"There’s a Cross to Bridge the Great Divide"

What could you do today that would result in having more grace tomorrow than you would have otherwise? This message reveals five ways Scripture teaches us to access greater grace and what you can expect to happen in your life when you have received it.

John 1:16 From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace

Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Review

We are in the midst of a study on how to increase your emotional love for God by having delightful, satisfying experiences of His presence, and you do that a little differently with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The last two weeks we talked about how to have fellowship with the Father. The main thing we receive from the Father is love. So when He gives you gestures of His love, you have fellowship with Him by responding to that love with delight in His presence, trust in His fatherly care, fear of His displeasure, and obedience to His will (preferring His presence over any earthly pleasure). And the most blessed, most joy-producing kind of obedience is when you obey the command to love His children.

The passages that say the Great Commandment is the summary of the whole law – those passages actually focus on the love your neighbor part of the Great Commandment rather than the love God part. You keep the whole law when you love your neighbor.

Romans 13:8 he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

In Matthew 25 Jesus described Judgment Day in very simple terms: Those who loved Christians will go to heaven and those who didn’t will go to hell. 1 Corinthians 13 says if you give everything you have to feed the poor and die as a martyr but do not have love it is all worthless. James said if you do not love the brother in need your faith is dead and you are lost (Jas.2:14-17). Paul said the goal of all his teaching was love (1 Tim.1:5). Jesus said “They will know you are My disciples by the way you love one another” (Jn.13:35).

Love is a deep affection for a person that drives you to give up whatever you need to give up in order to bring that person to experience spiritual life and to experience it more abundantly. When you love the people God loves because God loves them, that is an act of fellowship with God the Father, because your heart is beating the same as His.

Because Love is from God

I think most of the time we miss out on much of the joy that can come from loving others because we fail to realize the source of that love.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God

One of the biggest hindrances that keeps you from loving people as you should is thinking that love is from you. It isn’t – it is from God! And if something is from God you should desire it. When you see some dried-up soul in need of love, if you position yourself in between God and that person, that river of delights from the heart of God will wash right through you onto that person. And when it does, if you realize what is going on, you are experiencing the presence of God.

If something is from God that thing is of great value. So not only is it a delightful thing to experience it flowing through you – but it is even more delightful when you realize what a valuable thing your beloved is receiving from you. Raise your hand if you have ever been hesitant or reluctant to be involved in ministry to others because of a sense of inferiority or inadequacy. Most of us face that at some point or another. We think, “My gifts aren’t all that great. I’m sitting out of ministry right now because I just don’t have much of anything to offer. This church doesn’t really need me – they’ve got all kinds of other people who are far more gifted. What I have to offer just isn’t worthwhile.” But the question is not whether what you have to offer is worthwhile. The question is whether what God has to offer through you is worthwhile. If love comes from me, it is probably not something people need. But when I realize that my love is from God, I will realize how much people need it.

If someone gave you a truckload of oranges you might hand some out to folks and you might not. But if you came across a whole village of people who were dying of scurvy (which is cured by citrus fruit), and you saw little children with their teeth falling out and horrible, painful sores from their lack of vitamin C, suddenly you would realize the incredible value of your truckload of oranges, and that would make you eager to hand them out in the village.

OK, so fellowship with the Father happens when you respond to His love with a father/child-type love relationship (delight, trust, fear, and obedience – especially obedience to the command to love His children). Now let’s move on to fellowship with God the Son. How do we interact in delightful, soul-satisfying ways with Him?

The Role of the Son: Mediator

The Need for a Mediator: Separation

When we speak of all the wonderful truths about God the Father, it is important to remember that we are talking about things that are beyond our reach. God the Father is further from our reach than the farthest galaxies. If you were traveling toward the Father at the speed of light and you passed the end of the known Universe (after forty-six billion years of light-speed travel), that would be like trying to get to the Sun and traveling one millimeter. And even if you could somehow travel to heaven, it would not do you any good because you would be instantly incinerated by the holiness of God. Traveling to the Sun would actually be a lot safer. There are no words that can possibly describe how impossible it is for puny, sinful man to ever approach God the Father. When people invent human religions, and they imagine they can work their way to heaven and make contact with God through their own efforts, they are like little children who look up at the stars and think if they could climb up on top of a big building they could reach them. People have no idea who vast is the separation between us and God.

God the Son – the Lord Jesus Christ – bridged that gap. I could never summarize all that Jesus is in one sermon, but if we have to boil down all that Scripture says about God the Son in one basic idea I think it would be this – Jesus is the connection between earth and heaven. And He is the only connection. That is why Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn.14:6). Jesus Christ stands between heaven and earth with one hand on the Father and the other hand on us, so that we can interact with the Father. All the benefits that come from heaven to earth pass through Jesus Christ.

And here is why – the thing that separates us from God the Father is not distance. I illustrated it with distance, but the problem is not that heaven is so far away geographically. The thing that makes it so impossible for us to interact with God is His wrath over our sin. He is too holy to look upon sin – period. His justice and hatred of evil are so perfect that if He were ever in the presence of a sinful being He would have to instantly thrust that being into eternal hell and pour out His furious wrath on him. So God the Son became a man – two thousand years ago – and He was crucified. And while He was on the Cross He suffered ALL of God’s wrath in our place. He took all the guilt of our sin upon Himself, and paid the debt we owed. He paid it one hundred percent – every dime. The song, “Before the Cross” is right on, “The wrath of God once meant for me was all spent on Him.”

And not only was our sin credited to Jesus’ account on the Cross, but His perfect righteousness and goodness and holiness and favor with the Father was all credited to our account, the moment we believed. He lived a perfect life in our place and He died in our place. So now that the debt has been paid, and justice has been done, and perfect righteousness has been credited to our account; we can approach God the Father – all because of the Cross. I love the Point of Grace song, “Great Divide.” It is about that infinite separation between sinful man and holy God, and they called it the Great Divide. The chorus was, “There’s a bridge to cross the great divide; A way was made to reach the other side. The mercy of the Father, cost His Son His life.” There is a bridge to cross the Great Divide – and then at the end it switches, “There’s a cross to bridge the Great Divide.” It is the Cross that enables us to approach God.

The Benefit from the Mediator: Grace

Now, in 2 Corinthians 13:14, which summarizes the roles of the Father, Son, and Spirit, we found that the main thing we receive from the Father is love. What is the main thing we get from the Son? The main thing we get from the Father is love; the main thing we get from the Holy Spirit is fellowship – what is the main thing we receive from God the Son? Grace.

The Meaning of Grace

So let’s talk about what grace is. Grace is a word that has a huge semantic range – it is used so many different ways in the Bible. But the most basic root meaning is this: Grace is that which provides joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, loveliness, or wellbeing. And in the New Testament, the emphasis is on the fact that it is a gift, and it represents favor. So grace is a gift that contributes to your joy and wellbeing, that is given as an expression of God’s favor toward you. So the grace of God is when the Lord favors you and expresses that by giving you a gift that contributes to your wellbeing in a delightful way.

We experience God’s favor only through the Lord Jesus Christ. We receive God’s love only through Christ. There is no benefit we receive from God that does not come through Jesus and ONLY through Jesus. Even common grace – grace that extends to all people, like the sunshine and rain and food and all the wonderful things God put in this world. All of that was purchased on the Cross. That is why it seemed like God was unjust prior to the Cross. For all the years from the fall all the way to the Cross, God was having mercy on people, and not instantly sending all sinners to hell, and even saving those who believed – the only way God could do any of that was because He knew that the Cross was coming and that the price would be paid.

Romans 3:25 God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement … He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished– 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time

So everything that ever happens or that ever could happen that isn’t punishment for sin, can happen only because Jesus purchased it on the Cross. So all the benefits we receive from God (all grace) comes to us only through Jesus Christ.

The Purpose of Mediation: To Honor the Son

Jesus Christ is our Mediator.

Romans 8:34 Christ Jesus, who died–more than that, who was raised to life–is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Jesus stands before the Father and intercedes. That is a doctrine that for a long time really baffled me. For the longest time the doctrine of Jesus’ intercession really had me perplexed for two reasons. First, I did not understand why Jesus is interceding for us in an ongoing way. If the price was paid two thousand years ago, why does Jesus have to keep on pleading on my behalf today? The Father isn’t forgetful. He does not have to be reminded that the price for my sin was paid. He accepted that price once – so why does Jesus have to continually keep on pleading with Him to show mercy to me?

The other thing that bothered me was the fact that it makes it seem like Jesus and the Father are not on the same page. It makes it seem like the Father keeps wanting to go the way of judgment, but Jesus persuades Him to go the way of mercy. If the Father’s natural inclination is to show me mercy, why does Jesus have to constantly plead with Him to do so? And if He is not inclined that way, and Jesus is, it seems like a division within the Godhead.

The answer to both problems finally became clear when I studied the history of intercession in the Bible. I studied Moses and Samuel pleading for mercy for disobedient Israel, or Abraham for Sodom, or Job praying for His friends. And I finally realized that the purpose of intercession is when God wants to show how much He favors some special servant, so He has mercy on whoever that servant prays for. So when God wanted everybody to know how much He favored Moses, He did that by having mercy on anyone Moses prayed for. You see that in passages like Jeremiah 15:1 and Ezekiel 14:14. At the end of the book of Job we read this:

Job 42:7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 … My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. …” 9 So [they] did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

Was that because Job was merciful and God wasn’t, and Job had to win God over to the idea of being merciful? No. Being merciful was God’s idea to begin with. He was eager to show mercy, but He decided to only give that mercy in response to Job’s prayer in order to show those men how pleased He was with Job. The reason God shows us no mercy apart from Jesus’ intercession is so all God’s mercy comes as an expression of love for His Son. God will not forgive us or give us any other blessing except as a favor to His beloved Son. So it is not that the Father is reluctant to show mercy; it is just that He wants all His mercy to be given as a favor to His Son for the purpose of honoring His Son. When it is a favor to His Son, God cannot show mercy fast enough.

It would be a bad thing for us if we received favor from God apart from the intercession of Jesus because Christ being honored is infinitely more important than us receiving mercy. So the Father’s biggest agenda is that His Son be honored and loved.

John 5:22-23 the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

That is what God the Father cares about more than anything. So when you think of Jesus interceding for us, don’t think of the Father as being reluctant. Just the opposite – He is the one who initiated the whole thing and provided the propitiation.

1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an propitiation for our sins.

The entire thing was the Father’s doing. This is why grace comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ – the grace of salvation and every other blessing we get from the Father – including every breath you take – purchased on the Cross and granted willingly and eagerly on behalf of the wishes of God’s beloved Son who requests those blessings for us every day. Every blessing you ever receive – every bite of food you ever enjoy, every moment you are protected from disaster, every pair of shoes He provides you with, every sin that is forgiven, every moment of fun or enjoyment you have in life – every one is a divine declaration of the worth and honor and glory and worthiness of the Son. So ask for lots of blessing from God, because Jesus will pass those requests along to the Father so that the Father will have lots of occasions to say, “This is how much I love my great Son.”

Fellowship with the Son: Seek Grace

So that is the main thing we receive from God the Son – grace. So how do we respond to that? Fellowship is a two-way interaction, so when we receive all this grace from Jesus, how do we respond in a way that is a drawing near to is presence?

Here is an area where we really need to be careful, because mostly we think of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as a fact that is the same for all Christians all the time. We think of it as being kind of like a law that is passed – it is the same every day. It does not come and go. But listen again to the benediction:

2 Corinthians 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

The prayer is that the grace of Christ would be with you. It does not just pray that we will understand it, or that we will appreciate it. He prays that it will be with us. Did you know that the grace of Christ is with you some days, and other days not as much? That is why we are told to grow in grace (2 Pe.3:18).

Hebrews 13:9 It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may … find grace to help us in our time of need.

We need to pray for grace, seek grace, find grace, be strengthened by grace, and grow in grace.

The Means of Grace

Theologians like to talk about what they call “the means of grace.” There are various things the Bible tells us we can do to gain access to grace. You don’t do those things; you don’t get the grace. It is kind of like when you are a kid and your mom says, “Time for dinner – come and get it.” You don’t have to buy the food, you don’t have to cook the meal, you don’t have to supply anything. But you do have to come and get it. Your mom is not going to bring a tray of food into your bedroom. If you want the Thanksgiving feast you have to come to the table.

So what are the means of grace? How do we come to the table? What could you do today that would result in you receiving more grace from Jesus Christ than you would otherwise? I looked up every single occurrence of the word “grace” in the New Testament, looking for passages that actually indicate that a certain action can bring you more grace. And I found four ways – four things you can do to get more grace.

1) Faith

The first is faith. You get more grace by trusting Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:2 through [Jesus Christ] we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

Read that verse backwards – we are currently standing in grace, and how did we gain access to that grace? By faith. The most fundamental way to gain access to grace is by faith. In fact, that is even how you gain access to saving grace initially. The grace needed to even become a Christian in the first place comes through faith.

Ephesians 2:8 it is by grace you have been saved, through faith

Faith is the only means of saving grace. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that you can get saving grace through seven rituals. They call them sacraments: baptism, communion, confirmation, confession to a priest, anointing with oil, marriage (or holy orders), and last rites. Sometimes people get confused and say that the Catholics believe in seven sacraments and Protestants believe in only two – communion and baptism. That is not correct. We do not believe in two – we believe in zero. Communion and baptism are very important, but they are not sacraments. They do not save you. There is no external action you can perform that will automatically bring you saving grace. Saving grace – the grace to become a Christian, comes through one thing and one thing only: faith. That is it. And if you add anything else – faith plus some other thing – you have just destroyed the gospel and you are outside the boundaries of true Christianity. So you get saving grace only through faith in Jesus, and then after you become a Christian, and you need more grace for living the Christian life, that also comes through faith.

Different from trusting the Father

The most basic way that we have fellowship with Jesus Christ, the way to draw near to His presence and have communion with Him, is by trusting Him. “Wait a second – wasn’t that one of the ways to have fellowship with the Father?” Yes, it is, however we trust Jesus in a little different way than the way we trust the Father. Our faith in the Father is like a child’s trust in His dad. We trust Him to provide for us, we trust His Word to be accurate. We trust His hand of providence. We trust in Him like a child trusting his dad.

Our faith in Jesus is confidence in His work on the Cross. We trust Him by placing all our confidence in what He has done for us. We don’t think we are going to heaven because of anything we have done, or anything in us. We don’t think we will be able to hang in there and persevere all the way to the end because of our own strength. We don’t think we have favor with God because of any self-generated goodness. We don’t think we will be able to conquer sin by our own strength. We count on Jesus one hundred percent for all those things. All our confidence is in Him. If we got to Judgment Day and God asked, “Why should I allow you into heaven?” we would just point to Jesus. “The only reason You should allow me into heaven is because You love Jesus so much, and I am in Him.”

And the way a Christian overcomes any sin is by trusting Jesus.

Romans 1:5 Through him we … call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith

Galatians 2:20 The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God

So if you are tempted with worry, you overcome it by trusting in the promise that God will take care of you. God the Father will provide for us through Christ. Because of Christ we have access to the grace of God the Father taking care of us. And when you trust in that, that is fellowship with Jesus. If you struggle with lust, you trust in the promise that joy of being in the Father’s presence will be more satisfying than sexual sin. And you gain access to that presence by trusting in Jesus’ work that purchased access for you. And that trusting is fellowship with Jesus. If you struggle with the sin of lying, you trust in the promise that whatever you think you will gain by lying, the benefits you will receive from the Father’s way will be far better. So you trust Jesus to supply the grace that gives you access to those benefits. And that trusting is fellowship with Jesus. If you struggle with the sin of coveting and greed, you trust in the promises of the Father’s rewards – through Christ. If you struggle with fear of man – caring too much about everybody’s approval, you fight that by trusting in the approval from the Father that Jesus purchased for you. The solution to every sin is trusting in the grace that comes through Jesus Christ. Jesus gives us the grace to trust, we respond by trusting, He responds by granting more grace – back and forth – that is fellowship with the second Member of the Trinity.

And it is a delightful experience. One of the most delightful expressions of love is trust. If a woman is afraid and she runs into the arms of her husband, and in his arms she feels safe – that is one of the most delightful and healthy exchanges of love. It will increase love in both husband and wife.

2) Spiritual gifts

The Gifts of Others

The purpose of spiritual gifts is to dispense grace from Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Each Christian functions as a steward, whose task it is to dispense a particular form of God’s grace. Spend time with some people and you will receive strengthening grace. Spend time with other people and you will receive comforting grace. Through others you get knowledge, others discernment, others conviction, others protection, others compassion. The people of God in the Church are like shelves in a store, and every shelf provides some unique grace that you need.

Your own gift

And not only do you receive grace from the Lord through our gifts; you receive grace from the Lord through your own gift.

Romans 12:6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

If I have the gift of teaching, every time I use that gift to edify the saints, I get grace out of the deal. When grace flows through your gift to others, you benefit from that grace as it flows through you. In fact, the ministry that God has called you to is itself grace from God. When Paul refers to his ministry of preaching, he calls it grace from God.

Ephesians 3:2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you … 7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me … 8 this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles

And your ministry is also called a grace.

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us a grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

We all have our own, unique calling, which means we have our own gift of grace we have each received. So how do you have fellowship with the Giver of grace – the Lord Jesus Christ? 1) By trusting in His work on your behalf and trusting in His promises, and 2) by being ministered to by the saints through their gifts and by ministering to the saints through your gift.

3) Humility

And third – humility.

1 Peter 5:5 All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

That is pretty straightforward. If you humble yourself, God will give you grace.

Isaiah 66:2 This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

One writer commented on that verse, “Humility attracts the gaze of our sovereign God.”

Isaiah 57:15 For this is what the high and lofty One says– he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.”

4) Prayer

Get grace through faith, through spiritual gifts, through humility, then Hebrews gives us a fourth way – confident prayer.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

When you come to God in a timid way, questioning His love for you, reluctant because of your own unworthiness, hesitant, apologetic, doubting whether God is even listening, doubting His willingness to be gracious to you – that makes it less likely that you will receive grace to help you in your time of need. But if you come to Him like a son – God responds to that. It honors God when we act like sons when we approach Him.

5) Scripture

We receive grace through faith, the spiritual gifts, humility, prayer, and finally – through the Word of God.

Acts 20:32 Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace

We receive grace from God through the Scriptures. That is why we are all here right now.

The Results of Grace

So how do know when you have experienced that fellowship? If you are hungry and you eat a meal, you can tell you have had the meal by the fact that your stomach feels full and you now have more energy. So how can you tell when you have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ? Instead of a full stomach it is a full soul – but what does a full soul feel like?

Empowerment

Well, when I studied everything the Bible says about grace I found a few things. One is empowerment. When you receive grace from Jesus Christ, it is like Popeye eating spinach. It increases your strength and your ability to accomplish things in the kingdom of God.

Acts 4:33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all.

They experienced the grace of Jesus Christ and the result was power. In 2 Corinthians 8 Paul tells about the amazing things the Macedonian churches were doing. Those people were in deep poverty and were suffering horribly. And that deep poverty welled up into rich generosity and overflowing joy (v.2). How is that possible? How can going through horrible suffering and pain and poverty cause generosity and overflowing joy to well up inside you? Grace.

2 Corinthians 8:1 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

You know you have had an experience of the presence of Christ and that you have received grace from Him when you are strengthened and empowered to have godly affections and attitudes and actions. It is always through grace that we gain access to power.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Again, the result of grace was power. You know you have experienced grace whenever you have the power to do what God calls you to do.

Even the motivation to work hard is a result of grace.

1 Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

The effect of grace on Paul’s heart was that he worked harder than everyone else. Grace gets you moving. Do not ever let anyone tell you that grace is somehow opposed to effort and striving and hard work. Sometimes people will say, “If you are striving and working hard – then you are in the flesh.” And they twist grace into a “let go and let God” kind of idea where you just sit passively on the couch and wait for God to do something. That is not grace. The result of grace is hard work and success in that hard work.

Righteousness

And the primary thing we need power and enablement for is righteous living and fighting against impurity and sin in our lives.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It (that grace) teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age

Grace enables self-control and godliness.

Comfort and help

Another byproduct of receiving grace is comfort and help when you are in trouble.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Any time you are in need and you receive the help you need, you are receiving grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything

What else? What other benefits do we get when we receive grace through Jesus Christ? Everything.

2 Corinthians 9:8 God is able to make all grace abound to you (Why? What happens when grace abounds to me?), so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

The more grace you get from Jesus the more you move toward all sufficiency in all things at all times.

Conclusion

Gold is now going for something like $1750 an ounce. Valuable stuff. Grace is worth more – grow in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Benediction: 2 Peter 3:17 Therefore, dear friends … be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Summary

We are hopelessly separated from the Father’s love, so the Son works as a mediator, bringing His love to us (grace). The Father makes all His blessings on us a favor to the Son, so in His loving us Christ is honored. Seek grace from Christ through faith, gifts, humility, prayer, and Scripture. You know you have received grace because it brings empowerment, righteousness, comfort, help, and everything.

[1] The word translated “from” is the Greek preposition ek. John loves that little word. He used it thirty-four times just in 1 John. And when John uses that word and talks about being from God or being from the world or from the devil, it points to more than just origin. If someone is from the devil that does not mean that person originated with Satan. It means they are on Satan’s side. They are sanctioned by him, cooperating with him, allied with him, in step with him, led by him, etc. So what verse 7 is saying is love for believers is identified with God. It characterizes what God is doing, so that anyone who has it is on God’s side, is sanctioned by God, approved by God, in step with God, allied with God, led by God, etc.

[2] Literally it says “the love is from God (ho agapon ek tou theou). The definite article is there to specify that he is talking in particular about the love for one another that he just mentioned. So he is saying, “Let us love one another because that kind of love is from God.”

[3] See Thayer and Colin Brown.

[4] Jeremiah 15:1 Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people.

His wrath had become so extreme that even if two of the most favored men who ever lived tried to intercede, God would not listen. That is supposed to hit us as an extreme statement. The point is for you to read that and be shocked that the situation was that dire – which means it would be an incredibly unusual thing for God not to listen to the intercession of Moses and Samuel.

[5] C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness, p.19.