I agree God is love. But the word also says he is a God of justice and a God of vengeance and so on. We don’t fear God as an abusive father who does not care about his kids and can never be pleased but we fear him like we fear a good father who is fair but will also punish you for disobedience. I’m sure many of us growing up knew of a adult that we knew loved us and cared for us but we also knew we would get whipped and grounded if we messed up.
As stated earlier it’s through Christ that we have life and it’s through Christ that God the father gives us grace and mercy. If we reject Christ and willingly pursue unrighteous we will get punished. He will destroy both our body and soul in the lake of fire. We won’t remain in eternal torment like so many believe nowadays but our death, the second death, will be eternal.
Then those they choose Christ and chose rightness will be grafted into the tree of life and have eternal life. God is very fair in my eyes. If you reject him, then you are his enemy and he will still love you but the wages of sin are death and you will be annihilated in both body in soul.
Because a god loves us and because he demands perfection but knowing we will all fall short he justified the law by fulfilling it through a perfect atonement.
Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
22
Aye Phil. I love Roger. Nowhere does he say that approach takes liberties. Which of course it doesn’t. Foolishly projecting ones ignorance backwards does. It just continues on from Renaissance humanism and the Enlightenment. I am fascinated with pure historical-grammatical hermeneutics; trying to understand the mind of ancient writers, but wouldn’t dream of thinking they were windows on to God’s any more than mine is. Apart from our standing on the shoulders of all of these giants.
Of course, it is all in the definition, as a formal president once alluded. To interpret a passage as saying something it does not address, might well be seen as taking liberties with it by definition.
Have a blessed Lord’s day! Time to get my coffee, sit in the recliner, and go to church!
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Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
24
I agree completely Phil. Like making Paul a damnationist homophobe. Went to Oasis in Waterloo with my wife, on Facebook.