The New Thing

The Mercy of God Attribute Month #8 5-8-2018 Samuel Young Definition of Love: “God is sacrificial benevolence.” John 3:16 – “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” *This is a required project. This project will include all alphabetized sections and be 3-5 typed pages for 1st year students, 2.0 spacing, 12 font size, Times New Roman font. Include project instructions. 1. (A) God's Love towards His Creation. God's love disposes Him to take pleasure in His Creation. Psalm 104:31 tells us “He rejoices in His works.” We are also told in verse 24b that “the earth is full of His riches.” (1). Choose and list with the scripture verses 3 things in this psalm that describe His love towards His Creation. (2). Write several paragraphs describing how this benevolence extends towards mankind in general and you specifically. The sky is such an amazing creation which can show God’s love for us. Verse 2 says, “spreading out the sky as a canopy.” Canopy defined by Merriam Webster’s is a protective covering, ornamental roof like structure. Both of those definitions are very apt descriptions of what God made the sky for. God shows His love for us by giving us this protective covering that repels or blocks harmful rays, foreign objects, and keeps the gases here on earth. As a piece of art work, the sky displays Gods love for us in that God would not always have to have the sky be different shades beauty and wonder. Yet, all the time, the sky is changing to show more of God’s creativity and love for us. As I was writing my paper, I was laying on top of a box watching the sun go down through the trees. It was so neat how God worked it that I would be laying there at that time working on a paper about His love for us while at the same time I would also be able to see the beauty of that sunset right behind my computer screen. Food is something that I really enjoy, both the making and eating of it. God could have made man with only a few taste buds, as owls have. If we would have only had a few taste buds, eating would have been more a chore, something we do because we have to survive but not gain enjoyment from. Instead God gave us tons of taste buds so that we could taste His goodness and love that He had bestowed upon us in part by giving us all kinds of different taste profiles. Verse 15 even seems to suggest that God made food with different purposes. Some to sustain us, some to make our face shine, and some to make our hearts glad, to enjoy and just delight in. As a general population, we often look at work as a curse and something that we could and should shirk if possible. But it is interesting that it is actually something that God gave to man and indeed blessed us with as well. Verse 14 and 23 both talk about how work is something that God gave man, each time work is mentioned it is not as a bad thing, but a way in which man provide for himself and others. How different things would be if we viewed work not as a curse, but as a blessing from God. God Himself worked and found pleasure in a job well done. Thorough work, we have the opportunity to use the skills that God gave us in His love to bless others and in the same actions bring greater glory to God. (B) God's Love Redeemed Us. Read Romans 5:8-11. (1). First choose 3 fruits from this passage that His redemption gave believers. (2) Next in several paragraphs describe each one using a concordance and cross references to support your findings. The single most selfless act in history, or every to come could very well be argued to be the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Apostles John even argues this same thing when he writes in John 15:13, “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.” When Jesus came to die for sinners and justify them before God , it was not for friends that he came to die for, nay, but for enemies who had explicitly disobeyed His Father and by extension himself (Rm 5:6). Jesus willingly came, full knowing that he was going to be killed in in a cruel and horrific way because of His love for us and in obedience to his Father (Matt 26:39). Through His death, Jesus was the ultimate and final fulfillment of the fragrant sacrificial offerings to God (Eph. 5:2). Jesus’s entire purpose in coming to the earth was to be the sacrificial, ultimate offering to the Father so that we could be made right or reconciled to God (Rm 3:25). Through his death Jesus took the whole worlds sin upon himself, and now when God looks at us, He sees us not as the sinners that we actually are, but through the lens of His son Jesus who died a perfect death to save us (Heb. 7:28). Through His death, the Father can now declare us righteous and we now have the option to be saved from God’s wrath if we so choose to accept Christ as our Savior (1 Thess. 1:10, Rm 1:18). When God first made man, He made them perfect and without spot and consequently God could walk with man (Gen. 3:8). Man sinned and therefore fell from union and walking with God, for God cannot stand to look on or tolerate evil (Ps. 1:4, Hab. 1:13). After salvation, the new Christian enters a new phase of life called sanctification or being made holy before God. This process is lifelong during which we are cleansed of the old man (2 Cor. 7:1, Eph. 4:17-24, Col. 3:5-10). Sanctification is something that has to be a conscience effort on our part at all times, otherwise we can fall back (1 Cor. 10:12, Heb 3:12, 12:15). The purpose of being made holy before God is with the ultimate goal one day when we die of being able to stand in God’s presence and live. (C) God's Love Through Us. (1). Using Romans 12:9-21 write several paragraphs discussing the active nature of God's love the believer is called to demonstrate through these verses. (2). Choose three familiar Biblical characters that actively demonstrated the characteristics you discussed in C1, and write several paragraphs about them, using Scripture references to support your statements. (3). In one paragraph explain how this chapter is an example of our definition of “love”: sacrificial benevolence. (4). Finally, as an image bearer of the Lord God, do you reflect this attribute accurately before the world, in your family and in your church? How or why not? Non-christians if they tried to sum up Christianity and its beliefs in one word would use the word “love.” This would be a partially correct statement, but not a totally accurately representation of them. Christians are commanded to be loving and demonstrate love because God loves us and is the embodiment of love. We are to love one another as Christ loves us. This love to everyone is to be manifest in part thought not being hypocrites, rejoicing in hope, and being patient in afflictions. Instead of just loving our family as the rest of the world does, we are also called to love everyone with brotherly love. Throughout the ages Christians have often been persecuted for being so different then the rest of the world. We are called to be countercultural in even our response to affliction, instead of responding in vengeance and avenging ourselves, we are to leave the repaying and vengeance to the Lord who will repay (Heb. 10:30). Just as Jesus did not curse or attack those who killed Him and instead loved them to the end, we are called to love our enemies and do good to them (Matt. 26:53). I know a struggle for me is being humble in everything. Jesus is the embodiment of the word love in all His actions. He can to the Earth out of pure love for His Father. After being born and living a fairly short life, Jesus then suffered and died one of the most painful deaths known to man out of His love for mankind. Once He rose from the grave, He then ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father (John 18-20, Isaiah 53). Outside of God and His love for us, one of the best examples of love is that of the good Samaritan. A jewish man was robbed, beaten and left to die on the road. Several of his countrymen came past but they all avoided him to different reason. Last along comes a Samaritan man whom the Jews hated, and this man instead of ignoring the hurt jew, he takes care of him and pays for him to stay at an inn and bee healed.