NOTE: due to technical difficulties – no recording this time 🙁
OUTLINE:
Eph 5:1-2
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Christ’s Perspective
Jesus Christ came to save those whom God predestined. He had a very special love for those in His family, those called according to God’s supreme purpose. He laid down His life for them to purchase their freedom.
Synthesize
Jn 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”
Jn 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Php 1:21
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Gal 1:10
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
What Does Abiding in Love Mean?
Jesus clearly stated that to abide in His love is a function of obedience. This is a reference to a life lived in the sphere of God’s love. The ONLY way to enter/remain is through OBEDIENCE!
Regarding Obedience and Salvation
Salvation is a function of obedience in every sense. The Gospel is a command, which implies belief is tantamount to obedience. Sanctification is a command, which implies growth is tantamount to obedience (e.g., a mature person is intrinsically obedient, and vice versa). Disclaimer: only a changed heart can obey and only God, by grace, can change a person’s heart.
Repentance comes from His Grace
Act 11:18b And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
2Ti 2:25b God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth
Mk 1:15c
Jesus said… “repent and believe in the gospel.” (both are commands, in the imperative mood in the Greek)
Regarding Obedience and Salvation
Salvation is a function of obedience in every sense. The Gospel is a command, which implies belief is tantamount to obedience. Sanctification is a command, which implies growth is tantamount to obedience (e.g., a mature person is intrinsically obedient, and vice versa). Disclaimer: only a changed heart can obey and only God, by grace, can change a person’s heart.
Abiding in love and obedience are inextricably tied to one another!!!
1Co 13:13
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Gal 6:2
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The Sphere of God
This “law of God” (Ro 7:25) and the “law of the Spirit of life” (Ro 8:2) and the “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2) are references to the same “law”. This “law” is what governs the “sphere of God”. This law is love (ala 1Co 13:13).
String of Pearls
By grace through faith, being filled with grace and truth, Jesus obeyed His Father’s will out of love for you. How? He abided in the sphere of God always.
Jn 10:27-28
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
What Does Abiding in Love Mean?
Jesus clearly stated that to abide in His love is a function of obedience. This is a reference to a life lived in the sphere of God’s love. The ONLY way to enter/remain is through OBEDIENCE!
Abiding in love and obedience are inextricably tied to one another!!!
God Knows Our Sin but Calls Us by Name
– blog 10/13/23
Do not succumb to the schemes of our great accuser, the devil. Oh, he knows your name, my friend, but he prefers to call you out by your sin! This is not love; rather, it is pure hatred.
God Knows Our Sin but Calls Us by Name
– blog 10/13/23
Any thought that cedes power to satanic corruption ought to be extinguished like a fiery dart. “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). You have been called by name, so, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).