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NASB | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
Subject: Why do i need to love god? |
Bible Note: Quoted from Beja: Q. How do we receive forgiveness and imputation of God's righteousness? A. Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Q. This is the entire question, a lot of what you say is correct, IF it is understood with the right answer to the above question. If you are saying that we receive these things by loving God, this is a false gospel. These things were purchased for us by Christ's life, death, ressurection, but we receive these things through faith alone. Can you or can you not affirm this? If you wish to to not confuse us, simply answer that question clearly. A. Yes indeed the gift from the Holy Spirit includes all these things like salvation for our soul (forgiveness for our sins), close personal relationship with Christ our Saviour, close personal relationship with the church for our support and edification, especially when we worship together. There are so many things included in this gift but there are also a few things we must do to ACCEPT this gift just as we do when fulfilling the requirements of a Last Will and Testament of someone who passes on and leaves his goods, Christ did this for all of us. This is made so very clear in Heb 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” 21 Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. I'm NOT saying that we receive these things by loving God, that's one of our motivations. I'm saying that we received what God has promised us as a result of our obeying and following His Commandments. This further demonstrated by all the past examples throughout the Bible. All of God's faithful and obedient followers like Abraham, and all the others described in Heb 11 received God's Blessings because they obeyed God. They too may have been motivated by their love of God but the main reason they pleased God is a result of their obedience. I'm not certain of this concept of "imputed righteousness" but I'll take a stab at it. Hopefully you're referring to the fact that God looks at all human beings with the sin in our lives BUT after becoming a christian, then we have the Blood of Jesus covering our sins. Again I must refer to the passage in Hebrews as Christ is described there as the Perfect High Priest, our Mediator. He's our "go-between" spanning the gulf between us and God. He's the One who first blazed the trail between the human condition to God and we can follow His Footsteps by accepting His Leadership into our lives. This is made clear in 1 John 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. I do sincerely hope this is clear -- Inquisitor |