Good Friday
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Amazing Love
Amazing Love
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Why do we love?
Why do we love?
The verses in John tell us a fundamental truth about God: He loves the world that He created. Have you ever wondered why we love, have the capacity and desire to love and be loved? Look at an answer from the perspective of the evolutionary theory.
According to evolutionary theory, “We love because we're meant to reproduce. Species continue through reproduction, and continuation of the species is paramount in evolution. Since mating is the ultimate goal, then feelings of romantic love are merely a vehicle toward this goal...The combination of reward and attachment lead to a lasting addiction for a particular individual -- our partner.....These same chemicals (vasopressin, oxytocin, and dopamine ) may also play a role in familial love, like that between a parent and child or among siblings....
We experience love, then, to foster the relationships that may lead to reproduction and to maintain relationships with the offspring borne from those relationships.
https://people.howstuffworks.com/why-do-we-love.htm
his theory suggests that we love because we want to reproduce and become addicted to the chemicals that reinforce that desire. How does that make you feel? This is what is commonly accepted in our world. And the evolutionary theory doesn’t tell us why humans have the greatest capacity for love, to desire it, pursue it, reflect upon it, fight for it, and be broken when we don’t have it. We don’t see any animals getting together to talk about love, write songs about it, or try to mend broken relationships. The evolutionary theory ends up taking away from humanity what God has uniquely given to us in the Creation perspective.
To answer why we love. Scripture answers that by pointing us to our Creator, who is love. God loves his creation. God has created humanity for a special place in creation to bear his image and receive the benefit of a relationship with him and others. We love because God has placed it within us by divine design.
The next question to ask then is why does God love? We can point to reasons such as He is the Creator and we are his creation, but I think it best to just accept that we may not fully know why, but we can just respond by saying, He just is. That is who He is. God loves, and God is love.
How does God love?
How does God love?
God shows love through the act of giving. Let’s consider what God has given
Physical life and existence
Privilege to bear his image - respond in relationship with God
Reconciliation - God restoring our broken relationship because of sin.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The amazing part of God’s love is found in these verses. He loved us while we were still sinners. Loving those who love you is not a challenge as much as loving those who are your enemies. Our sin has put us not simply away from God but against God as enemies. But God showed his love toward the ungodly by doing something that we recognize as the greatest love.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
When we look at these words of Christ and the words of Paul, we must conclude that Christ has given us the greatest love. Christ willingly laid down his life for us by dying for the ungodly, dying for the unrighteous, and dying for the sinners upon the cross. The cross, which was the symbol of shameful death, has become the symbol of the greatest love.
Why did he have to die upon the cross?
Why did he have to die upon the cross?
Those who are unfamiliar with the Bible will often find it difficult to connect God’s love and the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. To understand why we need to understand that it is the way that God has made it to be for us to have atonement. The term atonement describes the means by which God brings reconciliation. Reconciliation is:
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Reconciliation
Restoration of friendly relationships and of peace where before there had been hostility and alienation.
Atonement is:
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Atonement
The means of reconciliation between God and people.
The earliest mention of atonement is found in Genesis when God takes the life of one of His creatures to make a covering of skin/leather for the nakedness of Adam and Eve. And again in Genesis, we see that the first acts of offering something acceptable to God was found in the offering of Abel. He gave the first-born of his flock. He gave the best “fat portions”. And later in Genesis, Abraham is given the tremendous command to sacrifice his son Issac. Abraham obeyed in faith but God did not allow him to sacrifice Isaac. God was testing Abraham. And God sent an angel to stop the sacrifice. God placed a ram in the vicinity to be used instead.
God made a covenant with Israel and gave them the privilege to present offerings for their sins and receive atonement. The animals, just like in Genesis, were coverings for sins. They were substitutes for the one who gave the sacrifice. God accepted those sacrifices that were made in faith and restored the break in the relationship because of sin. The Old Testament principles are brought to an end and completion in Jesus Christ.
The principles of sacrifice and substitution are not simply some ancient character of a forgotten culture. They are the principles established by God for His world and all eternity.
Amazing Love
Amazing Love
I close with this final thought of God’s amazing love. The death upon the cross was real. The nails in the cross were sharp and painful. The crown of thorns caused real blood to flow from the head of Jesus Christ. He felt the sharp sword pierce his side. Many people in Rome had suffered death upon a cross, but none had ever experienced it like Jesus. For Jesus was unlike any other. He was God-incarnate. The God-Man. He was the second part of the trinity. He was the Creator who took on human flesh. And this is what makes his death so amazing. God took upon himself the suffering, shame, and pain of the sacrifice. The Creator took up our sin upon himself and settled things according to His plan. The King of All Kings did this for sinners, for people who would even reject Him. And He did all this because He loved the world.