The foundation of the gospel- Love.

[OneFaith]

LOVE In a biblical sense is a deep discussion. It is unpacked in scripture within a variety of contexts. I want to start by looking at the area of the love of God demonstrated through the gospel (good news) of Christ's sacrifice. Words are cheap but demonstration has power. In this case the power to save us from destruction.
John Ch 3:16 (E.S.V) shows the ultimate demonstration of love. “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." This is reiterated in Romans 8:32 "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?" My final example is from Ephesians 2:4 "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy ..." I believe that true Christian love must start with understanding, believing and receiving His love for us.
Within my first biblical reference John 3:16 we see God's love and the cause and effect of it. God promises us that through belief in Him and His Sons actions we may experience an 'open door' to personal salvation, but the flip side of that is that through turning our back and denying faith- we will perish. There is a choice available here. Interestingly enough; recently, allot of my topics have highlighted our God given ability to make choices. God wants us to choose Him, His ways, and to follow biblical direction.
My second passage (Romans 8:32) reemphases the Fathers authority to lay down the life of His Son Jesus. This was; and is the ultimate demonstration and expression of His love for us. Showing the power of God's action and the effect of it.
Finally we see the love of God expressing great mercy. Mercy is defined as God not giving us what we deserve, again demonstrated through the laying down of the life of His son Jesus Christ. This is the central truth of the gospel and the starting point of faith in Him. Belief that God has done this is the only way that we may have restoration and relationship with Him.
Repentance is defined but choosing to turn from living for ourselves and changing direction, which means living for God. To make this choice we must first believe that He is who He says He is and He Has done what He says He has.
This may seem quite a dry and obvious paragraph, and I realise that there is much more to it than this, but I just wanted to lay a foundation of the the gospel demonstrated by the loving authority of the Father who chose to lay down His only son, and that He demonstrates that it's His desire that none might perish by this very act, which reveals to us His nature and His wonderful mercy.
I haven't gone into my own belief about the Spirits work within this or our own personal response. This is just the bare essence of the gospel of grace. A starting point for us to ponder.

I appreciate your intention with this post. But just to clarify, you say, “Belief that God has done this is the only way that we may have restoration and relationship with Him.” is not accurate. The gospel (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) must be obeyed, not just believed in. “With flames of fire (hell) He will take vengeance on those who know not God and who obey not the gospel of His Son.”

We obey by doing the same spiritually- die to ourself, bury our sinful self in the watery grave of baptism, and are raised a new creature in Christ- for we were baptized into His death (Romans 6:3) where He shed His life saving blood. For it is during baptism that God performs circumcision of the heart (Colossians 2:11,12)- cutting away sin from our heart with Christ’s blood. So belief without obeying the gospel is inaccurate. Baptism is of vital importance.

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

Sowing and reaping, this is how I picture God's plan of reconciliation. He gave love and in turn received love. We only love God because He first loved us and it is this principle of reciprocity that causes a great expanse of an ever growing bond. Our love for God increases as our revelation of His love unfolds. This makes our love for the Lord ever increasing as throughout eternity He will reveal to us the riches of His grace towards us.

Love is the foundation of the Gospel, but more importantly God's love. It is the crux of our relationship, the fuel that carries us into eternal life. Christ came not to condemn the world but save it. It is this love for us that enabled Jesus to bare our sins, as He looked forward to the joy set before Him as He endured the cross. We are that joy, a love story written before the foundation of the world.

Thank my friend I'm glad you contributed. Love the way you put that love is the crux, I totally agree with this post 1 john 14:19 We love because He first loved us. That love permeates us and changes us. It enables us to love our brother and that is one of the fruits that proves we are truly saved, is our ability to forgive. 1 John 47Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. and I will skip to .18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[SUP]a[/SUP] love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

 

[Lighthearted]

We could pick a characteristic of love each and do a short exposition and application on it. I find it interesting that the first characteristic is patience lol [/QUOTE

Yes brother! Lol Interesting but from the point of a parent...not surprising, right? Patience, it is hard to have patience with unruly and disobedient children! Just goes to show His true position as our Father...amen!

 

[Lighthearted]

Can you imagine the level of patience He has for all of His children? It's beyond our comprehension!
My patience is wavering with my youngest sometimes before I even count to two...and I know He's counted a lot higher before He's put me in the corner!

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

I appreciate your intention with this post. But just to clarify, you say, “Belief that God has done this is the only way that we may have restoration and relationship with Him.” is not accurate. The gospel (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) must be obeyed, not just believed in. “With flames of fire (hell) He will take vengeance on those who know not God and who obey not the gospel of His Son.”

We obey by doing the same spiritually- die to ourself, bury our sinful self in the watery grave of baptism, and are raised a new creature in Christ- for we were baptized into His death (Romans 6:3) where He shed His life saving blood. For it is during baptism that God performs circumcision of the heart (Colossians 2:11,12)- cutting away sin from our heart with Christ’s blood. So belief without obeying the gospel is inaccurate. Baptism is of vital importance.

I did say that belief was the starting point. If you read other threads I have touched upon obedience. Can we share and enjoy fellowship, learning from one another? I personally love to obey God and I feel shame and guilt when I mess up. I believe that for salvation the starting point is belief that Jesus is who He says He is and has done what He says He has done. The there is repentance- a turning from living life for ourselves, to living life for Jesus. The Greek word denotes a change of mind, the Hebrew a change of direction. I simply wanted to share about Gods love without making it into the same discussion of whether salvation is down to us or Him and how that works. I believe He draws us to Himself, I believe loving is obeying. The fruit of love biblically covers every aspect of obedience.

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

When 1 Cor 14 opens up it says to "Firstly pursue love". The word love in the Greek is agape. One version says to earnestly pursue or follow the way of love. I like the strong's concordance so I'm going to use that from bible hub to unpack what it says about agape- which I understand to be Gods sacrificial love. The strong's concordance says this-

agapé: love, goodwill
Original Word: ἀγάπη, ης, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: agapé
Phonetic Spelling: (ag-ah'-pay)
Short Definition: love
Definition: love, benevolence, good will, esteem; plur: love-feasts.

I didn't actually find that very helpful. Does anyone else have some material on the word agape. I know there are 4 original Greek words for love Agape, phileo, Eros and storge. As far as I'm aware only Agape and Phileo appear biblically? I could be wrong about that ... but hey thats why this is a bible study thread and I'm as eager to learn as the next person. I know that Eros definitely didn't because it originated from the Greek goddess of love. The problem is allot of my books are in storage and I don't like to rely on the internet for things. My bible study tools are compatible with a Pc and I have a Mac ... woops lol.


[h=1]1 Corinthians 13:4-7English Standard Version (ESV)[/h][FONT=&quot]4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[a]6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Can I ask that we come with a heart of compassion as we share, thanks.[/FONT]

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

Can you imagine the level of patience He has for all of His children? It's beyond our comprehension!
My patience is wavering with my youngest sometimes before I even count to two...and I know He's counted a lot higher before He's put me in the corner![/QUOT

Yes patience is a beautiful thing to have. I love this verse 2 Peter 3:9 [FONT=Arimo, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](ESV)[/FONT]
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance". (Psalm 145:8) But there are many verses about his patience and long suffering towards, these are but a few.
[FONT=&quot](Isaiah 48:9) LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. ."For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off. And finally this one is one to really think about lol Romans 9:22-24 .What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.[/FONT]

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

We could pick a characteristic of love each and do a short exposition and application on it. I find it interesting that the first characteristic is patience lol [/QUOTE

Yes brother! Lol Interesting but from the point of a parent...not surprising, right? Patience, it is hard to have patience with unruly and disobedient children! Just goes to show His true position as our Father...amen!

Amen sister. Honestly I think patience is one of the hardest things for me. I have always been the type of person that struggled to wait. And when I thought something was going to happen; Id be waiting for it anxiously counting the minutes lol.

 

[Lighthearted]

Amen sister. Honestly I think patience is one of the hardest things for me. I have always been the type of person that struggled to wait. And when I thought something was going to happen; Id be waiting for it anxiously counting the minutes lol.

You know with Him we don't need to be anxious for anything if we just trust
I wanted to remind you today, that He loves to use the broken and those with a contrite heart...Christians like you and me! The cracks let him shine through you so others can see Him! Psalm 51:17!

 

[Lighthearted]

Don't let me jump ahead J...
Patience also includes understanding. When we take the time to understand what someone is going through and where they are, where they come from in this life...we are apt to have more patience. I am so thankful for an Almighty and all knowing Father.

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

You know with Him we don't need to be anxious for anything if we just trust
I wanted to remind you today, that He loves to use the broken and those with a contrite heart...Christians like you and me! The cracks let him shine through you so others can see Him! Psalm 51:17!

Yeah hence the name I have- its one of my favourite thoughts

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

We could pick a characteristic of love each and do a short exposition and application on it. I find it interesting that the first characteristic is patience lol [/QUOTE

Yes brother! Lol Interesting but from the point of a parent...not surprising, right? Patience, it is hard to have patience with unruly and disobedient children! Just goes to show His true position as our Father...amen!

Im not a parent- I wanted children but things just didnt pan out that way- perhaps God has something for me in the future

 

[Vessel_Of_Honour]

That would be one of my stronger points. Because I have experienced allot of things that have changed my view about other people. I still struggle sometimes when people are harsh towards me, I find that Im very sensitive to critical, harsh words. That makes me very patient with others because I know how it affects me and Im really careful.