Glimpse the Father’s Love with This Powerful Video

Live in Liberty: The Spiritual Message of Galatians

In Embracing God as Father, Dan Bush and Noel Due show us the loving heart of the Father towards his children. This love is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it is through him that we are adopted into God’s family. Both he and the Father are one in their love and joy and desire to bless us. Dan and Noel help us see God for who he truly is—and who we are as his sons and daughters.

The depth of a father’s love

Embracing God as Father is full of powerful reflections on the Father’s love, and the joy and freedom of his children when they recognize his unconditional devotion to us. In the full text of the excerpt featured in the video above, Dan and Noel further explore the most profound expression of the Father’s love—the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus.

The cross is an utter anomaly, a complete reversal of everything expected. Jesus, the anticipated righteous branch under whose shade his people were to find shelter, the deliverer from the line of David, “a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Isa 11:1; cf. Jer 23:5;33:15; Zech 3:8–10; 6:12), was cut off and consumed by fire in a single day. On the cross the one righteous man was considered a criminal and crucified by so many unrighteous men. The truth was taken for a lie. The loving shepherd of the sheep killed. The bridegroom separated from his bride. The most-beloved Son, disinherited. The only-begotten Son, forsaken.

What was it for the Holy Spirit to be the Spirit of judgment and division, rather than the Spirit of unity between the Father and Son, to bring curses without measure to rest upon Christ’s head rather than the fullness of blessing? What was it for the just judge to become the judged? For the only one who lived by mercy to receive none? For the peace of the world to be treated as an object of warfare? He became for us a besieged fortress whose walls were smashed, a vineyard trampled by beasts, a pillaged city in smoking ruin. The light of the world went into the darkest place imaginable, a place concealed from the Father’s countenance, separated from the peace of his presence, a stranger to the covenant promises.

What pride when we dare think that we have this sorted out and filed away! Our theories can attempt to describe it, but they can’t touch it. We’ve absolutely no grounds for theological snobbery. For at the point where the Son was in the place of judgment, if ever the Father loved him and was pleased with him, it was then. If ever the Father’s loving kindness was being revealed, it was then. If ever the Father’s heart was full of love for us, it was then. Human reason simply can’t grasp the depth of the wonder or even the irony in all this. God explodes all our expectations and concepts in fulfillment of his promise: “I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree” (Zech 3:9–10). While we cannot fathom God’s grace, let us not fail to worship him for it.

Abraham had to take Isaac, his most beloved son through whom God was to fulfill his promises, up Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice. And yet God spared Isaac, staying Abraham’s hand from plunging a knife into the heart of his son. But God didn’t protect himself from the same dilemma. He couldn’t send a ram as a substitute, as he did for Isaac, because his Son is the lamb. . . . We dare not think that because this sacrifice was predestined before the foundations of the world (1 Pet 1:19–20), it came easily to our Father’s heart or smoothly to his hand.

More from Dan Bush and Noel Due

Right now, you can pre-order two new books from Dan and Noel: Embracing God as Father and Live in Liberty.

In Live in Liberty, Daniel Bush and Noel Due bring out the spiritual message of Galatians, helping you apply it to your mind and soul so that you may experience the liberating presence of God. Galatians is a short book but the implications of its teaching are truly enormous. The modern church is plagued by the same problems that Paul addressed in the church in Galatia: we habitually lose the gospel. The critical message of Galatians takes us into the heart of an experience—the enjoyment of God’s presence and everlasting peace—one which sets us free to love and be loved.

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Embracing God as Father and Live in Liberty are shipping soon. Once they’re off Pre-Pub, you won’t get a price this low again—order them both today!

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Written by
Jake Mailhot

Jake Mailhot is the product manager for Lexham Press. He also writes about baseball and lives in Bellingham, WA.

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Written by Jake Mailhot
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