The Gospel: Our Participation in the Redemption of Hunanity

God's actions towards mankind can not be summed up apart from love. Love is not merely a human emotion but an action. This is a portion of what it means to be made in the image of God. God's love is what God does, and it is from His 'does' rather from a hypothetical 'can' that we are to understand the meaning of the term. John exhorts us, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

For some, militancy (whatever that means) is the foremost characteristic of pure Christianity. However, pure Christianity (or religion) is action in love. "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us" 1 John 3:18-19. If a person can not discern you love them while confronting them with their sin, we have not loved them as we should.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Love, then, is not an emotion but compassion in action. Since God is love, God's love is what God does, and it is from His 'does' rather from a hypothetical 'can' that we are to understand the meaning of the term. What God does, we see in Christ. Christ is love and all that he does is done in love and it is from his 'does' rather from a hypothetical 'can' that we are to understand the meaning of the term. The Gospel, then, is the ultimate act of love because the Gospel is what Christ has done. This is why the Gospel is good news!

This good news of the Gospel enables us to live redemptively. When we live redemptively, we tangibly express the love of the Father toward the Son by the Spirit. As Peter explains, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1).

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, [meaning] God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

When we act in love we act redemptively. James explains, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." Redemptive love is always initiated from the outside, entering into the affliction of others. (Although beyond the scope of this post) “visiting orphans in their affliction” is ultimately accomplished through adoption (a sign of the New Covenant), but if adoption is not possible, go and serve others any way you can. If this means you must confront someone in their sin, do it in love that they may taste and see that the Lord is good because you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good!!

This is participating in the act of redemption. This is the Gospel in action. Religion, undefiled.