Resurrection Life Builds Commitment

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” This phrase alone already shows God’s great love towards us. Take note that the verse doesn’t tell us, “For God so loved the world WHEN He gave His only begotten Son.” God didn’t just love us when He felt like loving us already, as if it were a schedule that He had in mind. Revelation 13:8 (“...slain from the foundation of the world”) tells us that even before creation, before time existed, before man was created, God knew Adam would sin. God was not so naïve as not to have seen that Adam and Eve would be tempted by the serpent, that they would reach for the forbidden fruit and eventually eat of it. God foresaw all this, and when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, God’s love was so great and immense that He had already seen Himself sending and giving up His only begotten Son in order that we may all receive salvation and freedom. God as our Father ran after we who had stumbled and fallen to our knees and were crying so loudly because of pain.

Because of His great love and faithfulness towards us, God only has one thing in His mind: You and I, along with the whole of His creation (Romans 8: 21-22). He wants us in His loving arms to enjoy the peace of being in His presence. He longs for us to walk with Him in His garden in the cool of the day. He desires for you and I to be dining at His table filled with the choicest meat and fine aged wine. Today’s Gospel in John goes even further to remind us that “whatever you ask in My Name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it.” His love for us is so rich that He never stops reaching out to us and calling us out by name.

All He asks from us is to keep His commandments. It does not mean His love for us has conditions, because He loved us first. He simply wants us to obey His commandments in order for us to enter the full joy of His great love. This is what our theme this Sunday tells us. The Resurrection Life that we have builds commitment because even before we were created, His commitment to love us first was there as the foundation of our existence. Jesus’ resurrection was God’s fulfillment of His love towards us and this paves the way for us to desire, commit, and surrender to His will. His love is the beginning, His love is why we can move forward, and it is in His love that we will all finish.