The Father's Good Pleasure

 

What I discovered that is wonderful about Christ is that he knows the mind of the Father. Jesus told the disciples to not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). The verse prior to that Jesus commands that we are to seek the Father’s kingdom and we will have everything we need. It should be a great comfort to us all that God desires for us to be in his kingdom. The greatest gift of the kingdom is salvation, the reality that our sins are forgiven, and we have peace and communion with the Father God and Jesus Christ and the dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

We are saved because God through Christ willed it to happen. Nothing God has determined to do will ever be thwarted. So, if God decides to bestow good will upon someone it will happen. In this case God decided to grant the kingdom to those who seek it.

The reality that Jesus entered the world two thousand years ago to save sinners is a clear demonstration of God’s love for sinners. Jesus is the ultimate evangelist. Jesus told Zacchaeus, I came to seek and save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus was sent by God the Father to rescue his chosen people from their sins. Once a person repents and believes that Jesus is Lord and that he is the only one that can save them, they are taken out of the devil’s grip and placed in the kingdom, the Father’s kingdom, forever. All of the chosen the Father gave to the Son, the Son will seek and save without fail. Listen to the salvific language of our Savior, “All that the Father gives to me will (emphasis added) come to me, and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out (or turn away). For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:37-40).

It was and is the will of God for everyone to believe on the Son. For this is the only way one can be saved and enter into the kingdom of heaven while still on earth. The promise Jesus makes is that all those who he saves will be raised (resurrected) on the last day.