Print
Series: Knowing God THE GOD WHO IS LOVE Study No.7
1 John 4/7-21
Our sessions have not covered every aspect of God’s person e.g. “God is Spirit”, God is “light” but this last one is a ‘must have’ if we are to have any sense of completion. Yet few words have been more distorted, twisted, misunderstood and abused than “love”. This is the word that opponents to the Christian Faith most highlight in their opposition. “If God is a God of love, why so much suffering….?
[1] THE NATURE OF GOD’S LOVE”
a. ”God is love” – it is his very nature. He is more than what He does. Our understanding of His love must also accommodate His justice, His holiness. Nor must we impose our human limitations on His love. His love is not weak or indulgent, fickle or conditional.
b. There are times when God expresses His love in discipline and correction. READ Hebrews 12/4-9.
c. God’s love = unconditional, unmerited giving of Himself for the human race.
d. Read & discuss this statement: “God’s love is not a response to anything in us but by everything in Him”
[2] THE PROOF OF GOD’S LOVE
a. The real test of love is what it gives to the object of that love. The proof of God’s love for us is seen in what He gave us. That gift is no more eloquently expressed than in the Cross of Christ. John, more than any other of the apostles seems to have been gripped by this truth. In both his gospel and his letters, he most clearly seems to articulate this aspect of love – sacrifice.(Read John 3/16, John 13/1, John 15/13; Romans 5/8)
[3] THE INTENTION OF GOD’S LOVE.
v RECONCILIATION BETWEEN GOD AND THE HUMAN RACE. “Atoning sacrifice”= “removal of the cause of offence and breaking down the barrier”. God’s intention in His self-giving was to neutralize the hostility, guilt, fear and estrangement.
v RECONCILIATION BETWEEN HIS CHILDREN
Being reconciled to God opens the possibility of reconciliation between each other
