LOVE IN ACTION

Before anything came into existence, God — who is Love — had a plan. He said, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26). This was more than physical resemblance; God desired humanity to share His nature, character, and life — much like a child inherits a father’s DNA.

This life is not merely an existence or breath in our lungs, but the intimate knowledge of God offered freely to man (John 17:3, Romans 6:23).

In human terms, when a husband and wife become one flesh, they share their lives and purpose. This earthly oneness is a shadow of the spiritual intimacy God offers us.

Eternal life is not a reward for good works or religious effort, but a gift flowing from the abundance of His love (John 3:16). To exist without this life is to experience death, which is primarily a separation from the intimate presence and knowledge of God.

So, how can you have this life? The answer is Jesus. Read His words:

Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” — John 14:6 (AMP)

Jesus Christ is eternal life personified. There is no alternative path to becoming a child of God apart from Him. In fact, when God said, “Let us make man in our image,” He was looking forward to humanity being formed in Christ, who is the perfect image of God.

Here’s the evidence:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. — Hebrews 1:1–3 (NKJV)

For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. — Colossians 1:13–15 (NLT)

God’s exact image is His Son, Jesus Christ. His desire has always been for you to be conformed to that same image, as His beloved child, who is loved just like Jesus, doing life together with Him.

This is the heart of the gospel: God loves you so deeply that He provided a way for you to become one with Him, through the gift of His life. This gift is wrapped up entirely in Christ. Just as a bride must willingly say “I do” to her groom, you must consciously receive Christ to experience intimacy with God as our Father.

Through the life He gives, we have light to see the Father as He is and truly know Him. Without Him, there’s no life. There’s no light.

The story of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2–3) was about far more than physical trees and fruit. The Tree of Life actually pointed to Christ, the true Life, freely offered to humanity. By rejecting this gift of Life, the first man fell short of sonship through Christ, and missed the mark of God’s plan. That was sin. As a result, humanity fell under the reign of spiritual death, which introduced fear, shame, guilt, pain, and inadequacy into the human experience. Cut off from the light-giving life of God, humanity began living a lower life, in a realm of spiritual darkness and separation from God’s nature.

Yet God, rich in mercy and unwilling to abandon humanity to the power of death, pursued us. Because man had become subject to death and lacked capacity to choose life, a divine substitution was necessary. Christ took on human flesh, entered our realm, bore the weight of death, and overcame it through His resurrection — all as our representative. He did not merely act for us; but as us. In a beautiful exchange, He was wounded and broken to make us whole, He made our shame His own, and gave us every right to become sons of God. He stood in our place so that, through faith in His death and resurrection, we could be freed from the hold of death and receive the gift of life God intended from the beginning.

What great love!

Having accomplished all this, He’s not asking for much. He simply asks you to believe His love, publicly displayed in the death and resurrection of Christ.

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. — Romans 10:9–10 (NLT)

Just as a bride responds to her groom, today is an open invitation to choose Christ, respond to His love, and say ‘I do’. He’s waiting for you with open arms to bring you into the true experience of eternal life.

Have you thought of eternal life mainly as something that begins after death, rather than as knowing God now?

If Jesus is not simply one part of life but the Life God intended for us from the beginning, what does it mean for you to receive Him personally?

And if God has already acted in love through Christ, what is keeping you from responding to that love today?