God With Us - “The Gift”
John 17
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.
2 For you have given him authority over everyone.
He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.
3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.
4 I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
5 Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.
Ephesians 2
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
John 17
6 “I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
7 Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you,
8 for I have passed on to them the message you gave me.
They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me.
9 “My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me,
because they belong to you.
John 3
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Romans 2
4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you?
Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done.
7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers.
8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness.
Romans 11
22 Notice how God is both kind and severe.
He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness.
But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.
John 17
10 All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory.
11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world,
but I am coming to you.
Holy Father, you have given me your name;
now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.
12 During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.
1 John 3
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
Romans 4
4 When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned.
5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.
6 David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it:
7 “Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sins are put out of sight.
8 Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”
Romans 6
22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Corinthians 5
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God,
who brought us back to himself through Christ.
And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
