Okay, let’s begin another journey toward God, together:
A CLOSER LOOK AT GOD’S LOVE
The Bible tells us that God is Love, but that does not imply that He is sentimental. God does not bless or reward our human-good works or our sincerity in wanting to please Him (Isaiah 53:6; 64:6). As fallen humanity we do not and cannot ever qualify for God’s acceptance. Our beggarly human good, by which we attempt to impress or please God, is an arrogant attempt, and we are in contempt of God by trying to impress Him with how great we are as we compare ourselves to other people.
This is what Paul was expressing when he wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
By taking the credit, or trying to earn the credit for our salvation, we blaspheme the LORD, and at the same time reject God’s plan of salvation through Christ the Lord on Calvary. God has a plan for humanity’s salvation.
THINK GOD FIRST – THINK TRUTH
We must remember to think God first and then think man. When we understand who and what God is, we will more clearly see who and what we are not. God is Absolute. There is no truer reality. Our human characteristics and functions do not apply to God. God’s Characteristics do not apply to man.
As created human beings we learn truth and think truth, but God is Truth (the only truth and the absolute truth). Everything God is and does is Truth (John 14:6).
We need to understand that as believers, we comprehend Truth in three categories: the laws of Divine Establishment; the Gospel; and Bible doctrine. Every category of Truth in Scripture is an aspect of God’s perfect character and purpose.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
CHURCH BIBLE CLASS – SPRING/SUMMER 2017
Two years ago in Bible class, we studied “The Divine Decrees,” through which God established the existence of every detail of reality. We learned that the Realities of Life and Truth are based on all the attributes of God’s Essence. These attributes are revealed in Scripture.
- God is absolute.
- God’s righteousness and veracity guarantee His absolute freedom from compromise, contradiction, or falsehood in all that He thinks or does (Deuteronomy 32:4).
- God’s omniscience knows everything. He always has and always will know all there is to know.
- God’s knowledge has no restrictions, nor is His concentration limited. God is constantly aware of and occupied with all things simultaneously, along with every thought and prayer of every living human being, also simultaneously.
- God is not distracted, nor does He lose perspective.
With these divine characteristics of God in mind, why do people think they can please God? The question that comes to my mind and perhaps yours too, is: How can a Perfect God, love imperfect human beings (John 3:16)? The answer is contained in the question.
God is perfect love. But, there is more to the equation of perfect love. God’s love is not contingent on His creation. His love is who He is. God is never sentimental or biased. God’s love knows no boundaries. Grace is and always has been God’s perfect love for the human race. Yes!
Righteousness condemns unrighteousness (Romans 5:19). Compared to God we are pathetic and hopelessly helpless. But God so loved us (and always has – John 3:16), that He gave.
God can never stop loving us. God always knew man would fall, and God always had a plan called grace. This is why Grace is so important. Grace is God’s plan for man. Grace is God’s eternal love for Christ, and those that are Christ’s at His coming. Grace is all that God is free to do for humanity because of Christ’s blood (spiritual sacrifice) on Calvary.
Christ died for us, in our place, so that we could be restored to God the Father. God blesses the believer according to that plan. Likewise, God disciplines us when we depart from that plan.
THE DOCTRINE OF IMPUTATION
In Christ, the believer becomes the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is called “imputed righteousness” in theology and may be best understood and defined as “the judiciary act of God whereby He justly declares us righteous when we believe in the cross-work of Christ, who paid our sin debt by His sacrificial death in our place” (Reference Romans 3:31; 8:1,31-34).
Christ’s death-payment in our place is credited to our account, at salvation, by God the Father, who is propitiated (satisfied) with Christ’s payment in full. The Greek word logizomai means credited and appears eleven times in the fourth chapter of Romans. We are justified by His blood (Romans 5:9). Christ’s resurrection is proof that our sins are gone – paid in full, left behind and dead in the tomb.
The ascension of Christ and His acknowledged seat at the right hand of the Father are living proof that God is totally propitiated.
Thank you Jesus for paying our death penalty so we could become heirs of salvation and spend eternity in your awesome presence.
IMMUTABILITY
God is immutable, meaning God never changes – He is who He is. God’s absolute consistency reflects our inconsistencies. God’s righteousness is absolute. God’s justice is absolute, and therefore impartial. God is not partial to you or to me or to anyone. When we truly begin to understand who and what God is, we finally begin to understand who and what we are – and what we understand about ourselves is not good at all.
LOVE IS GOD’S PERFECTLY SPLENDID THING
Virtue is God’s perfectly splendid attribute. Therefore, virtue in the believer is demonstrated by personal love for other believers and impersonal love for all humanity.
THE PATTERN OF GOD’S LOVE
God’s love is our pattern, because God is the source of Love. This is expressed throughout Scripture. Therefore, our capacity to love originates with God, for we are made in His image (Genesis 1:26). Human love involves thought – emotion. The mature believer’s love is designed by God as a spiritual expression of God’s virtue love.
Knowing Christ unlocks the mysteries of God.
We are to love as Christ loved. But we cannot love as Christ loved if we do not know Christ! Knowing Bible doctrine unlocks the mysteries of the cross of Christ. Knowing Bible doctrine unlocks the mysteries of the grace plan of God for mankind. Therefore, God’s knowledge is the ultimate knowledge. Isn’t that awesome?
God is fascinating. Bible doctrine is fascinating. How can we neglect so great a document, written by the very finger of God, specifically for mankind, but especially for the believer? How can we be so careless in our devotion to the study of God? What a tremendous resource God has given us as believers (1 Corinthians 2:16), and for many, their Bible sits somewhere, gathering dust.
BIBLE DOCTRINE
Knowledge of Bible doctrine strengthens our virtue, which builds our capacity for love. Therefore, the more Bible doctrine we know, the more capacity we have to love God, other believers, and the rest of lost humanity, who are out there without Christ, without hope, and without eternal life.
“Bible doctrine builds urgency.” – C. S. Craig
TWO KINDS OF LOVE
Theologically speaking, there are two kinds of love: personal love, and impersonal love. God loves His church of believers – His children – with personal love. God loves the world (unbelievers) with impersonal love. As believers, we reflect God’s personal love for other believers and our family and friends. But we can only love unbelievers with impersonal love, because we do not know them in Christ – you cannot love who or what you do not know in a personal way.
Meditate on these things, as I have for many years. Pray that as believers we would learn to love just as Christ loves us with His perfect love. To reflect God we must learn Bible doctrine. As we take in and put God’s Word to work in our daily lives, we not only develop a doctrinally-oriented vocabulary, but we develop virtue love for The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit as well.
Happy Studying!