God's Love: A Basic Study of 1 John 4:8, Pt 1

1.  The love of God is the most loved thing of all creation.  We love the love of God.  The love of God comes directly from God's heart.  The Bible says that God is love and everything He does is in love.  God is not a God of tyranny.  He is not cruel or evil. The love of God is a awesome truth of God.  The love of God is comforting to us because it is a profound and divine truth of God.

2.  We think of the love of God and the sin of man and judgment.   We think that we deserve His judgment but we remember that God is a God of love.  God loves us who are by nature children of wrath because of His Son's Cross as the crucified God-man.  How can God be just and still love sinners?  How can God take His holiness seriously and forgive unworthy sinners?

3. We must worship the God of divine Scripture because only then do we ponder justification of guilty sinners.  People worship a god of sentimentalism rather than the God of the divine Word.  God does not abandoned other divine and holy attributes of His nature when He loves.  God does not abandon holiness and justice, but these are all seen in the Cross and if they are not seen in the Cross, the Cross, I submit, is not seen rightly.  We ought to never worship ourselves but we ought to worship God alone.

4.  People love but they love imperfectly.  People who loved us in the past have broken our hearts and caused us pain.  How can we understand love?  How can we understand true love?  True love is the Cross of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Those who love us greatly have the greatest potential to harm us.  We ought to love God supremely because He will never harm us; however, people will harm us.  Some of forsaken love and they do not love at all, because they worry they will be crushed.  We ought to love in light of the fact that people are sinners and that it is possible for them to betray us.

5.  We ought to understand that if we love we will be vulnerable.  We ought to trust the hope that if we love Jesus He will surely never deny us love.  Will God's love let you down?  He says in His Word "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  He will never abandon us.  He will never ask us to depart from Him, because He loves us with the love of the Cross of Jesus Christ.  God accepts everyone who comes to Him through His dear Son.  No one is cast out.  No one is wronged.  No one is harmed.  Everyone is welcomed with the open arms of the Cross.

6.  We might think, "how can God love me and still be just?"  He loves through the Cross.  In the Cross is His justice, His holiness, His righteousness, His forgiveness and His cleansing power.  There is no way for someone to be virtuous or holy without the Cross of Jesus Christ.  God cannot tolerate sin, but sin was punished on Jesus at the Cross.  We cannot keep His law because we are sinners, but God's law points us to His Son at the Cross who welcomes us to Himself.  When we comes we ought to come to God alone.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  We are all sinners.  No one is perfect before God.  When someone has His goodness and mercy, we have it only by His love of the Cross.  Without the Cross there is no hope, but thanks be to God for the great transaction of sin and meritorious righteousness.   

7.  There is an eternal chasm or gulf between us and God; that is, we are eternally separated from God because of sin, transgression and iniquity.  He is holy and we are not.  He is just and we are not.  He is pure and we are not.  He is beautiful and we are fallen.  No human being deserves God's love.  Some may say we earn God's love.  This is impossible.  No one can earn God's love except Jesus Christ.  Christ earned salvation for us in His perfect life.  No one else could do this because Christ was sinless.  Sinners cannot earn salvation because of radical corruption.

8.  James 2:10 says if we fall at one single point of the law we have broken all of the law.  This is the doctrine of total depravity.  1 John 1:8 says we ought to confess that we have sinned otherwise we deceive ourselves and there is no truth in us.  And the OT says that there is not a righteous man on earth that does not sin (Ecc. 7:20).  Sin is said in the Bible to bring spiritual death and this deserves eternal punishment.  If we believe the Cross, we will see the satisfaction of the justice of God placed upon Jesus Christ.  He took our eternal punishment and God was pleased to accept Him in our place.  There is no other well-beloved Son but our Lord and Deliverer Jesus Christ.

9.  God and humankind are not spiritual lovers; that is, we are not born loving God; however, we have been called from our mother's womb by God the Holy Spirit.  God executes judgment upon sinners who have rebelled against Him and His truth that is based on His majestic nature.  We are alienated, enemies and non-reconciled people before God if we do not know Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior.   The Bible says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against our sin.  We cannot negotiate through another intercessor or mediator but we have Jesus who makes intercession to the uttermost. 

10.  How can someone be right with God?  How can someone be just before a holy God?  We can be right before God by Jesus Christ and we can be holy by His Spirit.  God must not give us wrath but He must give us love.  He can give us love only through Jesus' efficacious atonement at Calvary.  Our sin must be removed, but how can it be removed?  It can be removed by God's imputation to His Son at the Cross.  God gave Jesus our sin and He has given us His imputed righteousness in justification.  Jesus offered up Himself as a pleasing sacrifice to God and it was as a fragrant incense before God.  This means in light of the Cross no one can take our sin into account.  It means no one can accuse us anymore, because Jesus has taken it upon Himself.  Amen.