Did God Get Saved?

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..." - John 3:16

God loved before He gave.  God did not start loving us after He gave His Son, and He certainly didn't start loving us after we believed it.  God was always loving the people of this world.  That's why the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world.

The cross of Jesus did not change the Father's mind about us.  He loved us.  The Father didn't need a new nature.  He did not need to become nicer, more patient, more merciful, or gracious.  In other words, He didn't need to get saved.

Humans have thought wrongly about God since the garden of Eden.  There were whispers that God couldn't be trusted, that maybe He did not have our best interest at heart.  We felt intimidated, and ran from the most benevolent being there is.  We felt that He judged us the way that we judge ourselves and others.  We felt that God did, or would forsake us because of our bad behavior.  In our minds, He was often angry and punitive.  We feared Him as a God who loved His rules more than He loved us.

Jesus did not change the Father at all, but He did change us.  Jesus did not change the Father's mind about me, but He sure changed my mind about the Father.  Through the gospel, I could see the true nature of God, and the beauty of His grace brought down the walls of my imaginations.  I could see, and when I saw, I fell in love.  My beautiful Father needed not to be reformed, it was me and my mind that needed to be reformed.  The Truth allows us to repent, to think again, and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

"And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight." - Colossians 1:21-22

When we believe in the abundant grace of a loving Father, the doorway is opened to knowing Him.  This is where the relationship becomes sweet.  This is the work of righteousness that brings confidence and assurance in a turbulent world.  This is where we have faith and trust in the One who has begotten us.  He is our very source of Life.  He is our wonderful Father.