". . . there lies always upon God’s Minister, Wo be unto me, if I preach not the Gospel, if I apply not the comfortable promises of the Gospel, to all that grone under the burden of their sins." ~John Donne (1572-1631), Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral London @TWRjack

Great book. Must-read. Thanks be to God!

The gospel announces that God's love originates entirely in Himself, not in anything lovable about us, "while we were yet sinners. . . while we were enemies. . ." "8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Rom. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." ~Romans 5:8, 10

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1 John 4 says some essential things about how we are to understand assurance and obeying The Great Commandment (love for God and our neighbor). Our assurance is not grounded in how well we have loved God. Rather, our assurance is grounded in the astonishing truth that God loved us first, and that His love brought us into fellowship with Himself. Our love for God and our neighbor is the necessary consequence of His prior love. His love for us is the cause. Our love for God and fellow believers is the effect. God's love does not merely offer the possibility of our love in return. Rather, God's love in Christ, through the Spirit, creates the love with which we respond to Him. These are some of the astonishing truths of 1 John 4. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. . . 19 We love (Love for God, 1 John 4:19–21; Love for fellow believers, 1 John 4:7–12, 20–21). BECAUSE He first loved us." ~1 John 4:10-11, 19