Atonement: God's Goodness
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Atonement is something that God has done.
It is God’s work.
He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
That God has worked atonement for us is because of God’s own nature.
To undersgtand the Atonement we must then understand what it is about God’s nature that caused Him to make atone,ment for us.
God’s Nature
God has taught us things about His own nature.
We often call these things Attrabutes.
God is Omniscient, eternal, immutible...
However:
God is not just some impersonal force out there.
God is a personal being.
thus In addition to these attributes God, by His nature, also posses certan moral attributes.
Namely That God is Love (Good) and that God is Holy (just).
16 And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
and
9 Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.
Notice that love and holiness are NOT things that God HAS. They are things that God IS.
Here is what is amazing:
If God were just Love - There would be no Atonement.
If God were just Holy - There would be no Atonement.
But because God is both equally loving and equally holy - There is atonement.
BOTH are neccesery.
God’s Goodness.
God’s goodness is seen in many ways.
Provision, Family...
But His goodness is most clearly seen and demonstrated by His love.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.
10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.
19 We love because He first loved us.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
Lessons from the Passage:
1: God’s Love is essencial to His nature.
As i said, love is not something that God posesses.
Love is something that God is.
2: God’s Love is Unconditional.
Indicated in v19.
Also:
7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
8 But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
4 But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
3 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
5 He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
God’s love is not based upon us, but is an expressions of his mercy.
That god loves me says everthing about God and nothing about me.
The word love in v4 is Phil-anthropea.
Philio - love
Anthropic - man.
God loves people.
This love for all people serves as the motivation for Him to provide Atonement for all people.
3: God’s Love is Immutable.
Immutable means changless.
God ius not going to withraw His love.
3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.
God love will never grow old or stale.
4: God’s love is Universal.
That is, God’s love is not just for some people but that He loves all people.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Notice that God God does not just love Israel or the Church or the saints or the elect - But that He loves the whole World.
God’s locve is a universal love that He extends to every person He creates.
Note:
Do not confuse the Universality of God’s love with the Heresy of Universalism.
Universalim is a demonic doctrine that delibertly muddies the Word of God.
Universalism says that since God indeed loves everyone - everyone is saved.
The problem that Universalim makes is that it deliberatly confuses God’s love with Salvation.
We are not saved by God’s Love.
We are saved by God’s Grace.
God’s universal love means that God has made grace avalible to everyone - but they must still repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ.
An excellent example of this is seen in Acts 11.
Peter, a Jew, is reporting what God is doing.
Specifically that Gentiles are recieving the Gospel.
So we read in verse 18:
18 When they heard this, their objections were put to rest, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
The word “granted” in Greek is Di-do-mi.
It means: “To allow what someone has requested”.
In other words:
God’s love has granted that anyone who requests mercy shall recieve mercy.
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Summery:
So God’s Love has these 4 charicteristics:
1: God’s love is Essencial.
2: God’s love is Unconditional
3: God’s Love is Immutable
4: God’s love is Universal.
These 4 charicterists of God’s love show that it is very different from the kind of love we humans posess.
In fact, because God’s ;ove is unique to Him, scripture uses a specific word when speaking about God’s love:
Agape.
Agape Love is love that is Essencial, Unconditional, Immutable and Universal.
This love is what motivated God to not only put in place but also carryout the whole plan of Salvation.