SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/28/2024 9:12 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Hope Is Established by Love”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 3:1
Message of the
verse: “1 See
how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called
children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not
know us, because it did not know Him.”
I ended the last SD on this section by quoting the
following verses: “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God
sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through
Him. In this is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
(4:9-10; cf. vv.
16, 19; John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 8:39; Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:4).”
Such love seeks, at a great cost to
itself, but only to give freely and spontaneously for the benefit of another,
even if that person is not worthy of such an expression (cf. Deut. 7:7-8). “7 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor
choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you
were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the LORD loved you and kept the
oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty
hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king
of Egypt.”
Now I need to write a little bit about the
attributes of God and all of His attributes work in perfect harmony, His love
necessarily operates in conjunction with each of His other attributes. God is lovingly holy (Rev. 4:8; 15:4). 8 And the four living creatures, each one of
them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night
they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE
ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.’” “4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify
Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP
BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.’” God is lovingly just, and I will list some
verses that go along with this: (Isa.
30:18; Rom. 3:26; 1 Peter 3:18). God is
lovingly merciful (Ps. 86:15; Luke 6:36; 2 Cor. 1:3). God is lovingly gracious (Ps. 103:8; 1 Peter
5:10). God is lovingly patient (2 Peter
3:9, 15). God is lovingly omnipresent
(Ps. 130:7-10; Jer. 23:23-34). God is
even lovingly wrathful (Ps. 145:9; Matt. 5:45; cf. Mark 10:21a). God is specific toward believers (special
grace; cf. John 13:1; Rom. 5:8; 8:38-30; 9:13-15; Eph. 5:25). It is this specific and unique love of God
for His own that stands as one of the unshakeable foundations of eternal hope.
Now
once again I want to remind you that when we see this word “hope” found in the
way it is being used here in this section it is a noun and not a verb. Hope is something that surely will
happen.
MacArthur
writes “In other words, believers can live in hope because they have
experienced God’s love in an eternal, saving way—having been adopted into His
family (Rom. 8:16) and called children of God (John 1:12; cf. 2 Peter
1:4). They became His children solely
because He lavishly bestowed on them a gracious, unmerited, sovereign love
apart from any that has human merit.
Such love is inexplicable in human terms. It is not surprising, then,
that the world does not know the nature of the relationship between God and His
children (cf. Heb. 11:38a), because it did not know Him. Those outside of Christ cannot fathom (1 Cor.
2:15-16; 1 Peter 4:3-4) the true essence and character of believers, which
shines forth in their likeness to the heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ,
their Savior and Lord (Matt. 5:16; Phil. 2:15; 1 Peter 2:12; cf. 1 Cor.
14:24-25). Even for believers it is a
challenge ‘to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and
height and dept, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge’
(Eph. 3:18-19a). Because Christians are
so intrinsically different from the world around them, having been transformed
by the Father who adopted them, the New Testament appropriately describes them
as ‘strangers and exiles’ (Heb. 11:13), ‘aliens’ (1 Peter 1:1), and ‘aliens and
strangers’ (1 Peter 2:11). They are
those who, in hope, ‘desire a better country that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God; for He has prepared a city for them’ (Heb. 11:16). And having declared them righteous in
justification, He is making them righteous in sanctification and will perfect
that righteousness in glorification when hope is realized.”
12/28/2024 9:48 PM
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