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Can anyone imagine King David passing out, "God Loves You" t-shirts?

No, but I can imagine Jesus doing so.

We do not understand God as they did in David's time, else we would still be Jews.

In the OT we have the massive revelation that God is not like the pagans gods. First of all "He is one." Second, we can enter into conversation and covenants and have a concept of God as "just" rather than capricious.

We have "God loves you, if..."

If nothing changes, nothing changes. Something really changed in the Incarnation. Revealed to us was that God's love does not depend on our keeping the law. Jesus took us from "God loves you, if.." to "God loves you."

If we do not follow Jesus, if nothing has changed with His Incarnation, we have not learned more about His Father; we still have only the OT and not the Gospel.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Something really changed in the Incarnation. Revealed to us was that God's love does not depend on our keeping the law.

I would suggest there was a understanding of this in Old Testament times. Note what the scriptures teaches:

1Sa 15:22-23 And Samuel said, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."

Psa 51:15-19 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Isa 1:10-11 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

The difference in the OT and the NT is the coming of the promise. They looked forward to when people would be redeemed. We looked back. One of the most IMPORTANT difference between the OT and NT times is that God put His Spirit in us to walk in His statues. I personally cannot fathom how I could even function as a Christian without the Holy Spirit. Even with Him, I fail miserably.

As far as Jesus handing out the t-shirts, our Lord did not look very favorable upon those who He called "sons of the devil" or "brood of vipers".

For God so loved the world...

Dr. Sproul stated that people always quote John 3:16 without quoting the whole context of the verses:

Joh 3:16-19 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.