God is pursuing after us. Everything that happens to us is for God to have His way to appear to us and gain us. Many people in the Bible were drawn, attracted, and gave their all for the Lord. But do we know the secret of what these people went through that caused them to have such a consecration? Actually, the start of this relationship begins not with us, but on God’s side: it begins with His pursuit in love of fallen man.
Before Abraham, there was only one origin: everyone was from Adam, being of the created race that had fallen away from God’s purpose and under a curse to toiling and death. Abraham would not have been any different, but God came to call him out of the world (Gen. 12:1). And when Abraham responded to God’s call, a new way for mankind was opened: that of God’s called race. From that point on, Abraham lived as a sojourner in the land of promise (Heb. 11:9), and throughout Abraham’s life, God would appear to him many times.
What does this experience of the Lord’s appearing mean to us? It means that we have become a new kind of people — a people who live a life justified by believing, which is simply our faith. Where is this faith found? Inside that moment of receiving and experiencing His love, there is a faith. Inside this faith, we meet Him coming to us as a person. Also in this faith, we become a person who can have a response. When we believe in His calling, there is a reaction within us so He can usher us into love, grace, peace, hope, life, and glory. The Lord gives us a new life. Do you know what a new life is? It’s that we’ve come out of Ur. We are not only journeying in the wilderness; we’ve started a new life. That new life starts when the love has been received.
God’s pursuit of us is a pursuit in love, and this love is the beginning of our experience of being justified. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). Do you think Abraham was perfect? Sometimes, in our church life or in Christianity, we like to present ourselves as if we don’t have sin. That’s not righteousness. The Bible shows us something different. Abraham must have recognized he was a very conniving, very sinful person, just like you and me. Abraham did not present himself as spotless and without sin, but that his weaknesses could be forgiven, and that forgiveness was the fruit of His mercy. The fruit of that grateful attitude is called grace. This is the real-time experience of justification.
As believers, it is a mercy for us to recognize that God is pursuing us. As we walk through our life, He is bringing us into a deeper knowing of Himself. In this pursuit of God, in His pursuit of us, we become a new kind, a new creation being called out in love, and we experience the fruits of receiving and responding to Him. This is our story, from the first day we were called out to start our new life until today. It is the foundation of our salvation and of our relationship with our Lord. And this pursuing love is also what keeps us to the end: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life […] will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 7/3/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)