Posted on 04/12/2014 8:36:47 AM PDT by pastorbillrandles
I thought this comment by my wife on facebook, was a valuable contribution to the "Sexual Atheism" article posted yesterday.She was attacking false views of the Love of God,,,
HEY! God LOVES you, man .... Of course He does!!! It's His duty to love me. Why, isn't that His job? Many young people today, who call themselves christians, believe this and even act as if He owes them something. Too often, the thinking is 'God revolves around us''...This is such a wrong view of God; He is God ~ He is the center. The truth is we must revolve around Him. So many, even in the church either lack sound biblical knowledge or simply, flat out deny His truth; as if exempt. They think, 'I can sleep with whoever I want, I can live anyway I want and God, I am entitled to it, you just owe me to be okay with it and with my disobedient life style." In their sin they cling to the false idea of Unconditional LOVE... What about the Words of Jesus? " ... deny yourselves, pick up your cross and follow me .... if you LOVE me you will keep my commandments". The truth is that we owe Him our life, our love, our everything. I am concerned about our youth today, I often talk to and read about many whose lives are in the balance, yet they are unaware of it. I am afraid that many are weighed and found wanting, or could I say, found lusting and really serving what they want? I know many youth today who really do love God and are not making excuses. They want to serve Him on His terms and love Him by not fudging on sin.Yes, they may fall but, they are not cavalier about it, and they get back up again, repent to the Lord humbly consecrating their lives to Him. All too often I find myself so burdened and heartsick over the youth whose view of God is deficient. May the true holy vision of God be granted to this generation as in days of old. And may many turn back to the one true Living and Holy God. 5
Yep.
The OT at least, is pretty skimpy on the idea that God loves us. He commands us to love him. But it seems to me that He merely puts up with us, even despite our constantly slipping potential in these ‘modern’ times. Though He must be getting somewhat impatient, IMHO.
The first couple of Books, perhaps an argument can be made, but that is fleshed out well before the end of the Pentateuch.
Why not? Once saved, always saved—by faith alone.
The OT is full of God loving his chosen people, who then set about going against God. Loving as he is, God would chastise them and they would return to obedience, which covenantally is “holding up their end of the covenant”.
Love is not allowing someone to do what’s bad for themselves to the point that they destroy themselves, but letting them make their mistakes and chastising them to correct them.
Love is teaching, so people don’t live like ignorant fools, and are not biting the hand that feeds them. Otherwise, God would be simply creating a loved people that were ungrateful, selfish leeches.
Eventually one hopes the person will understand the love they’ve been given, and begin to live according to that same love.
Instead of taking advantage of the love they are given, abusing the blessings.
God has predestined his children for their inheritance.
Sometimes people repent and return to obedience to God; God’s patience in such cases is merciful.
As far as the wicked, he waits until their “cup is full”, which can be a long time.
Romans teaches us that "sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace" (Rom 6:14).
Grace and the law are both teachers. The law "is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" (Gal 3:24), teaching us that we are never righteous by our deeds because the law actually activates sin is us ("the strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor 15:56)). The law is like a mirror with bright lights: it not only shows us our flaws, it highlights them, but does nothing to fix our flaws. That's about all the law does for us.
Grace on the other hand "teach[es] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:12). Notice, it's not the law that teaches us to deny ourselves but grace. The law focuses on US and what WE should do. Grace focuses on CHRIST and what HE has already done. He is our righteousness which is a gift from God not a result of our performance. We now "reign in life" by the "abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness" (Rom 5:17).
Living righteously is simply a byproduct of trusting in Jesus and believing in all he has done for us - it comes effortlessly. The difficulty is maintaining our focus and belief in Him, but what helps is knowing that no matter what, he always loves us and doesn't count or sins against us (Heb 8:12, 10:17; 2 Cor 5:19).
Therefore our focus should be on how much God loves us every minuter of every day. Our love for him comes as a byproduct of our focusing on his love for us. "We love him becasue he first loved us" (John 4:19). The Bible definition of love is found not is 1 Cor 13, which describes the attributes of love, but in 1 John 4:19: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." The key to boldness and overcoming condemnation and fear is when we "have known and believed the love that God has to us" (1 John 4:16).
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