God's Holy Love

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
-John 3:16
This post combines the last three posts together. How? Well, the title is called God's Holy Love, so you might think that it only deals with the post on God's holiness and His love, but consistency plays a role in God's holy love as well. God is a consistent being. He never fails to be who He is and is faithful to Himself. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; He never changes. What does this have to do with His holiness or love? Everything. God is holy; therefore He cannot stand to be in sin; He is sinless. He is consistently holy, so He can never sin or be in the presence of sin or sinners. God cannot ever change His holiness so therefore He can never be in the presence of sin. Next, God is love. He loves us without us doing anything for Him. He loves the people that He created, and pursues after them. His love actively chases us and God wants to be with us. This is the problem- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". We are all sinners, and God is holy. Because of that God cannot be near us, because we are sinful beings. However, God is love also, and He wants to be with us. More specifically, God in His love cannot bear to leave us in the state we are; He cannot bear to be away from us. He has to stay consistent to both His love and holiness. So how can He be with us? The answer lies at the most amazing moment in history- the cross. God sent His son to die for our sins so that He could both love us and remain holy. This is able to happen because Jesus took the sins that we have committed and suffered the punishment that we deserved for it. He has taken our place in God's wrath; we have taken His place in righteousness. God is able to remain holy because He punishes sin, and is able to love us because we are considered righteous. The cross has saved us from our sin and has allowed God to love us and still be a holy God. Now this isn't the only reason that Jesus died on the cross, but I can't get into other reasons right now. How do we receive this love? Believe that Jesus has died for your sins and saved us from death, and the bible promises you will have eternal life.
-Smart