What God Seeks — We Can Give Him

J. Dan Gill

It is truly wonderful! God desires relationship with human beings and has made a way for that to happen. It is in the Messiah’s covenant that we find the ultimate terms for peace with our Creator (Rom. 5:1; Heb. 13:20, 21). By God’s love and wisdom he has given us the opportunity not only to know him, but to have an unending life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

The familiar words above are actually a summary of the new covenant. The terms of this covenant are that we must believe in — rely on and adhere to¹ — God’s Messiah and keep his words. In doing so, we shall never perish but have unending life. That is God’s great, ultimate and final covenant with humankind. John writes:

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life; he who does not have the son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11, 12).

We as human beings do not have a choice as to whether we are born as descendants of Abraham. We do, however, have the choice of whether or not we will trust in Messiah Jesus. For all who do, they will be blessed with Abraham(Gal. 3:9). Those who participate in the new covenant with Jesus Christ — whether Jews or Gentiles — are the ones whom God now counts as the true children of Abraham. They are the heirs of the promise:

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29).

What greater blessing to the nations could there be than unending life? That blessing comes only through relationship with the Messiah, the most extraordinary one of Abraham’s offspring. By him we can become the friends of God. In the Messiah, we can give God what he really seeks: We can call him “Father.”

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26).

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(1) To “believe” is pisteuo in the Greek New Testament. The word indicates more than just mental cognition or assent. To believe in Christ indicated commitment and obedience (Luke 6:46; John 3:36; Heb. 5:9). Thayer tells us that pisteuo is “conjoined with obedience to Christ.” Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), 511.