The Love of God

The Problem of the Holiness of God

1 Peter 1:15–16 ESV

15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Isaiah 59:1–3 ESV

1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CMcHtSjtNBY?start=0&end=83

The problem with holiness is that it God is perfectly separated from sin and that our sin separates us from him. We are called to be perfect, but we cannot be. That creates a serious problem for us. God is holy, we are not, yet God has not rejected us because of his great love for us.

The Love of God

John 3:16–17 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

1 John 4:8 ESV

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 jn 4.8

1 John 4:16 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

It is undeserved love ()

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It is unsought love ()

1 John 4:10 ESV

10 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.

It is unimaginable love ()

1 John 3:1 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Peter Jeffery, Bitesize Theology (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2000), 20.

The Love of God Compels Us

God’s love for us compels us to love and live for others.

For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

God’s love lead him to act for the benefit of a sinful people and that love compels us love him and others. We love others because the one whom we love, loves them.

God’s love compels us to give to others.

God’s Love for us compels us to love and live for others.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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God’s love compels us to repent from our sin

Romans 2:4 ESV

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

“If you receive blanket acceptance, you need no repentance. You just accept it. It fills you without humbling you. I relaxes you without upsetting you about yourself – or thrilling you about Christ. It lets you relax without reckoning with the anguish of Jesus on the cross. It is easy and undemanding. It does not insist on, or work at, changing you. It deceives you about both God and yourself.” – David Powlison.