Ep 226 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 2

This is episode two on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21. It’s entitled “God = Love.” In our day and age, it has become increasingly popular to envision God as love. So much so, that many have made His love the only characteristic of God that really matters. The kind of love they speak of is a tolerant, all-accepting kind of love that is devoid of any trace of judgmentalism or punishment for sins committed. The 21st-Century God is all-loving and nothing but loving. But John would have us understand that God’s love for us was best expressed in His own Son’s death for us. God sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. With His substitutionary death on the cross, Jesus paid our sin debt and satisfied the just demands of a holy God. Our sin required a payment. Someone had to die because the penalty for sin is death. But God showed us how much He loved us by sending His Son to die for us. The modern-day version of God has removed His wrath and judgment. It has painted Him as a one-dimensional God who only loves. But the biblical reality is that God is holy and righteous. He loves, but He hates sin. And His justice requires that He deal with sin and the sinner.