This is Love

Do you live near Wenatchee? This Sunday, Dec 11, I’ll be preaching at East Wenatchee First Baptist Church. If you live near, the service starts at 10:45 and Sunday School starts at 9:30. I’ll be preaching about the incarnation from Galatians 4:4-5. It would be great to see you. And if you can’t make it, of course I would appreciate your prayers—for safe travel, for making good connections for camp, and for God to give me right words to say. Thank you.

Now about 1 John 4:10. It is a similar passage to Galatians 4:4-5 as they both speak to the work of God sending His Son. Where Paul emphasized Christ’s act in purchasing us from under the control of the Law, John speaks to the great love of God by making his Son an atoning sacrifice for our sins. With Paul’, the Son’s work is a monetary exchange. With John, the Son’s work is to serve as an instrument of appeasing the wrath of God.

In some respects, it’s an odd statement. God in His LOVE for us sends His own Son to appease his WRATH against us. But it does make sense as we understand that for God to be a loving God, He had to hate the sin so much that it would cause Him to send his Son. Since God is holy, righteous, and good, He could not continue to exist with sin in the World. Instead of acting on His wrath first, He acted on His love. In his LOVE He acted—by sending His Son—to make a way to abolish sin from the World. His wrath is coming, but in this time we have the opportunity to respond to His love by accepting His offer of salvation. If we choose to believe, we get to accept it freely without any requirement for us to do any work to atone for our sins. He gives it to us, if we believe.

Christmas is a time to remember that God initiated His plan by sending His own Son. He offers the gift. We have the choice to receive it or to reject it.

What a beautiful verse. If. you haven’t already, I hope you’ll memorize that one and keep it close to your heart.

-Daniel Jensen
Director of Camp Ministries
Lakeside Bible Camp.

P.s…If you’re church is in need of a pulpit supply for a Sunday, please don’t hesitate to have your church reach out to me. If I can make it work with my schedule, I’d love to come fill in or even just give an announcement. I find these speaking engagements turn out to be a great way to invite people to participate at Lakeside. Just send me an email: dcm@lakesidebiblecamp.org.