God is Love
My lesson for the chapel students this morning was from I John 4:8, "... for God is love." What a great revelation to us. God told us once and for all His character is basically love. He has other attributes, but love is the main one. Because God is love, He always acts graciously and mercifully, but He is still holy and just.
Love means to care for someone else in an unselfish way. Love gives and even suffers for another person. That is why Jesus' death on the Cross was the greatest expression of love ever. The sinless One died in our place for our sins. His death is the defining event of God's love. We need never doubt His love, because the Cross proves it.
However, God also punishes us in love. Some people think that is a contradiction, but it is not. When someone is acting in a sinful way that leads to destruction and death, the loving thing to do is to punish them severely enough to eliminate that behavior and to lead them away from death to life. God loves us just that much.
Finally, some folks think that God would never allow someone to go to Hell, since He is love. However, we must remember that His love works together with His justice and holiness. God has set the way of salvation, which is to trust Jesus as Lord, and He will save us by His grace. If a person does not accept His offer, God's heart breaks, but He has not choice but to send them to Hell, because their sins were never forgiven.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Isaiah 14-16 and Ephesians 5:1-16.
Love means to care for someone else in an unselfish way. Love gives and even suffers for another person. That is why Jesus' death on the Cross was the greatest expression of love ever. The sinless One died in our place for our sins. His death is the defining event of God's love. We need never doubt His love, because the Cross proves it.
However, God also punishes us in love. Some people think that is a contradiction, but it is not. When someone is acting in a sinful way that leads to destruction and death, the loving thing to do is to punish them severely enough to eliminate that behavior and to lead them away from death to life. God loves us just that much.
Finally, some folks think that God would never allow someone to go to Hell, since He is love. However, we must remember that His love works together with His justice and holiness. God has set the way of salvation, which is to trust Jesus as Lord, and He will save us by His grace. If a person does not accept His offer, God's heart breaks, but He has not choice but to send them to Hell, because their sins were never forgiven.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Isaiah 14-16 and Ephesians 5:1-16.