Series: Love
1 John 4:18 ESV
Romans 3:23 ESV
Romans 3:24-26 ESV
Ephesians 1:7-14 MSG
John 3:16 MSG
Matthew 5:6 MSG
Romans 8:9-11 MSG
We hear and see the words No Fear on the tele and on billboards and every time I see them I remember the propitiation of sin.
In other words I do not think of a popular advertisement from a modern company.
We are told in I John 4:18, “There 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.”
It seems like this scripture could be contradicting itself, but in actuality it isn’t.
The writer tells is there is no fear in love. The implication is that perfect love has no fear.
Then we are told, BUT which in English can also mean ‘except’.
Then the writer tells us, “perfect love casts out fear.”
The problem with that from a human standpoint is that man is a sinful creature. We know from life, and from Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
There is not one person on earth today who has not made a mistake. That’s why God/Jesus came to be a propitiation of our sin. We are told in Romans 3:24-26, “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
The Greek work Paul used for propitiation is ἱλαστήριον which is pronounced hilastērion and it means (or can mean) overshadowing the mercy seat. Jesus, by His shed blood on the cross covers us with His mercy.
We are set free. We are told in Ephesians 1:7-14, “Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his
blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.”
In today’s world we are often reminded that nothing is free. There is a cost for everything.
That may be true in the secular world, but not so with God. Because God loved (loves) us so much, he made forgiveness totally and completely free. John 3:16 is probably one of the most quoted scripture in the New Testament. We are told in The Message, “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”
I’ve been told when I quoted that scripture that there is a catch to it.
That’s an interesting way to look at it, because I certainly wouldn’t call it a “catch”. In other words there isn’t anything we can do to buy or earn it. We do, however ask for to Jesus’ love. We have to want God to open that door. That’s because the very nature and character of God’s love makes it so it’s our choice to receive it.
I’ve had lengthy conversations with people who believe they have to surrender everything in their life to receive God’s love.
I have told them, yes and no.
We surrender or give up earthly sin that will inevitably harm us. But in most cases God eases us into it. We still do earthly things than harm us and we do not lose our salvation.
What we receive is God’s help when we choose to turn to God and relinquish it.
I have met people who told me that their salvation was drastic and they surrendered the life they’d been living. My question is, “have you regretted your decision?” No one I’ve met has said they would go back to their old life filled with evil. Once they received God’s love they loved being loved.
They chose to be set free and they love God for it.
That’s because God’s love satisfied their hunger and thirst. Indeed, Matthew 5:6 tells us, “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”
When we let go of the burden we are carrying and we give it to Jesus everything looks different. That’s because we are not alone ever. The Spirit of the living God is IN us and does not leave us.
Romans 8:9-11 says, “But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!”
When you choose, God Jesus is in you and will never fail you.
It really IS a win-win.
Spiritual Practice: You
Where do you stand?
In Jesus, Deborah
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