Guds kjærlighet

Guds kjærlighet

Guds kjærlighet er fanget i substantivet, agape. Gud er kilden og definisjonen av agape-love (Eph. 2:4, 1 John 4:8, 16). According to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, agape-Kjærlighet er tålmodig, snill og ikke selvsøkende. Den blir ikke lett sint, og den fører ingen oversikt over feil. Agape-kjærlighet beskytter alltid, stoler alltid på, håper alltid, holder alltid ut. Agape-kjærlighet feiler aldri.

I Det nye testamente brukes to verb for å beskrive måten Gud elsker. Det første verbet, agapao (25) er nært beslektet med substantivet agape and means to be well pleased or fond of or contented with. It is the unconditional love God the Father has for his Son (John 3:35, 15:9, 17:26), for the whole world (John 3:16), and for his children (Eph. 2:4, 1 John 3:1). God loves you the same way he loves Jesus (see inngang for John 17:23). The second verb, phileo (5368), means fondness or affection. It is the affection that God the Father has for his Son Jesus (John 5:20) and the disciples (John 16:27). It is the friendship Jesus had for Lazarus (John 11:3, 36) and the wretched Laodiceans (Rev. 3:19).

Kjærligheten til Gud er også fanget i adjektivet agapetos (27) som vanligvis oversettes med elsket. Ordet betyr høyt elsket, aktet, favoritt og verdig kjærlighet. Gud Faderen omtalte Jesus som sin elskede Sønn (se inngang for Matt. 3:17), and the epistle writers referred to their readers as beloved (see inngang for Rom. 1:7). This beautiful word captures God’s heart for you. Your heavenly Father is fond of you. You are his esteemed favorite and he is well pleased with you. He looks at you with a feeling of deep contentment knowing that you are his dearly loved child.

Manmade religion portrays God as capricious and his love as variable. “Sometimes he loves you, sometimes he doesn’t.” But the gospel of grace declares God’s love for you is constant and shadowless (Ps. 136, Jas. 1:17). Religion prostitutes the love of God by putting price tags on his affection. “You have to earn his favor.” But the gospel of grace declares that God loved you while you were a sinner and nothing can separate you from his love (Rom. 5:8, 8:38-39). Religion demands that you impress God with the fervency of your love, but the gospel of grace inspires you to trust in your heavenly Father who loves you without limit (Eph. 3:17-19).

Alt som er godt med de gode nyhetene – hans tilgivelse, aksept og rettferdighet – er godt og sant fordi din himmelske Far elsker deg. Det har han alltid og vil alltid gjøre. Gud forandrer seg aldri.

Gud elsker deg som en far

Guds kjærlighet er åpenbart for oss gjennom hans Sønn Jesus Kristus (se inngang for John 17:26), and Jesus reveals a God who loves us like a father (see inngang for Luke 2:49). When Jesus prayed, “Righteous Father… I have made your name known to them” (John 17:25-26), he was referring to the name of Father. And when Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:28), he was saying, “May you be known as Father.”

Det er tre måter du kan gå glipp av Guds kjærlighet på. For det første ser du ikke Gud som din himmelske Far. I likhet med fariseerne blir du opprørt over Jesu kjente tale eller som den fortapte gutten du ikke ser på deg selv som verdig til å bli kalt en sønn. For det andre, som athenerne tenker du på Gud som Faren til alle, men ikke faren til meg (Acts 17:28). Third, you accept that God is a Father, but he’s cold and aloof, and nothing like Jesus. Instead of drawing near as a dearly-loved child, you hold back as though you were merely a servant. These are serious errors that touch our identity. If you don’t know who your Father is, you won’t know who you are. This is why you need to see the Father that Jesus reveals.

What sort of Father does Jesus reveal? God is a loving Father (John 10:17, 14:21, 23, 16:27, 15:9, 17:23, 26), a caring Father (Matt. 6:8, 30, 32, Luke 12:30), a merciful Father (Luke 6:36), a grace-giving Father (John 1:14), a forgiving Father (Matt. 6:14, 18:27, Luke 7:47, 15:22, 23:34), a giving Father (Matt. 7:11, Luke 11:13, 12:32), a listening Father (Matt. 6:8), a responsive Father (Matt. 7:11, 18:19, Luke 11:13, John 15:16, 16:23, 26), a faithful Father (John 16:32), a holy and righteous Father (John 17:11, 25), a praiseworthy Father (Matt. 5:16), and a perfect Father (Matt. 5:48).

Jesus referred to God as Father more than 160 times in the Gospels and the epistle writers continued this theme (e.g., Rom. 1:7, Jas. 1:27, 1 Pet. 1:2, 1 John 2:14, Jude 1:1). This is what makes the new covenant new and this is the good news an orphaned world needs to hear: God does not love us like a king but a father. In the greatest parable ever told, Jesus revealed that God is like a father watching for your return, who runs when he sees you coming, and who falls on you with hugs and kisses (Luke 15:20). As a dearly-loved child, you can rest in your Father’s love knowing that you have nothing to prove.

Bibelen har mange navn på Gud, men Jesus ga oss det beste navnet av alle: "Abba, Far» (se inngang for Mark 14:36). Abba er ikke navnet på en fjern og mystisk Gud. Abba is your heavenly Father who cares for you and knows your needs (see Matt. 6:31–32).

Guds kjærlighet er ubetinget

De agape-love of God is other-focused and self-sacrificing (John 15:13, Eph. 5:2, 25, 1 John 3:16). Agape-love takes no account of the evil done to it (1 Cor. 13:5, AMP). Jesus knew the name of every soldier who beat him, every person who mocked him, and every Pharisee who thought he was the devil. Yet he still went to the cross so that they might be reconciled to God.

The wonder of the cross reveals God’s unconditional love for us (Rom. 5:8, 1 John 4:10). God did not wait for us to repent or get cleaned up before he loved us. While we were in the filth of our sin and self-righteousness he came and hugged us.

Gud vil aldri få deg til å hoppe gjennom bøyler for å gjøre deg fortjent til hans kjærlighet. Han vil ikke elske deg mer hvis du lykkes, og han vil ikke elske deg mindre hvis du mislykkes. Hvis du leder millioner til Kristus eller ingen i det hele tatt, vil han elske deg akkurat det samme. Det er ingenting du kan gjøre for å få ham til å elske deg mer, og ingenting du kan gjøre for å få ham til å elske deg mindre. Hans kjærlighet varer for alltid.

Guds kjærlighet er grenseløs

Paul challenged the Ephesians to comprehend the vastness of God’s love. “Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights!” (Eph. 3:18, MSG). Trying to comprehend “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19) is like using a thimble to measure the oceans. It’s a neverending occupation. But this is how we grow. Just as we go to the gym to stretch our physical muscles, we stretch our faith muscles by trying to grasp the limits of Christ’s love for us.

En gammel paktstankegang ber: "Gud hjelpe meg å elske deg mer." Men en ny paktstankegang ber: "Gud, hjelp meg til å kjenne din kjærlighet." Når vi mottar fra overfloden av hans kjærlighet, vokser vi i Guds kjærlighet og tro.

Guds kjærlighet svikter aldri

The miracle of the resurrection reveals that the love of God never fails (Is. 54:10, 1 Cor. 13:8). You can take the love of God and nail it to a cross and he will still love you enough to come back from the dead to tell you that you’re forgiven and that he loves you and wants to be with you forever.

Every kind of love you will experience in this world is a failing love—it breaks and it bruises, it disappoints and ultimately it dies. But God’s love never fails. Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:38–39). Not even death can separate you from your Father’s love.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3). Everlasting means everlasting. Either God has to raise you from the dead and keep on loving you or he is a liar. Cancer can’t keep you from his love. Neither can anxiety, AIDS, or alcoholism. The devil and all his demons cannot separate you from his love. The only thing that can come between you and his love is your refusal to receive it. Think of the prodigal son. His father loved him the same at the beginning of the story as at the end. But the prodigal didn’t know his father’s love until he was embraced.

Din himmelske Far skapte deg som et uttrykk for sin kjærlighet med det formål å motta hans kjærlighet. Selv om han elsker å elske deg, vil han aldri være fornøyd før du kjenner og mottar kjærligheten hans og er i stand til å elske ham tilbake. Det er ingen større ambisjon i livet enn å lære å leve i kjærligheten til din himmelske Far og dele hans kjærlighet med andre.

Guds kjærlighet inspirerer oss til å stole på ham

Menneskeskapt religion sier at du bedre elsker Gud eller annet, men nådens evangelium avslører hvor mye Gud elsker deg personlig. Han elsket meg og ga seg selv for meg” (Gal. 2:20). The question is not “do you love God?”, but “do you know how much he loves you?” Do you know the love of Christ (Eph. 3:19)? When you know how good God is and how much he loves you, he is easy to trust. Just as our love for God is a response to his love for us (Luke 7:42), our faith in God is a response to his faith in us (see inngang for Eph. 6:23).

De agape-love of God “doesn’t force itself on others” (1 Cor. 13:5, MSG). It waits for you to “come to know and believe the love which God has for us” (1 John 4:16). Under the old law-keeping covenant, you were commanded to love the Lord your God with all your heart (Matt 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). But in the new covenant of grace, we are exhorted to walk in his love (Eph. 5:2), keep ourselves in his love (Jude 1:21), remain in his love (John 15:9, 10, 1 John 4:12, 16), and not wander from his love (Rev. 2:4).

“May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God” (2 Th. 3:5). Learning to live in the love of God is the essence of Christianity, because nothing else can change us. Knowing the love of God brings us peace (2 Cor. 13:11) and the confidence (1 John 4:17) that displaces fear and worry (Matt. 6:31-32, 1 John 4:18). His love that fills us with grace (2 Cor. 13:14, Eph. 6:24) making us more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37). It is the love of God that empowers us to do good works (Heb. 10:24) and abound in love for others (1 John 4:7, 10-11), whether they are family members (Eph. 5:25), fellow believers (John 13:34, 1 Th. 4:9, 1 John 3:11) or mortal enemies (Matt. 5:44, Luke 6:27, 35).

For lenge har religion prostituert Guds kjærlighet ved å fortelle oss at vi må oppføre oss og prestere før vår Far vil elske oss. Dette er den største forbrytelsen som noen gang er påført menneskeheten. Det har etterlatt oss foreldreløse, rotete og i grisegården til døde verk. Menneskeskapt religion sier at Gud er sint og må blidgjøres. Men Jesus viser oss at Guds ansikt skinner over oss med kjærlighet og nåde.

Ingen menneskeskapt gud har noen gang vært kjent som syndernes venn, og ingen annen religion forkynner Guds store kjærlighet til menneskeheten. Det er Guds ubetingede, usvikelige og grenseløse kjærlighet til deg som gjør de gode nyhetene gode nyheter.

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  1. Paul, I have just been reading some of the Glossary of Grace. What can I say, what a fantastic blessing you are creating for all of us. It is so easy to read and turn to the scriptures. I love it !!! Thank you so much for all the work it’s taken to do this, and it’s still a work in progress. Blessings upon you!

    Svare

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