Love Has A Price

Published by Deborah Negron M.A.

December 12, 2019

The Love Has A Price
The Gift Has A Condition

John 3 :16-21
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

1 Timothy 1:3-17
As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on. But we know that the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral and homosexuals, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which was entrusted to me. I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry — even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” — and I am the worst of them. But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Romans 1:13,16-32
Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now ) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know God’s just sentence — that those who practice such things deserve to die — they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

Sin is what separated us from God.
Desire for the things that will lead us to death is the very objective Satan has in order to sway many to self destruction.
The end is near. The day of judgment will come.

Truth is truth whether we want it to be or not.
Like gravity, the weight of truth falls regardless of how much one wants to remain afloat.

The weight of sin will pull us down and to death. The Bible says, in Romans 6:23,
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Salvation from sin, from the Self, from the desires of the flesh….
Greed, sexual sins, pride, arrogance, malice, thinking more highly of ourslelves than we ought to, thoughts of doing harm to others, perversions of all kinds….
Sin is sin. All sin separates us from God.
But the Lord wants to save. He wants to credit the Sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross as your own and mine. He does not want to have us perish. His desire is to save and not to destroy his creation.
Yet his justice and his righteousness demands the judgment for sin.

The gift of God only comes when we repent and turn away from our sinful ways.

God loves the Sinner. But He is Still God. He hates The Sin.
A sinful person cannot enter the presence of God. Heaven does not include everyone. It is for those who turn away from their sinful lifestyles and their sinful thoughts and their sinful confusions and ask to be forgiven.

The love of God was shed abroad for all who come to Him with a grieved heart. Those who are sorry for their sin. Those who tell God they want to be made whole.

When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, His Birth, His Death and His Resurrection become part of our Account.
His payment for Sin pays our Freedom from Death.
His surrender to death and his Resurrection make His gift Precious and Able to Redeem us.

We can be made whole. We can be restored to a relationship with God. This only happens on His Terms.

We cannot twist his arm or beg for mercy when we stay in sin. We cannot be forgiven unless we truly repent.

The gospel demands our Submission.
We cannot gain access unless we go by way of The Cross. We cannot gain access by our own works.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
No one can claim to have Jesus if they continue in their sin.

Grace is given. But it has specific terms for acceptance.
Love is for the whosoever but it only is dispensed when we truly desire to be made whole.

We cannot serve two Masters.
We cannot serve self gratification, whether with money, power, fleshly desires and also serve God. Romans 6:24 paraphrased).

Salvation is by None Other. It is by Christ Alone.