Author: Rev Lek Aik Wee

The sacrifice of Christ on the cross surpassed all human reasoning and leads us to understand the truth that God loves us. For a man to sacrifice himself to save good men and righteous men is understandable. But for Christ to sacrifice Himself for criminals like the thief that was hung on the cross beside Him is difficult to comprehend. He deserved to be punished for the crime that he committed.

What a statement of truth in demonstration of God’s love. Indeed, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

God loved us while we were “yet without strength”, while we were in a hopeless condition of moral weakness and helpless. While we were plagued by the deadly disease of sin, God intervened in our lives to show us a way out. The emphasis of the text is in the personal pronoun “we”. It is repeated twice in the original Greek text to show our helpless, hopeless and lost condition. If God had not sent His Son, Jesus Christ, godless men would have been consigned to the fires of hell for all eternity. We, indeed, need to be thankful for this salvation in Christ!

The believer who trusted in the faithfulness and goodness of God and experienced it, has an experiential knowledge of God. He gains confidence and hope in God. He knows God does not disappoint. He will trust God and call upon Him, making it a life long habit. He moves from a maturing to a matured faith. We can always hope in God all the days of our life and experienced His care and protection.

When God sends us affliction, He also supplies us His grace to bear under it. The test is to keep faith and trust God. To keep praying and leaning upon His promises. It is a time where virtue in the believer’s life is formed. The strength to endure and not give up comes from God. He supplies the strength. We tarry with Him. Deliverance will surely come! And we learn that we are not alone in our affliction. God is with us.

There is a spiritual strength that subsist in affliction. A strength that comes from within. This word “experience” means “to be approved”. When we keep walking with God, He sees us through that affliction. We can understand in our heart that God is working in and through us. And we experience victory with Christ. Victory to overcome sin, to say “no” to temptation, to live a holy life, to keep faith before God and man. And experience gives us hope, a boldness to keep trusting God and experiencing His grace in our lives.

In the Christian’s life, we are to expect tribulation. Troubles, sufferings, tears, affliction and distress are a part of this earthly life. We cannot avoid it. It is allowed by God in His sovereign will to mould us that it may bring forth godly virtues.

One of the fruits of tribulation is that it produces this spiritual fruit called patience. Tribulation builds Christian character. We do not welcome tribulation, humanly speaking. As we think of the emotion, mental, physical suffering that it brings, often we shudder. We look at the life of those who went through tribulation, we acknowledge it is tough going.

The four blessing of being a child of God is that we can face trials in life with courage and strength. Be assured that we are not struggling alone but God is with us.

Jesus gave these words of encouragement to His disciples before He went to the cross in John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

The word “tribulation” means “being pressed to a breaking point”. The trials in the believer’s life can be so overwhelming, but Jesus assured His disciples to take courage and be confident and rest in the truth that He is with them to help them overcome and have victory.

The child of God is confident of his good standing before God through Jesus Christ. He has assurance in his heart that God will always do him good. As Solomon testified in Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. The richness of spiritual blessings in Christ is to be experienced on earth, here and now, but the best is yet to come. The splendour and beauty of blessings in heaven cannot be fully comprehended. When we travel to different places, we marvel at the beauty of God’s creation. This will pale to the glories of heaven. God would give us a supernatural body to enjoy the perfect splendour of heaven in eternity. We cannot fully fathom this great privilege now. We catch glimpses of it through the eyes of Scripture. This is the third blessing of being a child of God. Greater blessing is yet future and this is a sure hope!

Our salvation in Christ brings us access to God’s unfailing and inexhaustible favour. This blessing of God’s grace is appropriated by faith. And this blessed standing before God begins when we become a child of God and continues forever! It is mind boggling as we are brought to the realisation of this great privilege we have in Christ. This access for the believer is by way of prayer to the Father in heaven in the name of Jesus Christ.

Whenever we have any need, we can call to the Father in heaven to supply and He hearkens to our cry each time. The psalmist testified how he loved his LORD who has been his ready helper.