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June 09, 2005
What's This 'Unconditional Love' Stuff?
Recently, one of our viewers sent this question in to me:
I really enjoy watching your programs. Recently, however, in one of your messages, I heard you say something like, "God's love is an unconditional love." I'm wondering if, perhaps, I misheard you. Please tell me where in the Bible God's love is referred to as "unconditional love." It seems to me that it's just the opposite. I find things like, "If you return to Me...," "If you repent...," "If you obey...," etc. I'm still just a "Seeker," so please help me with this.
-- 59-year-old unemployed male
This is truly an important question, so I'd like to give my answer to it here in this column.
- If I were to sum up the message of the Bible in a single statement, it might be something like this: "It is God's plan for bestowing eternal life upon human beings." This summary presupposes as fact the reality that all humans are in rebellion against God and are progressing toward their eventual destruction.
Romans 6:23 says that "the wages of sin is death," but the word that is translated as "death" here is a reference to "spiritual death" or "eternal damnation." The root concept of this is "separation from God."
- In order to be acceptable to God, people generally think in terms of one of the following two methods:
- Right standing based upon one's own righteousness or good works.
- Right standing based upon God's own righteousness.
It seems pretty obvious to me that the first method above can only result in our being judged as guilty before God. No aspect of our lifestyle or character can be seen as acceptable evidence that we are anything but displeasing to God. In order to possess eternal life, God's own righteousness imputed to us is the only method that will suceed.
- Jesus Christ came to this earth in order to offer us the very righteousness of God Himself. He lived a sinless life and died on the cross to take the curse of sin upon Himself. It was the curse intended for sinful human flesh. He then rose from the dead on the third day, showing that life after death is a reality. Christ's resurrection was a victorious win over the power of death and Satan.
- What Jesus Christ accomplished was a bringing to us of the "Good News" (i.e. "Gospel"). Christ prepared a way for us to receive "God's own righeousness" so that sinful human flesh could stand as acceptable before a holy God.
Ephesians 2:8 says this:"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."This reference to "grace" here means that God unilaterally gave His love to those who were utterly unqualified to receive it. This kind of love is called "unconditional love." In the Greek language, it is "agape."
- So, what does it mean to be "saved through faith"? Faith is not a condition for receiving salvation. Faith is the means of receiving the unconditional love (that is, the message of the Gospel) that God offers to us.
In the Bible, there are some covenants with conditions in them. The Mosaic Covenant (Ex. 19ff) is an example of that. In a conditional covenant, disobedience resulted in the judgment of God upon the people. The purpose of this was always to train and discipline God's Covenant People. However, we see in chapter 12 of Genesis that the Abrahamic Covenant was unconditional, as was the New Covenant which was put into effect by Jesus Christ. In short, our disobedience to such a covenant does not result in our destruction.
- In John 3:16, we find this:
"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."Here we have God's responsibility and man's responsibility laid out before us.
- God offered His Son as a sacrifice for sin and the path toward eternal life opened up before us.
- Through putting one's trust in Jesus the Son, a person receives eternal life.
- Finally, I'd like you to remember that our salvation is by grace from start to finish. By grace, we received the forgiveness of sins (justification), by grace, we are being changed into the likeness of Christ (sanctification), and by grace, we will stand perfected before God in the end (glorification).
I would urge any who would like to study more about this to order my tape series on Paul's letter to the Romans (Japanese-language only). And I pray that if you have not already done so, by all means receive the salvation that God is even now offering to you. That's what faith is all about. Shalom in Y'shua's precious name!
Kenichi Nakagawa
Posted by HarvestTV at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)