How faithful is God?

[arunangelo]

God’s love for us is unconditional. It is, therefore, eternal and limitless. Therefore, when we betrayed Him, were unfaithful to Him and sinned against Him He did not abandon us or give up on us or lessen His love for us. On the contrary, His love became even more intense; because He is a loving father who could not bear to see us destroy our selves by our sins. He, therefore, gave us laws to live by, sent His prophets to teach us the truth about His love; came into our world of pain and suffering (which our sins created) in the person of Jesus; and accepted the most painful death, so that we may receive forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:28). Even when He was carrying His cross, He was concerned about the pain and suffering we will face (because of our sins), rather than His own suffering (Luke 23:27-29). By His death, he saved us from death and re-infusing His Spirit is us. He thus expressed His spirit (of love) through His faithfulness (Isaiah 54:10, Deuteronomy 4:31), sacrifice and forgiveness.

God wants us to accept His spirit so that we may have His joy and peace. He therefore, asks us to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34-35); express love by our thoughts words and actions towards those who hate and hurt us (Luke 6:27-29); forgive others unconditionally (Matthew 18:22) and love our spouse just as Christ loves His Church (Ephesians 5:25), by being faithful to our marriages vows even when there is hurt, illness, poverty, betrayal or infidelity (Hosea 3:1). To most of us it is hard to accept His spirit. However, if we have faith in God’s love expressed on the cross, and therefore truly desire His spirit, He will give us the grace to accept His Spirit. We will then persevere (Luke 21:19) in our effort to heal our relationship with others-especially our spouse, irrespective of how bad the situation is, or how long it takes. Furthermore, we will overcome our negative feelings towards others by remembering God’s mercy, forgiveness and faithfulness towards us.

 

[Jaareshiah]

God’s love for us is unconditional. It is, therefore, eternal and limitless. Therefore, when we betrayed Him, were unfaithful to Him and sinned against Him He did not abandon us or give up on us or lessen His love for us. On the contrary, His love became even more intense; because He is a loving father who could not bear to see us destroy our selves by our sins. He, therefore, gave us laws to live by, sent His prophets to teach us the truth about His love; came into our world of pain and suffering (which our sins created) in the person of Jesus; and accepted the most painful death, so that we may receive forgiveness of our sins (Matthew 26:28). Even when He was carrying His cross, He was concerned about the pain and suffering we will face (because of our sins), rather than His own suffering (Luke 23:27-29). By His death, he saved us from death and re-infusing His Spirit is us. He thus expressed His spirit (of love) through His faithfulness (Isaiah 54:10, Deuteronomy 4:31), sacrifice and forgiveness.

God wants us to accept His spirit so that we may have His joy and peace. He therefore, asks us to love one another as he has loved us (John 13:34-35); express love by our thoughts words and actions towards those who hate and hurt us (Luke 6:27-29); forgive others unconditionally (Matthew 18:22) and love our spouse just as Christ loves His Church (Ephesians 5:25), by being faithful to our marriages vows even when there is hurt, illness, poverty, betrayal or infidelity (Hosea 3:1). To most of us it is hard to accept His spirit. However, if we have faith in God’s love expressed on the cross, and therefore truly desire His spirit, He will give us the grace to accept His Spirit. We will then persevere (Luke 21:19) in our effort to heal our relationship with others-especially our spouse, irrespective of how bad the situation is, or how long it takes. Furthermore, we will overcome our negative feelings towards others by remembering God’s mercy, forgiveness and faithfulness towards us.

God's love is not unconditional. It has stipulations. For example, at 2 Chronicles 15, the prophet Azariah told King Asa: "Hear me, O A´sa (who reigned for 41 years (977-937 B.C.E.) and all Judah and Benjamin! Jehovah is with you as long as you prove to be with him; and if you search for him, he will let himself be found by you, but if you leave him he will leave you. "(2 Chron 15:2)

Over five hundred years earlier, Moses told the nation of Israel in 1473 B.C.E.: "See, I do put before you today life and good, and death and bad. If you will listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today, so as to love Jehovah your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judicial decisions, then you will be bound to keep alive and to multiply, and Jehovah your God must bless you in the land to which you are going to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and you are actually seduced and bow down to other gods and serve them, I do tell you today that you will positively perish. "(Deut 30:15-18; see also Deut 8:19)

Just before Joshua's death at the age of 110 years, Joshua told the Israelites: "And it must occur that, just as all the good word that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has come upon you, so Jehovah will bring upon you all the evil word until he has annihilated you from off this good ground that Jehovah your God has given you, because of your overstepping the covenant of Jehovah your God that he commanded you, and because you have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them. And Jehovah’s anger will certainly blaze against you, and you will certainly perish in a hurry from off the good land that he has given you.”"(Jos 23:15, 16)

John 3:16 says that "God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life." Jesus further said: "He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; he that disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him."(John 3:36) Hence, to remain forever, whether on a paradise earth (Luke 23:43; Ps 37:29) or to reign in heaven as "kings and priests" (Rev 5:9, 10) requires eternally "exercising faith" in Jesus Christ as God's "only-begotten Son."

 

[Brother Mike]

Unconditional Love

I can see the concept of unconditional love arunangelo.

For God so Loved the World that he gave.....................

I am sure nobody here at the time was giving God warm fuzzy feelings of Love, yet God gave anyway, and he gave us Jesus.

Love will constantly want to get involved in something, but wanting to get involved, and getting involved are two different things. From the start of the Bible God's attitude was, if they just repent and turn from their ways, I'll restore their land.

Love was constantly turned on, now one had to meet the conditions to flip the switch.

arunangelo, your point was about covenant. We do this, God said he would do that. It's two parts.

Jesus went and healed all that were sick and oppressed of the devil. Yet he could do no great work in his own home town because of their unbelief. He was just Joseph boy to them. He started out good as a carpenters boy, then lost his mind and got into ministry. They had no faith or value on who he actually was. The son of God, King of Kings.

Jesus often said your faith has made you whole, no faith, no made whole. This did not dictate his will or love though. You had to meet a condition.

The scripture says that Israel did not enter in because of unbelief. God put up with these people for 40 years, but a time came when Judgment had to be given. Judgment was not God's will, as he put up with these people for so long, and it is written God does not take pleasure of the death of the wicked..... but that is the condition for the wicked as the wages of sin is death.

So, I see both points here.....

Jesus Is Lord.