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The Power of Love (Agape) … A
Bible Study
- Love is not merely one of God’s attributes; it is the
essence of His nature. God is love (1
John 4:8, 16).
- We must understand everything about God, even His law and
His wrath, in the context of His love (Matthew
22:36-40; Romans
1:18-32).
- The basis of our salvation is found in God’s nature of
love (John
3:16; Ephesians
2:4-7; Titus
3:3-5).
- The New Testament uses the Greek word agape to
describe God’s love. God’s agape love differs
from human love in at least three ways:
- Human love is conditional. God’s love is
unconditional. It flows from Him independently of
our goodness or self-worth (Acts
15:11; Ephesians
1:7; 2:8,
9; Titus
2:14).
- Human love is changeable, God’s love is
unchangeable. His love never fails (Jeremiah
31:3; Romans
8:35-39; 1
Corinthians 13:8).
- Human love is self-seeking. God’s love is
self-sacrificing (unselfish) (Philippians
2:6-8).
- The supreme manifestation of God’s unconditional,
unchanging, self-sacrificing love was demonstrated when
Jesus died the experience of the second death on the cross
for all humanity (Romans
5:8; Hebrews
2:9).
- Three concepts of love have given rise to three concepts
of the gospel:
- Salvation by works. This “gospel” is based
on self-love, i.e., human beings must save themselves by
pleasing God through good works. This is legalism. It is
the basis of all non-Christian religions.
- Salvation by faith plus works. This “gospel”
is based on a combination of self-love and
self-sacrificing love, i.e., we must first show by our
good works that we want to be saved—then God will meet
us halfway and save us. The “gospel” of
faith-plus-works is at the heart of Roman Catholic
theology; it is a subtle form of legalism.
- Salvation by grace through faith alone. This
gospel is based on self-sacrificing love (agape);
that is, while we were helpless, ungodly sinners, God
demonstrated His love for us through the death of Jesus
Christ, and that death fully reconciled us to Him. This
is the clear teaching of the whole Bible (John
3:16; Romans
5:6-10; Ephesians
2:1-6; 1
Timothy 1:15).
From: Pastor
Don’s Page, The Burnaby and Mission SDA Churches,
May 29, 2000 |
 I
ask, How can I present this matter as it is? The Lord Jesus imparts all
the powers, all the grace, all the penitence, all the inclination, all the
pardon of sins, in presenting His righteousness for man to grasp by living
faith—which is also the gift of God. If you would gather together
everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man and then
present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation
of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as
treason. Standing in the presence of their Creator and looking upon the
unsurpassed glory which enshrouds His person, they are looking upon the
Lamb of God given from the foundation of the world to a life of
humiliation, to be rejected of sinful men, to be despised, to be
crucified. Who can measure the infinity of the sacrifice!
Christ
for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.
And any works that man can render to God will be far less than
nothingness. My requests are made acceptable only because they are laid
upon Christ’s righteousness. The idea of doing anything to merit the
grace of pardon is fallacy from beginning to end.
We
hear so many things preached in regard to the conversion of the soul that
are not the truth. Men are educated to think that if a man repents he
shall be pardoned, supposing that repentance is the way, the door, into
heaven; that there is a certain assured value in repentance to buy for him
forgiveness. Can man repent of himself? No more than he can pardon
himself. Tears, sighs, resolutions—all these are but the proper exercise
of the faculties God has given to man, and the turning from sin in the
amendment of a life which is God’s. Where is the merit in the man to
earn his salvation, or to place before God something that is valuable and
excellent? Can an offering of money, houses, lands, place yourself on the
deserving list? Impossible!
There
is danger in regarding justification by faith as placing merit on faith.
When you take the righteousness of Christ as a free gift you are justified
freely through the redemption of Christ. What is faith? “The substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). It
is an assent of the understanding to God’s words which binds the heart
in willing consecration and service to God, Who gave the understanding,
Who moved on the heart, Who first drew the mind to view Christ on the
cross of Calvary. Faith is rendering to God the intellectual powers,
abandonment of the mind and will to God, and making Christ the only door
to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Ellen G. White, Faith
and Works, pgs. 24, 25 (excerpted) |
