Beloved - Your Identity as Beloved of God

Subject: A look at our new identity as Beloved.
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Subject: We will looker closer at this Identity statement and discover what it says about God, and what it requires of us. 

This is going to be exciting! Today, we will be discussing our identity as the Beloved of God. I am excited about this because an appropriate teaching on our identity as Beloved requires a discussion on what I believe is one of the Bible's deepest topics. A topic that gives life, changes lives, and sustains the soul through life's most difficult times. 

But before we dive in, I want to disclose the purpose of today's Message. I believe that God has a word for us. I believe God has given me a Word that is intended to be more than positive affirmations and personal declarations. I believe that God desires to lead us into deeper experiences. I pray that this is more than just another identity lesson. Something more than just information that creates positive feelings. This teaching, I believe, can truly baptize the heart into the rich joy of God's goodness. 

That being said, let me begin with a recap on what we have already learned about a Biblical understanding of our identity in Christ. In the Bible, the Believer's new identity is presented to reveal much more than something about us. It is divinely inspired to communicate more than just personal professions of WHO WE ARE. It highlights a deeper truth. The Bible presents our new identity in such a way as to demonstrate something specific about God – the Giver of identity. Also, each identity statement reveals a specific expectation for God's people. This is what Douglas Buckwalter says: 

"These names are rich in theological detail. The giving of personal names in biblical times often signified a religious conviction about their recipients or something that would be done through these people. The giving of Christian names, likewise, expresses something about the religious status and character of the person and group named and something about what God has done, is doing, and will do in and through them. These names, in effect, provide us with a first-century compendium of Christian belief."​
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It should become more and more evident to us that the Bible, first and foremost, points us to God. It reveals His actions, His desires, and His covenant faithfulness to His people. The same thing is revealed through the Believer's identity. We must first ask, "what does this say about God?" 

Secondly, we must ask the question, "What does this require of us?" These biblical designations also highlight Heaven's expectation for God's people. Each name, statement, and designation shows something different. Each one is unique. There are around 175 different identity statements in the New Testament alone (Douglas Buckwalter). Each one of these communicates a specific revelation about God and about what is expected of God's people. Of Beloved, we must ask the same thing. What expectation does this communicate of us?

This being said, let us address the answer to our first question...
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What does This say about God?
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It should be obvious that our identity as Beloved emphasizes the love of God. The rich, infinite, and lavish love of God. I believe this, as alluded to earlier, is the deepest topic in the entire Bible. God's love. This is nothing short of breathtaking. It is not indifferent. It is not cold. It is not distant. It is not without emotion. The fact of God's love is one of the most life-changing and sustaining pools in which we can dunk our thirsty hearts. 

And yet, sadly, it seems this has become a platitude. We have heard it said so many times. We have said it so many times. We have read it so many times. It can be very easy to forget how precious and profound it really is. God is restlessly concerned about us. He is attentive and active in His care for us. Our God pursues us. 
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​1 John 4:8 tells us that "God is love." Love is an integral part of God's character. It motivates His actions, and it guides His decisions. So loving is God, the Psalmists, the Prophets, and the Apostles seem incapable of separating love from all that God is. God's love was seen through creation. He created a beautiful and perfect universe for mankind. As a Master Craftsman, He fashioned the world as the perfect place in which to have a relationship with His Beloved – those created in His image. God's love was seen when His Beloved fell in Eden. They, not He, brought death into the world. They scratched the surface of a perfect canvas. They tore the fabric within the frame of God's plan. And yet, God's love was seen in His actions to restore mankind. His love was seen in the gracious historical movement of redemption. As He moved His Beloved back to a right relationship with Himself, God's love was seen. With the work of Christ, God's love is seen in the eventual crescendo of recreating the heavens and the earth. God is love. 

Rom. 8: 35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God." 

Our Identity as Beloved further illustrates this. We are Beloved of God. God loves us! This tells us that God is love. It communicates the loving commitment of God to us. It reveals a God that is active in His care and concern for people. He chose it; He dispenses it. It informs us that love comes from a personal God. He offers His affections to all that would receive it. 
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​Rom. 5:1-5, "... Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God... and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

{Bonus: This incredible little Passage holds a lot of information. I love how it describes the love of God to His people – to His Beloved. Upon placing our faith in Jesus, we enter into a covenant relationship with God. The moment we enter this relationship, God's love "has been poured" into our hearts. (Describing how Christians can, now, have sweet encounters and experiences with God's love).  How incredible a picture of a personal and loving God! A closer look at the "has been poured out" (ἐκκέχυται) reveals more. In the Greek, this word is parsed into the Perfect Indicative Passive. This actually says a ton. The perfect tense communicates "ACTION COMPLETED at a SPECIFIC POINT of TIME in the PAST with results [or action] CONTINUING into the PRESENT (●▬►)" (Precept Austin). The passive voice communicates "The passive voice conveys the idea that the SUBJECT is being ACTED UPON by an OUTSIDE force or power. The SUBJECT is the RECIPIENT or the RECEIVER of the verbal action or effect." The Indicative mood is the "MOOD of CERTAINTY... [it] simply states a thing as being a FACT. There is no doubt that the action occurred. If an action really occurs or has occurred or will occur, it will be rendered in the indicative mood." We can understand that from the moment we received Christ, we (as a matter of fact/and without exception) received (and are continuously receiving) God's love. This can be understood as a divine love that comes from God to us (without requiring works, accomplishment, or merit). God gives of His love freely, continuously, and endlessly. This is our God. 
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Finally, our identity as Beloved emphasizes two primary concepts. First, it conveys God as being the loving Groom. This is absolutely a picture of closeness, intimacy, and tender affection. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew for "beloved" is ‏דּוֹד (dowd). It can be clearly seen about 32 times in Song of Solomon. The symbolism of this Old Testament Scripture grants us a glimpse into the Heart of God for His Beloved. God's loves for His Beloved (the Bride of Christ) is greater than any earthly love possibly imagined. Even the sweetest and most romantic of earthly loves pale in comparison. 

Secondly, this reveals the love of a Father for His children. In the New Testament, the title of Beloved (ἀγαπητός - agapētos) is associated with the eternal love of the Father for the Son. It is also used of God's love for His children. In Ephesians 5:1-2, Believers are affectionately described as "beloved children" having received the most lavish gift of love imaginable – the substitutionary sacrifice of Messiah. God is truly a loving Father to His children. He is protective. He is generous. He is nurturing. He is unconditionally caring. 

1 John 3: 1-2, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are... Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is."

Identifying Christians as Beloved reveals the extravagant love of God. Now that we have answered the question of what it says about God, let us attempt to answer the question of what it requires of us! 

What does this require of us?
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Now that you know you are Beloved of God. Now that you have had a brief glimpse into the depths of God's love. Now let us look at heaven's expectation of us! This particular designation infers that we "be loved." Being the Beloved of the Lord, we are to celebrate and rest in that love. Having drunk deep of the waters of God's love, we now get to treasure it. We are to allow that constant stream to regularly flow over us. 

This is one of my favorite passages. Eph. 3:17-19 says, "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith— that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Wow! Speaking to a people that already have the Spirit of Christ dwelling richly in their hearts, this Sacred Text tells us to root ourselves in love. We are to rest upon the foundation of God's love. This is a place where we can send out our roots into the nutrient-rich soil of God's boundless loving-kindness. I submit that our first response to the love of God is that of rest and celebration. Being Beloved, we are to treasure, cherish, and rest in that precious reality.
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When God delivered His people from their bondage in Egypt, it revealed God's love. He had not forgotten about His people. It was nothing less than a demonstration of God's love and faithfulness. But it did not stop there. Not long after delivering the Hebrews from slavery, God commanded the most peculiar thing. In Leviticus 23, God gave a directive. God spoke and commanded His people. With great authority, God instructed His people to regularly rest and celebrate. God instituted seven festivals and celebrations that were to be regularly engaged. They were intended to train His people to rest in, and celebrate, what God had done, is doing, and will do. Israel was His Beloved! He desired His people to rest in His love and celebrate His covenant faithfulness. From God's perspective, these festivals were to train His people to trust him and to remember His goodness. It was to provoke their hearts to worship. But from the Israelites' perspective, it became "just another command." It was just another thing. It was something they had to do. In this Passage, we can conclude that rest and celebration is God's design. 

Often, I wonder if we do the same. I wonder if the ocean-silencing love of God has become a platitude. I wonder if it has become just another teaching. Just another sermon. Just another passing phrase. I wonder if we, also, forget to rest in (and celebrate) our God. Like Israel, we are God's Beloved! He loves us intensely! 
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The Ephesians 3 passage is one of my favorite passages. It is so profound, and it is so simple. It also shows us that establishing ourselves in God's love leads us deeper. As we root and establish our hearts and minds in the love of God, we position ourselves "to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." This is something that we can train ourselves to do. With the Help of the Spirit, we can train ourselves to rest in and celebrate God's love. As we go. As we work our 9 to 5's. As we struggle to pay our bills. As we work through broken relationships. As we sludge through the waters of loneliness. As we stare at the towering wall of discouragement. We can train ourselves to rest and celebrate. On the fly, wherever we are, we can make intentional and conscious efforts to pray, meditate, worship, fast, and thank God! We can utilize the spiritual disciplines to train ourselves to rest in God's love. We are, after all, His beloved. We are vessels of His affection. There is ALWAYS something for which to be thankful! 

Lastly, as Beloved children, we are to imitate the Love of God. Ephesians 5:1-2 says this, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." As we train our hearts to meditate upon this great love, we allow the loving example of our Heavenly Father to seep in into the very fabric of our being. As we train to establish ourselves in Christ's love, we learn to walk after the pattern of our God. As God's beloved children, we are too look up to the example of our father. Being Beloved of God implies that we will live lives of outrageous love, as we have seen from our Father. As we have been loved, so shall we love others. 

1 John 4: 7-11, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 
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"To love someone means to see him as God intended him" (Fyodor Dostoevsky). 

"I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that He is indeed our Master" (John Newton).

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jesus of Nazareth).
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