God'S Love For Man: Steps To Christ-Chapter 1

GOD'S LOVE FOR MAN
Steps to Christ-Chapter 1
• Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in heaven is the source of life,
of wisdom, and of joy.
• It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. In the beautiful words of the
psalmist
“The eyes of all wait upon Thee;And Thou givest them their meat in due season.Thou
openest Thine hand,And satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Psalm 145:15, 16
Look around and see, even nature testifys of God’s love-thorns,thistles have roses and
flowers
• God made man perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the
Creator's hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of
God's law—the law of love—that has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the
suffering that results from sin, God's love is revealed. It is written that God cursed the
ground for man's sake. Genesis 3:17…………………
• the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care—were appointed for his
good as a part of the training needful in God's plan for his uplifting from the ruin and
degradation that sin has wrought.
All was Perfect until the law of love was broken-yet amid suffering his love is revealed
• “God is love” is written upon every opening bud,.... the lofty trees of the forest with
their rich foliage of living green—all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God
and to His desire to make His children happy.
It his desire to care for you and make you happy-from nature
• Show me Thy glory,” the Lord answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before
thee.” Exodus 33:18, 19. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and
proclaimed, “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6, 7
• He is “slow to anger, and of great kindness,” “because He delighteth in mercy.” Jonah

4:2; Micah 7:18
The word reveals His character-His infinity love and pity

• Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice,—
one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a
being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that
He may visit judgments upon them.
• It was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God,
that Jesus came to live among men.
The enemy of good blinds the minds of man to think of God as severe and
unforgiving (unloving)
• “Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27. When one of the disciples made the request, “Show
us the Father,” Jesus answered, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou
not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Show us the Father?” John 14:8, 9.
The Son of God came from heaven to make manifest the Father.
• “hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Luke 4:18. This was His work. He went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed by Satan.
• Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed in every act of His life; His heart went out in
tender sympathy to the children of men. He took man's nature, that He might reach
man's wants.
To set at liberty they that are oppressed by satan

• He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the way, the
truth, and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with
pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others. Every
soul was precious in His eyes.
• Such is the character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the character of God. It is
from the Father's heart that the streams of divine compassion, manifest in Christ, flow
out to the children of men. Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour, was God “manifest in the
flesh.” 1 Timothy 3:16.
In all men He saw fallen souls whom it was His mission to save.
 It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became “a Man of
Sorrows,” that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved
Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred
and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him
to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the angels, to suffer shame, insult,
humiliation, hatred, and death. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with
His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane,
upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had
been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and
man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of
its separation of the soul from God—it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God.
He became “a Man of Sorrows,” that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy.

But this great sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father's heart a love for man,
not to make Him willing to save. No, no! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-
begotten Son.” John 3:16. The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but
He provided the propitiation because He loves us. Christ was the medium through which
He could pour out His infinite love upon a fallen world. “God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. God suffered with His Son. In the agony of
Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our
redemption.
He became the Son of man so we could become the Sons of God-1John 3:1

God'S Love For Man: Steps To Christ-Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

God'S Love For Man: Steps To Christ-Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

God'S Love For Man: Steps To Christ-Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

GOD'S LOVE FOR MAN

• He is “slow to anger, and of great kindness,” “because He delighteth in mercy.” Jonah

The word reveals His character-His infinity love and pity

To set at liberty they that are oppressed by satan

He became “a Man of Sorrows,” that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy.

You might also like