Love Understood

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
(1 John 4:14 – ESV)

One of the truths of the gospel is that God saved us in a way that upheld His justice. Justice was neither compromised nor set aside; it was completely satisfied. One of the great mysteries not revealed in the Old Testament but fully revealed in the gospel is how forgiveness is possible without compromising the justice of God. The bloody mercy seat showed the truth that sins must be paid for because of the holiness of God. His love requires justice to be done, but animal blood cannot pay for human sin, and human blood alone cannot pay for offense against God.

Only Jesus was worthy enough to pay. Christ offered a full atonement that included payment in full for all the sins of every sinner who would ever believe (2 Corinthians 5:21 / Romans 3:25 / 1 John 2:2). Our salvation is therefore grounded in the justice of God as well as His mercy, which is in perfect proportion because of His holiness. In other words, the gospel is not only a message about the love of God. It is that; but it is more. The true gospel magnifies His justice as much as it magnifies His love, because in doing that it magnifies His holiness.

Why do we need to understand this, why do we need to discover and develop our thinking this way? In order to become better grounded in Christ (Colossians 2:7 / Ephesians 3:16-19); this is greater than simple understanding but not simply a feeling. Rooted and grounded in love, which we see more clearly as we have been discovering in 1 John 4:7-10 and Romans 3:25-26, etc. The breadth and length and height and depth, in other words, the encompassing nature of His love, which is most clearly understood through His holiness.

You want a faith that is getting richer, deeper, and stronger, and we find this in the Bible, it is not merely an intellectual pursuit, as this passage says, it is a knowledge but it goes beyond knowledge, it is sight beyond sight (Ephesians 1:16-20). We cannot naturally envision holiness, but when we endeavor to rightly understand God, He grants us the power to do just that. This is why you can receive a word, and want it for your life and love it, but if you don’t dig deep enough, there is no root and it will wither away. The seed gets planted but you must be working on your soil. What I am trying to do is to get you to understand the love of Christ more fully.

Convince yourself and deepen your faith, Coach others and develop their faith, Contend for and defend the faith. 2 Peter 12:1-2, 3:18 – This is what knowing and understanding Jesus is, becoming more and more familiar with just how righteous He is and beautiful and holy and that is worship and looking at Him and that is how we are changed (2 Corinthians 3:18).

When it says God is love that includes all aspects of His love including justice. Love without justice isn’t love it is favoritism. Simple pardon is simply preference. God’s love is much deeper than that, His love satisfies justice and upholds His character. His own holy being demands that payment be made, or justice would not be served, and He would not be a holy God. He is a holy God, and He Himself makes the payment to satisfy justice. He doesn’t just find a way to get you out of it; He makes a way that can never be taken back (Romans 8:33).

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Fountain of Love

In 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.
(1 John 4:10 – ESV)

People say all sorts of things about love today, and there are all sorts of notions about what love really is. But how does God define it? What does God say it is, and where does it come from, how can we see and know it, in truth? Believers, unbelievers, and make-believers alike quote the last part of 1 John 4:8, God is love, and then try and make it say whatever they want it to, and use it as an excuse to do or believe just about anything, but that isn’t what the Bible is teaching here. Only what God means is what counts. So what does the Bible teach? God is love, yes, but God further defines that in the following verses, as we see propitiation declared here once again (1 John 4:10). We have gone into detail about that already elsewhere.

You cannot change it around here; John does not say that love is God, but that God is love. In the Greek, the two terms are not interchangeable. This same book declares God is light (1 John 1:5), and John writes in his gospel that Jesus said God is Spirit (John 4:24). Yes we want to declare His love, but it is even better understood in its proper perspective, it is an unfailing love because it is grounded in His unfailing character, not in everyone else’s ideas.

Now we can see that God defines His love here through Christ on the cross, and we can relate that back to many passages, including Romans 3:25-26. God’s righteousness flows from His holiness, His love flows from His holiness; it isn’t that God’s holiness is greater than His love, His mercy and His justice, but that holiness is the character that encompasses all the other attributes of God. His love is defined by His holiness. His justice, His mercy, His grace, they are all defined by His holiness. Perhaps we can make it clearer by saying that holiness is godliness, or God-likeness.

His justice is equal to His love and so He had to do it the “cross” way to satisfy both. God’s mercy did not nullify His justice; He had to be propitiated as our text plainly declares. If you redefine the atonement to remove the idea that Christ suffered the judgment for sin in our place, you destroy the heart of the gospel (1 John 4:10 / Romans 1:17 / 1 John 1:9). If that payment had not been made, there would never have been any forgiveness whatsoever (Hebrews 9:22). But forgiveness springs from the unfailing fountain of God’s character.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

EVERYTHING!

Christians do not observe the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Asking for an “Atonement Offering” flies directly in the face of Jesus' atonement for our sins on the cross of Calvary. Offering God money for atonement is a form of denying Christ's sacrifice.

The old covenant was with the Jews, not with “you’s”.

People think that modern day Judaizing doesn’t happen today but here we have a clear example of it. No it isn’t asking for circumcision to become a Christian, but that isn’t all Judaizing was about, it was also about doing Jewish works in order to be a better Christian as we see typified here. When Paul was writing Galatians, some were saying that you had to be Jewish to be saved, or that you had to do Jewish customs to be an advanced disciple. Wrong, dead, damningly wrong. Jesus was and is the substance that filled in the shadows. The tabernacle, feasts, and all those ceremonial trappings, customs, rituals, and offerings were all symbolic of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:3-4 / Luke 24:27 / John 5:39, 6:29-58 / Galatians 4:9-10 / Colossians 2:17 / Hebrews 10:1,14). They were types, and Christ is the antitype. You don’t go back to the type when the antitype has come. You don’t then go back to the type or try and reinvigorate or reinvent the type as a new form of blessing. Feasts, etc., don’t bring a new or extra blessing. “Jesus plus” types of false gospels elevate man and diminish God. If we have to do something then Jesus’ payment wasn’t enough, His value wasn’t great enough to fully pay for my sin, or to secure blessings or sanctification.

Yes, we can give the benefit of the doubt and say they aren’t trying to get you to give for forgiveness of sin, but they are trying to get you to give to them in order to receive a special blessing, and they are doing it based on a false teaching, false teaching of the worst and first sort to the Christian world, Judaizing. We don’t go through the steps anymore that is the old covenant which pointed to Christ, and to do it again, that is to retrace and rework the steps Jesus fulfilled, that isn’t what following Christ is about.

Those seven blessings, whatever they are, have been obtained in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). To go back and try to get them now for yourself is blasphemous and again saying Christ’s atonement was insufficient for you to have them, or that you must “work” to obtain them (which would be modern day Judaizing). Christ is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and IS our tabernacle; He is the real Tabernacle in heaven (Revelation 21:3).

You will not honor God with your atonement offering, and you will not receive some extra seven fold blessing other supposedly less informed or less spiritual believers will not get. Instead you will blaspheme His Son, Jesus Christ, and if, like this sign, that atonement is money well, then Acts 8:20 speaks plainly to you. Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

Of course they might say, “no we love God, it is all about Jesus, that is why we are doing this!” Look at the teaching at face value. It is as if they believe that Jesus has given them all the spiritual, or eternal blessings, but they obtain the material, or temporal blessings by their works. And they believe that if they have faith in them they will get what they think they are promised. You do NOT please God apart from Jesus, and Jesus does NOT go back with you to try and re-fulfill the types and shadows. If you turn back to types, you have turned away from Christ.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©