the Holy Spirit, conceived a plan for humanity that was to come. God knew the future in eternity, before the beginning of the world and proved it by declaring the end before the beginning, only God is able to do that.   God knew that satan would turn and that mankind would fall because of sin and that mankind would be  separated  from God and would need a Saviour to redeem mankind back to Himself.  To save them in a world that would be full of sin. For God so Loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that none may perish but all would and could have eternal life in Him,   a family that would become joint heirs through the Word who was to become Christ.  

For God so loved the world, that He gave, unconditional love requires that love is given. No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends. 

Where did the word 'God' come from?

The ancient Hebrew language that the Old Testament was written in did not have vowels and was consonant only. In the original Gods name is written YHWH (sometimes written YHVH) means Gods self existence and is translated in English as The self-existent one, or I AM WHO I AM, which is how God described Himself when God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM.   This is what you are to say to the Israelites: "I AM has sent me to you. God’s name is a reflection of His being. God is the only self-existent or self-sufficient Being. Only God has life in and of Himself. 

In the KJV Bible YHWH is translated as the name God, like virtually all words that are ever spoken, the ancestral form of ‘God’ was not consciously invented. It goes back to an Indo-European root *ghutos which itself comes from a verb gheu, meaning to 'invoke, or to pour out'.

After various sound-changes took place in Proto-Germanic, this became guþ in Gothic, which first appeared in the translation of the Bible by the Gothic priest named Wulfila.

He chose that word, because he wanted specifically to avoid the pagan associations of specific 'gods’ names. That book was the first book to include the word for God in a Germanic language, dating back to the fourth century AD. - source Thomas Wier, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Free University of Tbilisi Aug 15, 2017.

The word God is the name we attribute to the Hebrew name YHWH (from YHWH in Genesis 2:4) and Elohim (Genesis 1:1) also the name God appeared as a shortened form of the word good, 1573, when an English writer named Gabriel Harvey, used the word goodbye as a shortened form of God be with ye.

Where did God Himself come from?

God did not originate and was not born, He is eternal and has always existed and will always exist. How do we know this? We know that from nothing, nothing comes. So, if there were ever a time when there was absolutely nothing in existence, then nothing would have ever come into existence. But things do exist.

Therefore, since there could never have been absolutely nothing, something had to have always been in existence. That ever-existing one is the One we call Elohim, YHWH, Lord, God, the creator of heaven and earth and all that is in it.   God is the uncaused Being that caused everything else to come into existence. God is the uncreated Creator who created the universe and everything in it.

YHWH of the Old Testament and Christ of the New refer to themselves as the First and the Last because both are the same self-existent, eternal Being.

In Exodus 3:14,  we find God explaining the meaning of His name to Moses. He says, I AM WHO I AM  , which is closely related to YHWH and is derived from the verb to be. In other words, God has always existed as He is and will continue to exist as He is. He does not change. The name YHWH is understood to be God’s covenant name because it is the name most frequently used in relation to the establishment and fulfillment of His covenants with His people. In other words, He will remain true and faithful to His covenant promises. So the name of YHWH is clearly very important to us.

What is covenant?

A covenant is a strong agreement between two people and involves promises on the part of each to the other.

Before the time of Abraham, God made a covenant with Noah, assuring Noah that He would never again destroy the world by flood  , Later, God made a covenant with Abraham, God promised to bless his descendants and make them His own special people, in return, Abraham was to remain faithful to God and to serve as a channel through which God's blessings could flow to the rest of the world.    When Christ was crucified and resurrected, the new covenant was sealed, under which we are justified by God's grace and mercy. Total forgiveness of sins is now available through Christ as Jesus Himself is the Mediator of this better covenant between God and man  .

Jesus' sacrificial death served as the oath, or pledge, which God made to us and the coming of the Holy Spirit to believers. This is the guarantee, or seal of this new covenant, in the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our inheritance that we will be raised into eternal life in Christ. The 'new covenant' is an agreement God has made with mankind, based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The concept of a new covenant originated with the promise of Jeremiah that God would accomplish for His people what the old covenant had failed to do  , Under this new covenant, God writes His Law on human hearts. 

When God created the universe, time as we know it began, He made the whole universe in six, literal twenty-four-hour days, including time, the angels and everything that is. 

Notes Section

Isaiah 46:10  Declaring the end and the result from the beginning, And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’ John 3:16 For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 15:12-14 This is My commandment, that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you. Romans 8:17 And if [we are His] children, [then we are His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His spiritual blessing and inheritance], if indeed we share in His suffering so that we may also share in His glory. Psalms 146:6 Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them, Who keeps truth and is faithful forever, Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, I Am Who I Am; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’ Genesis 9:11-14 Genesis 9:11-14  I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds. Genesis 12:1-3 Go away from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you [abundantly], And make your name great (exalted, distinguished); And you shall be a blessing [a source of great good to others]; And I will bless (do good for, benefit) those who bless you, And I will curse [that is, subject to My wrath and judgment] the one who curses (despises, dishonours, has contempt for) you. And in you all the families (nations) of the earth will be blessed." Hebrews 9:15 For this reason He (Christ) is the Mediator and Negotiator of a new covenant [that is, an entirely new agreement uniting God and man], so that those who have been called [by God] may receive [the fulfillment of] the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has taken place [as the payment] which redeems them from the sins committed under the obsolete first covenant. Romans 8:3-4 For what the Law could not do [that is, overcome sin and remove its penalty, its power] being weakened by the flesh [man’s nature without the Holy Spirit], God did: He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man as an offering for sin. And He condemned sin in the flesh [subdued it and overcame it in the person of His own Son], 4 so that the [righteous and just] requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not live our lives in the ways of the flesh [guided by worldliness and our sinful nature], but [live our lives] in the ways of the Spirit [guided by His power]. Jeremiah 31:31-34 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and with the house of Judah (the Southern Kingdom), not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. 34 And each man will no longer teach his neighbour and his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me [through personal experience], from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will no longer remember their sin.

Chapter 2 - Before time began the plan of God was conceived.

In eternity, before time began, God knew all that would happen, that following creation, man would fall, because of sin (missing the mark in God, really unbelief), that sin would separate mankind from God and it would require a Saviour to redeem mankind back to God. The Word would become flesh as Jesus and willingly and joyfully accept becoming a servant of God. He would come to earth, to destroy the works of the devil (who had not yet even been created), He would then go to the cross and be raised, resurrected into Glory back to the Father. Thus allowing all mankind to come back to the Father, through Christ, the sinless matchless lamb sacrificed as the son of man, so that the sons of men could become sons of God for eternity.

God does not react to situations and circumstances, for He has everything planned to the minutest detail, even having per-destined us that we should be born and called to be saved, even before we existed! Our part is to accept His calling.

Before the foundation of the world, before time began, God established the plan of salvation, knowing that following the creation, mankind would fall because of sin, that Lucifer would turn and become satan, that mankind would reject Him, that Jesus would die on the cross.

His plan of salvation was established in Him, as a mystery, proving that God's mysteries are hidden from all, but not hidden from believers, they are laid up for us. The plan of salvation, was conceived in a mystery, precisely to save the world from a hell that was not intended for us, but is intended for satan. The plan was to establish the way back into God, through Christ, for all mankind to be with Him into all eternity. The plan was held as a mystery in God, until it was revealed to all believers, after Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected.

Not even satan knew of this plan, when he devised what he thought was a perfect way of destroying Jesus Christ for the Jews did not kill Jesus, none of mankind killed Him, in fact, Jesus had to give up His own spirit in order to die, satan was the architect of Jesus going to the cross, working through the minds of mankind, unknowingly, satan fulfilled a major part of the plan of salvation. For Jesus had to die on the cross to destroy sin and become 'The Way the Truth and the Life, through which all mankind could come back to intimacy with the Father.

There is no other way to salvation other than through Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself says in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is not a way, as in one of many. He is The way, as in the one and only. No one, regardless of reputation, achievement, special knowledge, or personal holiness, can come to God the Father except through Jesus.

Why is Jesus the only way?

Jesus was chosen by God to be the Savior. Jesus is the only One to have come down from heaven and returned there. He is the only person to have lived a perfect human life. He is the only sacrifice for sin.    He alone fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. He is the only Man to have conquered death forever. He is the only Mediator between God and man. He is the only man whom God has exalted to the highest place .

Jesus spoke of Himself as the only way to heaven in several places besides John 14:6.. He presented Himself as the object of faith in Matthew 7, He said His words are life. He promised that those who believe in Him will have eternal life. He is the gate of the sheep,  the bread of life, and the resurrection. No one else can rightly claim those titles.

There was legality involved in the Word being manifest as Jesus, He could only enter earth legally