For God So Loved The World

From time to time, I will hear Christians say that God 'hates the sin and hates the sinner', which to me is quite jarring as your King James Bible declares in dozens of places in the New Testament the love of God for lost sinners. Many times I have tried to imagine how it would go, when preaching on the streets, to ask lost people to put their trust in a God who hates their guts. What if someone asked you that, would that compel you to get saved? Highly likely not. The Bible says that God took on a body, the body of Jesus Christ, came down amongst us to live a perfect life for 33 years, to reconcile lost sinners to Himself. You see, the only way that perfect justice could meet with perfect mercy, would be to have act of perfect love, and that happened on the cross at Calvary. God's Law satisfied because the conditions had been met and the payment had been made. For it was God Himself who made that payment on our behalf, and on the basis of that, He offers us full pardon and forgiveness of sins past, present and future. A one-time for all time payment for sin. Your sin. What does that tell you about the nature and character of God? On this Sunday Service, I would like to remind you of the greatest act of love this world has ever seen or ever will see, and in doing so, call you back to your 'first love' found in Jesus Christ.