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Pt. 1
GOD'S LOVE IS THE FOUNTAIN OF HIS COMPASSION, FAVOR, GRACE AND MERCY
As we go on to discuss God's compassion, favor, grace, and mercy we can see that these all flow from His divine love. There is nothing in all of creation comparable to His divine love. It is so great, deep, faithful, and true. Believers can depend on Him to love them forever with a love that is beyond any love they can ever experience among people they know.
The reason that God extends compassion, favor, grace and mercy to His elect is precisely because of His great love that nothing can separate us from, ( Romans 8: 31-39) nor will God ever withdraw His love from His elect ( Jeremiah 31:3)! So, as elect believers we can ever rejoice that He loves us, though we are sinful, because His Son won for us the remission of our sins on the cross. Hallelujah!
I don't think we can every tire of meditating on God's love for us. Nor should we ever minimize it by focusing more on God's wrath for sin and sinners. God's nature is in perfect harmony with all of His attributes. Therefore, we should learn how to hold paradoxes such as His love and wrath. Both are equally and infinitely present in God. He does not change. But when we think about the severity of His wrath, we can remind ourselves of His magnanimous unconquerable, and eternal love for us that manifests in His faithfulness, compassions, grace, mercies and favor upon us and that these will never fail.
Lamentations 3:22-23
22 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning:
great is thy faithfulness.
How lovely is this verse to the ears of forgiven sinners who believe the gospel and put their faith in Jesus Christ!
See Pt. 1
Yes, it gets down below freezing here, It just doesn't last long.
I'm just preparing for some job related issues heading in tomorrow also finishing up on a home project.
Pt. 2
This is because the only ones whose hearts are changed with regeneration, are drawn to Jesus for salvation, who will believe the gospel, and have faith in Jesus are those God elected and these and these alone He regenerates, causes faith to come.
Paul explains this in Romans 5
6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (In this chapter Paul is speaking to believers in Rome, not unbelievers).
And John says in 1 John 4
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
John is speaking to diaspora believers here in this Epistle and he says that Jesus came into the world to save those who became believers and this action by God manifests His love towards His elect. John wrote this . Neither Paul nor John in these letters speak to non-believers. If one is a believer, then they were elected to salvation before the creation.
I do think that this is difficult for many believers to accept and there may be some here who will differ with me on this. I welcome any correction if one uses Scriptural citations to prove what they explain about their understanding. It is a common phrase among Christians to say to "love the sinner but hate the sin." And we are to do this. But God is different from us in that Scripture is clear that He hates both sin and sinners. Yet He still chose to love those He determined to save while they were sinners because He knows the end from the beginning and sovereignly brings about all that He wills.
The next subject concerns God's Love for Sinners.
Pt. 1
GOD'S LOVE FOR SINNERS
Most believers are familiar with John 3:26:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
But verse 18 is equally important
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
This passage says that God does love the world. He loves all of his creation and creatures He made. His loving care of creation is stated over and over in Scripture. He is gracious to sinners. The sun comes up every day upon the wicked and those of faith alike. He sends rain in season and causes the earth to produce an overabundance of crops, trees, mineral resources, and all that is used by humanity over the ages. God's blessings abound throughout the world despite its corruption corruption from sin. John 3:16 encapsulates this truth. Verse 17 goes on to say that He sent His Son into the world to save it through Him.
God will redeem creation from the corruption of humanity's sin, though the earth and the animals are not responsible for this corruption and death, rather, humanity is. So God's love in a general sense is all-pervasive. In the particular sense, verse 18 speaks of those who believe receiving eternal life but unbelievers will be condemned under God's just judgment. They remain in their sins and the guilt, curse, wrath also remains on them. Since Scriptures state that God hates sin and sinners, then in the particular sense, His saving love only extends to believers whom He elected to salvation before creation.
See Pt. 2
Pt. 2
I intentionally began addressing God's wrath before His love, grace and mercy because of how neglected it is in most circles of conversation, how people brush it off as unimportant in order to focus on the "happier" topics of His love, grace, and mercy, and because I think it sets a good, solid stage for the discussion of His love, grace, and mercy in light of the severity and terribleness of His wrath. After taking a serious treatment of the aspect of His nature - His wrath, the topic of His love, grace, and mercy is all the more sweet when we take these under study and consideration. Gd's wrath magnifies the greatness of God's compassion towards the elect who do not deserve anything pleasant from God! Knowing of the wrath that Jesus's work delivers us from is truly Good News!
Next section
Pt. 1
THE WRATH OF GOD AND THE GOSPEL
God's wrath, however, is not the main message of the gospel, it is the precursor of preaching the gospel. For who can wish to turn from their sin if they do not know of God's righteous, terrible wrath upon every sinner. Knowing that one is a sinner and under God's wrath is the very reason to believe the gospel, for it is our only hope for rescue from God's wrath and for receiving eternal life that is full of love, joy, and peace and celebration in God's Presence without sin in us any longer! The gospel cannot be understood rightly apart from knowing about God's wrath upon sinners.
The true eternal reality of heaven and hell cannot be understood without a proper understanding of God's holiness, purity, and separation from all sin, perfect justice, and righteous wrath. God's wrath magnifies His holiness and love which hangs upon His moral perfection. Similarly, the undeserved mercy of God upon those He chose to become of vessels of His grace and favor for His glory is correctly seen only in light of obtaining relief from God's wrath.
His mercy is more than the pity for the poor and needy. Without denying common grace, God's mercy expressed in the gospel is what declares the wicked righteous by means of Christ's wrath-bearing sacrifice on the cross. Paul describes the gospel as the "mercies of God" ( Romans 12:1) which he took 11 prior to chapter 12 chapters to explain that the gospel is the good news that resolves the problem for mankind of God's wrath towards sin and sinners.
In Revelation 19:1-3, the wrath of the Lamb evokes unforced endless praise in the people of God and the angels. We also should revel in the execution of God's wrath with praise and glory to God (as it does glorify Him) who has had mercy upon us. Divine love triumphed over the divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice. The cross was an act simultaneously of punishment and amnesty; severity and grace; justice and mercy.
See Pt. 2
Pt. 4
These truths about God's wrath revealed in Scripture are just as much an aspect of God's nature as are all of His other attributes as those Jesus displayed in His earthly life such as His mercy, love, grace, and forgiveness. God has revealed these truths about His wrath to mankind. God's wrath is of terrible severity, and His love and mercy is sublimely above and beyond anything we could imagine or understand completely, being so satisfying and enjoyable.
To treat the severity and sureness of the truth of God's wrath as something not to be preached or understood, to be set aside in order to preach almost exclusively about God's love and mercy passages is to preach a deceitful and deficient Christian faith that dishonors Jesus and His work in which He took upon Himself on the cross the wrath of God we should receive in order that we can be reconciled to God and receive remittance of sins and eternal life.
God's wrath is not vindicative inflicted arbitrarily as pagans believe their gods are who need worshippers to bring sacrifices to bring the idol to do good instead of harm to those who serve these idols. Nor is God's wrath an outgrowth of an irrational will and mind. God's divine wrath is the wisest, right and righteous response of God to sin.
Pt. 3
God's wrath is not capricious, driven by changing emotions and passions, as man is. Rather, it is a timeless stern, terrifying stance of His nature towards evil in all of its forms. His wrath is an inescapable reality toward a sin-cursed creation.
Every cemetery is a testament to God's sentence on sin in mankind. His anger and intolerance of sin is a real and it is deadly always. He is zealous for His holiness and therefore will not withstand sin in His presence. Even if He delays His justice, He will never cease to preserve the holiness and purity of His Presence.
God is not hasty in exercising His wrath. He is slow to anger ( Exodus 34:6-7). In His wisdom He determines how and when He will enact justice against sin. This slowness to exercise His anger and wrath should be a motivation towards repentance ( Joel 2:15) and never a license to engage in carefree sin and rebellion against Him. Exodus 34:7 says that He will not clear the guilty. (also see Numbers 14:18)
In the NT from the preaching of God's wrath by John the Baptist to the Wrath of the Lamb in Revelation the truth of God's just wrath pervades the books of the NT and speaks on this attribute in harmony with what the OT teaches about God's wrath. From Jesus and the apostles, salvation is presented as a rescue from God's wrath ( Mt. 3:7; Lk. 3:7; Mt. 5:22; 18:5; Mk. 9:48; Jn. 3:36; Acts 10:42). Peter says that they were commanded by Jesus to preach of God's judgment. ( Acts 2:14-36; 10:42)
Romans 4:15 explains how law-breaking invites God's wrath. Verse 9:23 describes how freely chosen sin fits sinners to be vessels of God's wrath, deserving of all He has willed this wrath to include: eternal punishment, torment, separation from God's Presence, and anguish. Revelation 6:16; 14:10 assign the execution of God's wrath, justice, and judgment to Jesus.
See Pt. 4
Pt. 2
God has His divine wise reasons for every person He elected to salvation before creating the world as well as His divine wise reasons for choosing not to elect every human being. Accepting that God is just to exercise His wrath upon unrepentant, unbelieving sinners is truly necessary for one to deeply value and be grateful for the redemption and life He gives to those He does save.
The position of the lost before God is perilous. Those who are not in Christ are under God's righteous sentence of condemnation for their freely chosen sins. In Western culture the love of God is welcomed and the holiness of God is given inhospitable treatment by many preachers in their sermons and by many believers in their daily beliefs. Accordingly, God's wrath is not a divine attribute inherent in God's nature that is fondly received today in society at large, but sadly, even in many churches and among so many believers which is quite concerning.
However, the Scriptures affirms that God justly exercises wrath against both sin and sinners. And, He is immutable, which means that this attribute will never change. Therefore, today's preaching that avoids teaching on God's wrath is neglectful, false, and misleading to those who sit under such preaching and trains these congregants to only tolerate that which is pleasant and that soothes their "itching ears".
Those who rarely hear preaching about the reality and terribleness of God's wrath develop an attitude that the Christian faith is to be "nice", "inoffensive", and "palatable" to those we wish to share our faith with outside of the church doors.
God is perfectly just in exercising His wrath upon His enemies. Those He has elected to salvation are called His children and friends when they come to faith in Jesus. How gracious of God to reconcile His elect to Himself to where we would be called children and friends though we were clearly His enemies prior to our regeneration.
See Pt. 3
GOD'S WRATH
Pt. 1
God's wrath is His deep hatred and judgment upon sin and sinners. It shows how offensive sin is to His nature. His wrath against sin and sinners shows that He will not let sin be passed over completely. He will deal with it His way and in executing His wrath and condemnation He is glorified. ( Romans 1:18; Colossians 3:6; John 3:36) It is his settled, unchanging response that evil and sin will not stand against His steady, unrelenting, uncompromising antagonism to evil and sin. It is in perfect harmony with all of His divine attributes, being His holy action of retributive justice towards persons whose freely chosen actions deserve eternal condemnation. He is righteous in exercising His wrath. He alone determines how it is exercised because He is sovereign over all.
The wrath of God is a deeply biblical truth. In our secular age, God's wrath is a foreign and unwanted truth. However, the wrath of God against sin and upon sinners is revealed in Scriptures consistently across both the old and new testaments. We live in a day where humans set themselves as the judge with God's character on trial concerning His exercise of His wrath. People say: "Since God is loving He cannot be wrathful" or "God is not just or fair when He exercises His wrath on sinners".
These judgment upon God's character among believers demonstrate, first of all, a lack of humility and reverence for God for all He is, and second, a misunderstanding that somehow sinners are not responsible for the sins they commit and therefore do not deserve God's wrath or that God has forced people to sin by causing their human nature to become sinful when Adam and Eve sinned. But these thoughts are not biblical and do not allow one to truly grasp and appreciate God's redemption of those He elected to show His favor, mercy, and grace to, even though they are sinners.
See Pt. 2
Keep warm and well during this winter storm. Does Georgia get into the freezing temperatures often?
This is a highly debated topic amongst true believers which heavily rely on the nature of God and the way he displays his Love and mercy to a lost world.
Will talk with you later, preparing for the cold front coming our way.
Blessings
Have a Good one
COGIC WORSHIP 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 Jesus Christ is God. I Worship God the one God only The Father to all the world. A God that is always confirming your faith with authority and also allowing you to become like God shown and known. (Fair and equal).A God that is joy. A God that allows you to listen, obey God and instructions, actions.
Habakkuk 2:2-3 KJV West Angeles Church Consecration Calendar
Me being a member at West Angeles Cogic Church Cathedral Los Angeles CA
Habakkuk 2 Verse 2
My interpetation REDAPPLETREATY4MEONLY: "Showing Jesus Christ Is God in we trust. Example of today currency American Dollar.Goverment -Congress-Head in State- Pentagon White House. Also being Christian and today's Christian Church. "
Ways to believe Jesus Christ is God are to trust God John 3:16 KJV.
Habakkuk 2 Verse 3
My interpetation REDAPPLETREATY4MEONLY Victory Quotes Romans 6:23 KJV.To Worship God and receive the free gift. Also a benefit not to be a follower of anti Christ and evil (everything not of God)To make your own choices making your self a great achiever.
Word Spoken and Written by REDAPPLETREATY4MEONLY
What I can say for certain is that I am so thankful that God has chosen me to receive His mercy and grace for my salvation!. Such a beautiful way to save us. It is all of God and none of me! We can never boast about our faith, our righteousness or having "chosen Jesus" because He clearly said that He chose us, not us choosing Him when addressing the disciples and that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them to Christ our Lord. We are recipients of the greatest gift God can give us and we do not deserve it. But how glorious is His way of saving the elect!
John 3:16 says "Whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) shall be saved and not be condemned." The "whosoever are those elected by God for salvation and it is He who makes it happen for us through Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
I am glad to respond to you on this topic. Please read what I posted to Chris and what I post to you here will follow that post to Chris.
In using the word favor, I am not speaking of favoritism, but biblically as it is used in Exodus 33:19 and Romans 9:18. God's favor is God's good pleasure extended to undeserving creatures. Hope that clears that question up a bit for you.
The other matter of "righteousness". No one gains God's favor for their own good deeds because Scripture is clear that no one is righteous, seeks God, or can merit God's favor. It is the righteousness of Christ every elect person must have to be justified before God. But if we are dead in our sin and rebels against God, not wanting to obey Him at all when unregenerated, how can anyone turn to God to be saved unless God performs in us what is needed to do such a repentance of turning to God to be saved.
God is not capricious or arbitrary in His election because to be that way would be sinful. Nor is He a "respecter of persons" (such as deciding "I will only elect men" or some other aspect He finds in a person) because that would be sinful, too. God is just and righteous. Therefore His reasons for electing who He does in hidden in His internal counsel in the persons of the Godhead. We are not given the reason why He chooses some and not others in Scripture. But it does say in Romans 9 that it is not according to someone doing anything good or evil such as with Jacob and Esau, or because some unregenerated people will choose to be righteous due to their faith in God because they CANNOT have faith in God unless God graces them with it.
Thanks for responding to my post. I always am glad that you "press into" what people post to get more clarity or to engage in discussion of differing ideas on a topic.
Blessings to you tonight and always.
Pt. 2
With this said. the dynamics of God executing His will and purposes in History sovereignly and the freedom man has to choose these things all on his own according to what he desires most in a given situation is a paradox we probably won't understand this side of paradise. But we can know that God is so much greater that any of us and is able to have these two things occur simultaneously without God sinning against Himself or His creation and without forcing man to do something he does not freely will. Both exist, but only God truly knows the whole of it, we know in part.
I know that anyone who comes to desire to be saved and believes the Gospel, putting faith in Jesus and trusting God accomplish the work of salvation IS elected to salvation before God created anything. But the only way one can come to desire ad believe these things is because of the work of the Holy Spirit to regenerate us, giving us a desire to be saved and faith to believe. It is not of ourselves, but of God completely as a result of God choosing to have mercy on us, favor us, and be gracious to us.
Thank you for responding to what I posted. I value feedback, especially from you because you are so sincere and respectful.
I can understand your query on this topic of God being free to favor whomever He wishes and to not favor whomever He does not.
We see God speaking this way to Moses in Exodus 33:19 when Moses asked to see God's glory and also in Romans 9:18.
I will speak on this more when I get to the topic of election, but for this post I will say that I don't think we really know why God chooses the way He does in election and in extending His grace and mercy to some to save the elect and not to others. But I do believe that everyone who is not elected is not condemned so much because God determined it to be so (which is strict determinism) but rather stand condemned because they freely chose to sin against God as we all have done and are therefore completely responsible for being vessels of wrath as Romans 9 states. However, the elect were chosen by God before creation and before any of us had done anything good or evil, as Jacob and Esau are given as an example in Romans 9.
I can't truly say why God chose you or me or anyone who is given faith by God to believe the Gospel and place our faith in Jesus alone for salvation. But I do believe that our election is not because God looked forward I history to see that we would choose to believe these things on our own because Paul speaks clearly in Romans that no one is righteous or seeks God or can please God, being dead in sin and blind to the gospel of grace. Although God does know all things past present and future and works history out according to His perfect, wise, and holy will, pleasure, and plan for creation. This does not mean that He is the cause of all things that happen, but that He is sovereign in whatever comes about in history as a whole and in individual lives. He brings about circumstances to affect people for His purposes and allows or disallows events according to this same wisdom and will. But this is not determinism because every person chooses freely their actions, words, and motives . see Pt. 2
On its own, that Truth certainly stands firm without question. But the question that arises in my mind is: if that's all we had to go on, then God is indiscriminate in granting His Favor, Mercy, & Graciousness, and by extension, those not receiving that Love are consigned to complete estrangement from Him & His Salvation for no fault of their own since that was already His Will for them. To deal with such a thought & undergirding it with John 3:16 for example, that God loved the world (of sinners), I've always believed that there was something behind God's election of people, that caused Him to show or withhold favor to some & not others. Maybe this thought of mine goes outside the purvue of your submissions, but wanted to share, as you've invited comments.
As an example, & this would particularly be of interest to ex-military, our drill sergeant asked us to form a single line before him, with the tallest men at the ends, descending to the shorter ones in the center. From the left, each guy had to shout out numbers from 1, 2, etc. Then the command for only the odd numbers to take two steps forward (always had that one who forgot his number). And then with the two lines of men before him, the command given to turn right. What we had now were two lines of men that still maintained the height order that the sergeant wanted & without any other requirement (i.e. not character or expertise-based). This then would be an authority figure who randomly elected each one to a position in the squad, without any pre-knowledge or pre-qualification.
Should we understand God to also be so indiscriminate in selection, randomly appointing some to receive His Favor, others not?
As we read through this chapter, we note that in the events leading up to that time & during that time, Israel will be gathered together, not just by their numbers, but because of spiritual enlightenment & turning to the LORD ( Isaiah 60:16, 18-22). And interestingly, the nations too will flow into that Holy Land ( Isaiah 60:3-14), and those who refuse, rejecting Israel will perish (v 12). And so the vision of verse 8 ("Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?") given to Isaiah, is where he sees the speed & intensity of those coming to the Mount of the Lord as a great cloud from the nations (cf Hebrews 12:1, 'a cloud of many witnesses with that true abiding faith'). He sees those of the nations rushing to her, even as a flock of doves do when suddenly stirred up & flee to the security of their sheltered windows (cotes) in the city walls. This period in the future gives us joy & hope for the many of Israel and the world living at that time, to come to their senses & turn to the Lord Jesus for their salvation, peace & security.
Me being a member at West Angeles Cogic Church Cathedral Los Angeles CA
Joshua 5: Verse 13 My Respond Basic Jesus Christ is God to obey God.
Joshua 5 Verse 14:
My interpetation:
" Wanting yourself to be identified as Christ.And at instances confessing Jesus Christ is Lord- I Corinthians 12:3 KJV Jesus Christ the Father The Son Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost are the same. Supreme God Himself. Identifying as Christian-Also is token used in Quoted "God making you do it."
My interpetation: " Faith in the Gospel is healing and repentance- Acts 3:19 KJV.
God is holy to trust God to be and confident what God has born you in sex : male and female instructions
Ways to Identify Christian is having faith, trusting God-Holy Bile KJV My preference and use.Any version Holy Bible is good. Come into (attendance) his sanctuary-today's Christian Church to learn about God and read his Holy Bible.
Joshua 5:Verse 15
My interpetation "Jesus Christ is the only way of divine healing.In scripture Joshua is speaking on preparation to follow God and obey believing he is eternal life.
Word Spoken and Written by REDAPPLETREATY4MEONLY
There's an invitation to ALL!
Whosoever Thirst. There's the free will of man and the foreknowledge of God playing a role in receiving this free Gift.
Blessings
Let us seek GOD'S counsel and praise the LORD in all we do.
May CHRIST JESUS be evident in all we endeavor to do in His name.
Happy New Year brethren!
January 4, 2025
Thanks for revisiting this discussion.
I would like to touch on something you said but may have not meant to.
Gigi, You stated "And we must admit that God is free to show FAVOR to whomever He pleases and to withhold it from whomever He pleases. .
I believe we can see a glimpse of Gods Judgment Justified by Righteousness in Genesis and throughout the Bible.
Here's one example.
Genesis 18:22-33 We see God works his Judgment off his Righteousness. He's faithful in doing that and we can expect that as did Abraham!
Verses 22-25.
"And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: SHALL NOT THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH DO RIGHT?
There is a pre-condition has to be met here to escape. "One would have to be "RIGHTEOUS"
God didn't decide to say "Oh let me go make or elect to make Lot righteous before I destroy the place.
God is sovereign and can do as he pleases so Abraham reasoned with God understanding his nature as one who judge in Righteousness!
God answers Abraham off of that basis.
Verse 26) "And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes"
The free gift is Christ and it comes by faith! Paul says in Romans 1:16-17. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
God's election is Not Initiated by favor.
Blessings
Who are these that fly as a cloud
and as the doves to their windows
Since we know that Scripture reveals God's right and authority and power and prerogative to do as He pleases and we know that whatever He pleases to do is always holy, good, righteous, and pure, we must admit that He is free to determine the judgment and curse of sin for sinners according to His wisdom, not ours. And we must admit that He is free to show favor to whomever He pleases and to withhold it from whomever He pleases. ( Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15).
God alone determines what is morally right and wrong. He alone decides how He will deal with sin, evil, and wickedness in His creation. He alone decided that He will unconditionally redeem those He has chosen before creation to receive His mercy, grace, and favor. He alone determined that those who are unredeemed sinners are under eternal condemnation and recipients of His unmitigated wrath. In all of these determinations, God is just, right, and sovereign.