This document discusses how modern culture often portrays God as only loving, but the Bible depicts Him as also holy and wrathful towards sin. It argues that while God's love is central to Christianity, His other attributes like holiness, sovereignty, and wrath are also important. The document uses several Bible passages like John 3:16, Romans 8:1, and 1 John 4:9-10 to show how God demonstrated His love through sending Jesus, while also maintaining His righteousness. It encourages readers to have a full, biblical understanding of God's character rather than a reduced version focused only on love.

3. FOR GOD
SO LOVED
THE WORLD...
(JN 3:16 SEEMS SIMPLE ENOUGH)

4. GOD's love difficult
(ABOUT GOD'S LOVE)
A DISCONNECT
(ABOUT GOD'S HOLINESS)
A DISBELIEF
(ABOUT GOD'S SON)
A DISGUST
1 2 3
Can Be

5. GOD's love difficult
(ABOUT GOD'S LOVE)
A DISCONNECT
1
Can Be

7. GOD's love difficult
(ABOUT GOD'S SON)
A DISGUST
2
Can Be

8. “FOR”

9. “FOR”
(THIS IS THE GROUND OF GOD’S LOVE)
IN JOHN 3:16

10. THAT HE GAVE
HIS ONE AND
ONLY SON

11. “FOR”
(THIS IS THE GROUNDS OF GOD’S LOVE)
IN ROMANS 8:1

12. ROMANS 8:1
THERE IS THEREFORE NOW
NO CONDEMNATION FOR
THOSE WHO ARE IN
CHRIST JESUS. [IMPLICATION?]

13. GOD's love difficult
(ABOUT GOD'S HOLINESS)
A DISBELIEF
3
Can Be

14. MATTHEW'S
STORY
FEBRUARY
2018

15. IN THIS THE LOVE OF GOD
WAS MADE MANIFEST
AMONG US, THAT GOD SENT
HIS ONLY SON INTO THE
WORLD, SO THAT WE MIGHT
LIVE THROUGH HIM.
1 JN 4:9

17. IN THIS IS LOVE, NOT THAT
WE HAVE LOVED GOD BUT
THAT HE LOVED US AND
SENT HIS SON TO BE THE
PROPITIATION [POURED
OUT OFFERING] FOR OUR
SINS.
1 JN 4:10

18. To put this another way, we live in a culture that reduces
God to only ONE OF HIS ATTRIBUTES: LOVE. This image of
GOD is not the GOD of JOHN 3:16; not the GOD revealing
HIMSELF in SCRIPTURE. [More on this next week]
YES, of course GOD loves the WORLD, but think of it like
this: GOD so loved the WORLD, but the WORLD Jesus is
describing is not incredible because
- how big, massive, or populated the physical world is,
- rather how SINFUL the World is.

19. That GOD is LOVE is a non-negotiable of the Christian Faith,
But so is:
the Holiness of God,
the Sovereignty of God,
the Wrath of God,
—to mention a few other nonnegotiables of basic Christianity.
The result, of course, is that the love of God in our culture has
been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable.
D. A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 11.

20. “FOR THUS SAYS THE HIGH
AND EXALTED ONE WHO
LIVES FOREVER, MY NAME IS
HOLY.”
ISAIAH 57:15H
O
L
Y

21. THEREFORE, IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW
CREATION. THE OLD HAS PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, THE
NEW HAS COME. ALL THIS IS FROM GOD, WHO
THROUGH CHRIST RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF ...
THAT IS, IN CHRIST GOD WAS RECONCILING THE WORLD
TO HIMSELF . . .
GOD IS MAKING HIS APPEAL THROUGH US. WE IMPLORE
YOU ON BEHALF OF CHRIST, BE RECONCILED TO GOD.
2 COR 5:17-21

22. FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD
THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY
SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN
HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE
ETERNAL LIFE..
JOHN 3:16
(BE A WHOSOEVER)