Being the Church: One in Faith - The Attributes of God.

We believe in...The love, grace and sovereignty of God

Article 2: “The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.”

Linking the Learning: We have moved from looking at the ideas behind BEING THE CHURCH in terms of big, broad concepts, identifying the characteristic marks of the Church as it lived out its faith in the world to moving now to considering what the Church believes in terms of its core tenets of faith.

The LOVE of God.

In the OT, God’s love is expressed towards humans primarily as a collective group

OT passages such as Dt. 4:37, ‘your fathers’; Pr. 8:17, ‘those who love me’; Is. 43:4, ‘Israel’), demonstrate this, though obviously individuals make up groups.

There are only a few occasions in which God is said to love an individual, and in each case it is a king (2 Sa. 12:24 and Ne. 13:26, Solomon; Is. 48:14, Cyrus).

The choice of Israel arose from His love of them as a Nation.

God took the initiative and chose Israel because he loved her (Dt. 4:37; 7:6ff.; 10:15; Is. 43:4). This love is spontaneous, not evoked by any intrinsic worth in its object, but rather creating that worth (Dt. 7:7)

However the love of God is personal in nature, rooted firmly in the personal character of God himself.

It is deeper than that of a mother for her children (Is. 49:15; 66:13).

This is most clear in Ho. 1–3, where the relation between the prophet and his unfaithful wife Gomer is illustrative of the ultimate basis of the divine covenant, not established by law but in the unconditional love of God. It is a love that is willing to suffer and cannot be swayed or diverted by disobedience (Ho. 11:1–4, 7–9).

So God can say to unfaithful Israel ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love’ (Je. 31:3).

This concept of unconditional love is fully expressed in the NT by the adopting of the Greek word agape

It is a word infrequently used in classical Greek, where it expresses, on the few occasions it occurs, that highest and noblest form of love which sees something infinitely precious in its object.

The NT deploys other words for love such as phileō which refers to intimate affection (Jn. 11:3, 36; Rev. 3:19), and of liking to do things which are pleasant (Mt. 6:5). This was the word preferred by Peter when asked by Jesus agape se - Do you love me? Peter reluctant to use this word, prefers to acknowledge his very deep affection, but humbled by his earlier denial he cannot in good conscience say, “I love you unconditionally with the highest and noblest kind of love!” see Jn. 21:15–17

God’s love for His Son, Jesus is expressed in the word ‘beloved’ (agapētos), carrying with it a strong sense of uniqueness - ‘only-beloved’. because it is both mutual (Jn. 14:31; cf. Mt. 11:27) and existed before creation(Jn. 17:24) see also (Jn. 3:35; 15:9; Col. 1:13; ).

Surprisingly, Jesus is not recorded in the Synoptic Gospels as using agapaō or phileō to express God’s love for men. Rather he revealed it by his countless acts of compassionate healing (Mk. 1:41; Lk. 7:13), his teaching about God’s acceptance of the sinner (Lk. 15:11ff.; 18:10ff.), his grief-stricken attitude to human disobedience (Mt. 23:37; Lk. 19:41f.), and by being himself a friend (philos) of tax-collectors and sinners (Lk. 7:34).

This activity is rightly declared in John’s Gospel to be a demonstration of the love of God, in the eternal salvation of men and women (Jn. 3:16; 1 Jn. 4:9f.).

Redemption, centres on the death of Christ, which is God’s love in action (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:14).

And this love is amazing, self-giving, elective love, deeply personal and incredibly generous - Gal 2:20;Eph 2:1-10

It behooves us in response to this love to show it to others - 1Joh 4:11.

Question 1 - How do we? Should we respond to the love of God?

2. The GRACE of God.

Grace is a wonderful word which encompasses so many other ideas:

“There are ‘grace-words’ which do not contain the word ‘grace’ ’ (Moffatt).

The word grace covers concepts such as forgiveness, salvation, regeneration, repentance and the love of God.

The OT words used are: (i) ḥeseḏ, translated as ‘steadfast love’, ‘loyalty’, and in the AV ‘mercy’ (149 times), ‘kindness’ (38), ‘lovingkindness’ (30) and ‘goodness’. see Lam 3:22; Hos 6:6. (ii). ḥēn, ‘favour’ (RSV), used of the action of a superior, human or divine, to an inferior. It speaks of undeserved favour. It is the kind of undeserved kindness and favour that Ruth found from Boaz (see Ruth 2:2,10).

Israel were acutely aware of the grace of God which motivated by law, stood apart from law and brought them into a special relationship with God - Deut 7:7-8.

In the NT, charis was the normal word used to translate Heb. ḥēn whereas eleos represents the Heb. ḥeseḏ and has the meaning of ‘mercy’. Interestingly the New Bible Dictionary asserts that ‘Grace’ is preferred to ‘mercy’, because it includes the idea of the divine power which equips a man to live a moral life.”

Again, interestingly the word “charis” is never recorded as being spoken by Jesus but of course the idea of grace is very prominent in His ministry. Jesus came “to seek and save the lost.”(Lk 15). The undeserving, wild-living and worthless lost son was welcomed by his father in a way he did not deserve (Lk. 15:20–24). Zacchaeus; Matthew the Tax Collector; the Woman caught in adultery were all undeserving recipients of the mercy and kindness of God. In short His actions and His words demonstrate and dripped grace! That is why His work and His word came to be called the “gospel of grace” - ’ (Lk. 4:22; Acts 14:3; 20:24).

For Paul the gospel is a a demonstration of the power of God to save fallen men and women - see Rom. 1:16–3:20. Man is shown as a sinner, but by grace he is justified (Rom. 3:21–4:25). God in his grace treats him, though guilty, as if he had never sinned. FAITH is the human response to divine grace (Rom. 5:2; 10:9; Eph. 2:8). This faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8); the words ‘not your own doing’

And this grace is continually expressed in the dynamic sense, resulting in fearless courage and effective witness - see Acts 4:33; 11:23; 13:43.

Christianity ‘is a religion of grace or it is nothing … no grace, no gospel’ (Grace in the New Testament, p. xv).

Question 2 - Why is grace such an important concept to emphasize when it comes to sharing our faith?

3. The SOVEREIGNTY of God.

The concept of the sovereignty of God describes His unlimited power.

God has sovereign control over the affairs of nature and history (Is. 45:9–19; Rom. 8:18–39).

The Bible declares that God is working out His sovereign plan of redemption for the world and that the conclusion is certain.

The idea behind the sovereignty of God is His absolute right to do what He will as creator of all that He has made.

This connects to the grace of God and explains the believer’s position in grace, not because of anything in himself, but because of the will of God.

God’s choice of His people in ELECTION shows that in bestowing favour God is perfectly free (Eph. 1:1–6; 2 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 3:5).

Every step in the process of the Christian life is due to grace—Gal. 1:15 (call); 2 Tim. 2:25 (repentance); Eph. 2:8–9 (faith).

Indeed in Rom. 8:28–30 Paul surveys the divine agency from the call to the final glory of the redeemed.

Question 3 - Looking at Romans 8:28-39 how should the idea of God’s sovereignty inspire us to live with hope and confidence?

4. The Sovereignty of God over ALL THINGS.

The statement reveals the extent of the exercise of God’s sovereignty “...in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.”

Our previous thinking around the sovereignty of God interacts directly with the rest of the statement

(a). God is sovereign in CREATION:

God exercises authority and control over all that He has made.

The Bible presents Yahweh as the Creator God, with a sovereign right to rule over all creation (Psa 104).

He has set in motions processes (the laws of nature) that SUSTAIN all that he has made, according to His will and purpose.

So for example in creation He delegated authority, by making greater and lesser lights to rule night and day and He also gave Adam the dominion over creation to care for it as His steward. (Gen 1:16, 18, 26, 28).

(b). God is sovereign in PROVIDENCE:

By PROVIDENCE we mean God is able to look ahead and think about what He will do in any given situation. It derives from the Latin providentia, a noun from the verb providere “take thought for,” “look ahead.”

God in His providence controls the actions of men and women to ensure that they lead overall to His intended purposes. He “works all things according to the council of His own will.”

This includes the control of National and International powers! God is the “great king (מֶלֶךְ, melek) over all the earth” (Psa 47:2) who “reigns (מָלַךְ, mālak) over nations” (Psa 47:8). God therefore establishes kings and kingdoms, and brings an end to any king or kingdom that fail to submit to his authority. All earthly rule is delegated by God and subject to His intervention - Dan 5:21;Rom 13:1.

God’s rule over the affair of mankind is all encompassing. He is “King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Rev 17:14) - see 1Tim 6:16; Dan 4:2,3;6:26

(c). God is sovereign in REDEMPTION:

Redemption in the Bible refers to the release of people, animals, or property from bondage through the payment of a price.

In the NT it is sued metaphorically of the buying back of the sinner from the slave market of sin, at the cost of the “precious blood” of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 3:24–25; Eph 1:7).

The Gospels describe Jesus’ death as a ransom for many (Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45). Jesus’ death is a substitute for others who deserve to die.

It results in “the forgiveness of sins” - (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14).

Now that Christians have been “bought with a price,” they are not to be slaves to people, but slaves of Christ (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23).

From the very announcement of the angel to Mary and Joseph until the triumph of Jesus at the tomb, the sovereign rule of God is revealed in the person and work of Jesus.

As Jesus expels demons, it is the result of the kingdom of God drawing near (Matt 12:28).

Jesus demonstrated the power and reality of God’s sovereignty and made the Father’s will his mission: “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10).

Jesus brought the Kingdom of God near with powerful miracles and preaching.

Jesus betrayal, trial, death on the cross and His resurrection from the grace demonstrates the sovereign control of God over all the affairs of men to guarantee our redemption!

(d). God is sovereign in JUDGMENT:

God’s sovereignty extends to His judgment over the all mankind.

At the end of the world, evil will be destroyed (Rev 19:17–21), heaven and earth will be made new (Rev 21), and Jesus will reign forever (Rev 11:15; compare Exod 15:18).

(i). The Redeemed & Judgment:

Those who live in the state of “now but not yet” having been redeemed from sin, but having also been “sealed with the Holy Spirit” for the “day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). will finally experience the redemption of the body (Rom 8:21-23) and will receive their full inheritance (Eph 1:13–14) at the “revealing of the sons of God” (Rom 8:19).

The redeemed will be judged “at the judgment seat of Christ”(2 Cor 5:10) for their works but those who confess Jesus is Lord and walk in love need not fear of the coming day of judgment (1 John 4:17).

(ii). The unbeliever & Judgment:

In contrast the unbeliever, having not been redeemed shall not escape the judgment.

In the NT, the day of judgment accompanies the return of Jesus. He has been appointed to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5; John 5:22) and the end will come at the Great White Throne judgment, when the unrighteous will be sentenced to spend eternity in the lake of fire (Rev 20:11–15).

God’s sovereignty over Judgment shall in the end result in Jesus being recognized as the “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Rev 17:14), and “the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15)

Question 4. How should the thought of the Judgment Day influence our attitude to life and our attitude to evangelism?