Gods Love Is Forgiving

There was an incorruptible seed planted within you, there was new life, and the manifestation of the life of God through you should be the most normal thing. It is abnormal for you not to imitate God. You look at a child, and the most normal thing for a child is to be like his parents, and so it is in the spiritual dominion. You have within you the indwelling life of God. In Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4, it says when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts. You are no more servants but a son, and if a son then an heir of God. When you were saved you became a son, you became a child. God’s spirit is in you, and the life of God should manifest itself. And so because, Paul says, we are children of God, we are then to imitate our father, the most normal thing is to be like him. Now, if God is love, then we are to imitate his love.

If it is true that God is characterised by love, as 1 John 4 7-11 says, if it is true that God is characterised by love, then we too are to be characterised in the same manner. So we remember the plea, walk in love. Now, the second point we saw last time, and I want you to note this, is the pattern, and I already mentioned it. The pattern is our Lord Jesus Christ, the end of verse 2. How is this to work? How is it to be manifest? What is our example? As Christ has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

Alright, we are to walk in love, and the model we are to follow, the pattern we are to trace our lives on, is Christ. I remember when I was a little kid and starting out in school, one of our teachers wanted to teach us how to draw, and so she passed out papers of pictures, and the pictures were in great big bold ink, and then she passed out what she called tracing paper. And all the little kids would take the paper and stick it on the bold page, and the picture would come through, and we’d take our little pencils and we would draw, tracing.

That’s the very word pattern. In the New Testament that’s the word for type, or an example it’s used. As Paul says to Timothy, be an example to the believers. Be somebody the believers can trace their life on. Well that’s exactly what he’s saying here. Take Jesus Christ, the bold statement of Christ’s life, and put your life on top of it, and trace your life out just as his is. He is the pattern. This is the heart of the passage. We are to love as he loved. Now backing up to verse 32, I remind you last time that the characteristic, the major characteristic of God’s love, is that it is forgiving.

Do you see it there in verse 32? Forgiving one another as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Now for to walk in love, that’s the first characteristic I want you to note. It is a forgiving kind of love, and we went into that last time didn’t we? God’s love is a forgiving love. Now by the way there’s a footnote that you ought to see in verse 32. Forgiving one another even as God hath forgiven you. Now if it just said that, if it just said forgiving one another as God hath forgiven you, we’d have a little problem, because we’d say now look God you’re a holy God.

You’re an absolutely righteous God, and you hate sin, and you can’t tolerate sin, and the Bible says you will punish sin. In fact it says the wages of sin is what death. Now God how can you just forgive like that? If it said forgive one another as God has forgiven you, we’d say well how can you just do that? How can you just say well I know I don’t like that stuff but I’ll forgive you. Well what does that do to God’s justice? Doesn’t it violate his holy justice? No, because the little phrase is there, for Christ’s sake, which means because of what Christ has done.

In other words that penalty which was ours was borne by Christ, and because of something Christ did, God is able to forgive. And that’s the whole point. When Christ, verse 2 now, when Christ gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet-smelling savour, he paid the price that God’s justice demanded and freed God to forgive the sinner. But if it had not been for Christ it would not have happened. God can love us and God can forgive us because Christ paid our penalty. That is the message of the 10th chapter of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10 10, by which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

In other words, the only thing that sets us apart to God is that Christ bore our sin. Verse 12, this man after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God. In other words, sitting down is a picture of rest and when Christ one time made one sacrifice it was so total and so complete that he never needed to do another thing. He sat down. He was finished. And verse 14 sums it up, by that one offering he perfected forever them that are sanctified. He bore in his body our sins.

He who knew no sin became sin for us. And so Christ did something that freed God to love us, and God’s love first of all is forgiving. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of God’s love is forgiving. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].