3. Initiation | God's Good News | Presenting the biblical gospel so that you might find free and abundant eternal life.

God took the initiative to restore that relationship.

What is extraordinary is that while we were without God and without hope in the world, separated from our Creator God in our sinfulness, unable to do anything to save ourselves from the judgment of God and consequences of our sinful rebellion, God took the initiative. God, the Holy One who was wronged, set his undeserved, unexpected, and unmerited love on sinners to save them.¹ Notice God’s initiative in saving his people from their sins:

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners…²

We… were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses…³

God took this initiative not because he had to or because he saw anything worthy in us,⁴ but only because of his own decision.⁵ The Bible expresses this in three ways:

God set his love on sinners in spite of their rebellion.⁶ In the Bible, God’s love is an act of his will to save.⁷ God’s justice is not the opposite of his love. Rather, God’s just wrath is the backdrop to his love.⁸ If the dark and bleak backdrop of God’s wrath is removed, the brilliant glory and warmth of his love is dimmed. The teaching of the Bible is that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish. . .”⁹ Remove the backdrop (the “perish” of God’s wrath), and the love doesn’t make any sense.
To those who deserve condemnation and eternal punishment in satisfaction of his justice, God shows mercy. ¹⁰ Mercy does not give a person what he or she deserves. Mercy spares justice due. The Bible says, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.”¹¹
If mercy does not give us what we do deserve, grace¹² gives us what we do not deserve. To say that God’s salvation (rescue from sin for eternal life) is by grace means that it comes to us as a gift. It is not something we can earn by our efforts at obeying God’s law or by trying to make up for the sin we have done in the past. A gift is free, not something we deserve. Salvation does not come by turning over a new leaf or trying harder, but by the grace of God to bestow new life.¹³ In fact, the Bible says that “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”¹⁴ Faith comes as a gift of new life.

As sinners we are unlovely and unlovable. Yet, amazingly, God set his love upon sinners such as us to provide salvation and to restore that broken relationship. But that raises the question, how can we as sinners possibly¹⁵ find acceptance and a restored relationship with a holy God who must punish us for our sin?¹⁶

The only way God could reconcile sinners to himself was…

Cause for Pause: Do I suppose God will ignore my sin and accept me because I am basically a good person?

Next chapter 4. Reconciliation

Previous Chapter: 2. Alienation

Genesis 3:14-15

The LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:3-4

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us...
Deuteronomy 7:7-8

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Ephesians 1:4-5

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will...
Romans 9:10-13

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Romans 8:28-29

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 5:8-9

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 9:15-18

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Titus 3:4-5

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared...
Romans 11:6

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
John 3:3; 1 Cor 15:50; Ezekiel 36:26-27

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

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I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

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And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Luke 18:26-27

Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Romans 3:26

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.