Yes, God Loves You!
Occasionally I have heard people say that they like Jesus but they don’t like the God of the Old Testament, indicating that He’s a vindictive God that killed women and children. Most of the people who say that have never read the Bible or the parts that they’ve read they don’t really understand.
You see, the Bible was written by 40 or so different authors, in 7 different nations, in 3 different languages in time period of 1,500 years. These facts tell you that the consistency in its pages is a miracle, but they also tell you that you cannot read just one book within the Bible and expect to understand who God is.
God is love – He personifies love. In fact, you have love in you because God is the source of that love. Without Him, you wouldn’t have any love at all.
But is the God of the Old Testament the same God that gave us Jesus in the New Testament?
Of course He is. And Jesus IS God – God the Son. God is 3 in person and 1 in essence: the first person of the trinity is God the Father, the second person is God the Son and the third person is God the Holy Spirit.
You see, in order to understand God’s love, we need to understand God Himself. And we understand Him by reading the Bible. What does God say about His love for us? Take a look at this, from the Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 7:9 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”
So this is the condition that we find in the Old Testament: we need to keep God’s commandments. What happens if we do? Take a look
Deuteronomy 7:12-15 "12 Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known”
You see, this is the promise. It’s God’s promise to give us blessings and multiply us in every way – from the fruit of our womb, to the fruit of our land, to health. God loves us. All He’s asking is to love Him as well.
God wants to do all of these things for us. The problem is we disobey Him. Throughout all of the Old Testament we see how Prophet after Prophet was sent to a disobedient Israel to correct its course – to stop worshiping other gods, to stop killing their own children and enslaving their own people. And Israel didn’t listen. So one day Jesus is born – God’s only begotten Son – to make right all those things that Israel did wrong. He lived a perfect life of obedience to God and was crucified to pay for our sins and raised again from the dead. And all God wants from us is to trust Jesus. The blessings come to us if we trust Jesus.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life". This is one of the best known Bible verses. God is merciful, He has forgiven us and all He wants from us is to honor Jesus. That’s why the God of the New Testament seems much more merciful – because Jesus took our place on that cross such that we could enjoy God’s blessings.
God loves us so much that His Son Jesus suffered in our place. He could just say “oh, who cares? They never listen. They’re cheaters, adulterers, liars, thieves, murderers, they kill their own children, want to change the gender I gave them. I should just be fair and punish them for violating my laws”. And being fair, as you know, is simply for us to suffer the consequences of our actions: eternal damnation. However, He’s so merciful that we don’t have to suffer the consequences (illness, poverty, depression and, worst of all, eternal damnation) because He has provided the way: Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Yes, my friend. God loves us that much. God is in the blessing business!
You see, the Bible was written by 40 or so different authors, in 7 different nations, in 3 different languages in time period of 1,500 years. These facts tell you that the consistency in its pages is a miracle, but they also tell you that you cannot read just one book within the Bible and expect to understand who God is.
God is love – He personifies love. In fact, you have love in you because God is the source of that love. Without Him, you wouldn’t have any love at all.
But is the God of the Old Testament the same God that gave us Jesus in the New Testament?
Of course He is. And Jesus IS God – God the Son. God is 3 in person and 1 in essence: the first person of the trinity is God the Father, the second person is God the Son and the third person is God the Holy Spirit.
You see, in order to understand God’s love, we need to understand God Himself. And we understand Him by reading the Bible. What does God say about His love for us? Take a look at this, from the Old Testament:
Deuteronomy 7:9 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”
So this is the condition that we find in the Old Testament: we need to keep God’s commandments. What happens if we do? Take a look
Deuteronomy 7:12-15 "12 Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. 13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known”
You see, this is the promise. It’s God’s promise to give us blessings and multiply us in every way – from the fruit of our womb, to the fruit of our land, to health. God loves us. All He’s asking is to love Him as well.
God wants to do all of these things for us. The problem is we disobey Him. Throughout all of the Old Testament we see how Prophet after Prophet was sent to a disobedient Israel to correct its course – to stop worshiping other gods, to stop killing their own children and enslaving their own people. And Israel didn’t listen. So one day Jesus is born – God’s only begotten Son – to make right all those things that Israel did wrong. He lived a perfect life of obedience to God and was crucified to pay for our sins and raised again from the dead. And all God wants from us is to trust Jesus. The blessings come to us if we trust Jesus.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life". This is one of the best known Bible verses. God is merciful, He has forgiven us and all He wants from us is to honor Jesus. That’s why the God of the New Testament seems much more merciful – because Jesus took our place on that cross such that we could enjoy God’s blessings.
God loves us so much that His Son Jesus suffered in our place. He could just say “oh, who cares? They never listen. They’re cheaters, adulterers, liars, thieves, murderers, they kill their own children, want to change the gender I gave them. I should just be fair and punish them for violating my laws”. And being fair, as you know, is simply for us to suffer the consequences of our actions: eternal damnation. However, He’s so merciful that we don’t have to suffer the consequences (illness, poverty, depression and, worst of all, eternal damnation) because He has provided the way: Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Yes, my friend. God loves us that much. God is in the blessing business!