“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage
your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” – 2 Thessalonians
2:16-17 NIV
First of all, we ought to know that God,
our heavenly Father (Ephesians 4:6) has given us eternal life
through Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Otherwise, we probably are
going to continue to sin without realizing it, and we are going to experience
eternal death from the end of the age. “For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) This means that Jesus Christ
is the way of the truthful life (John 14:6). Furthermore, the reason why God
has given us a second chance to be able to receive eternal life through Him is
that we have been still part of God’s creation (Genesis 1:27), even though we sinned (Romans 3:23). In addition, after humans have
been created, He believes that He made His kingdom into perfection (Genesis 1:31). Thus, for this reason, God always
has been having His steadfast love over us; and because of this, we are always
being welcomed into His presence (Ephesians 3:12), especially when we repent
(Acts 3:19-20), that we may have eternal
life through faith in Christ Jesus (John 11:25-26).
For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)
Therefore, Jesus Christ has given us
eternal encouragement through His Word (Romans 1:16),
and He has also given us hope of God (1 Peter 1:3-9) through the Spirit of God as
well (Romans 15:13). To be more specific, God has
given His Word to us so that we may become the righteousness of God (Romans 1:17, Hebrews 4:12) by living according
to it (Philippians 1:27-29). Secondly, the reason
why He has poured His Spirit into us is because of heart-to-heart
transformation (2 Peter 1:3-11). This is because the word
of God declares, “The sinful nature wants
to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit
gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These
two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out
your good intentions.” (Galatians 5:17) Because of this issue, we
have to crucify our worldly passions and desires and abide into the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). In addition, the word
of God states, “For physical training is
of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both
the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that
deserves full acceptance.” (1 Timothy 4:8-9) Furthermore, if we really
focus on the kingdom and the righteousness of God (Matthew 6:33)—the Holy Spirit just gives us
convictions to do good deeds through Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:23-24; Titus 3:5-8). “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
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