THE TRUTH AND EXPERIENCE OF GOD’S SALVATION

Lesson Twelve    

GOD’S SALVATION – THE SOURCE OF SALVATION IS GOD’S LOVE (2)

III. God’s Salvation

A.  The source of salvation is God’s love – Eph. 2:4-5; Titus 3:4-7

2.   God’s love caused His Son to die for our sins – Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10

Burden to Impart:

This lesson goes on to deal further with the source of salvation. You should read Titus 3:4 - 7, emphasizing the kindness and love to man of our Savior God. This love caused God to reach out to us in mercy. The young people should be touched with this love, which was ultimately manifested in God sending His Son to die for us. In His love He desired to save us, but the demand of His righteousness had to be met. Christ dying for us allows God’s love to reach us while simultaneously satisfying His righteousness.

Memory Verse: “But God commends His own love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Facts to Teach:

  1. It is the kindness and the love of our Savior God that saves us and makes us different from others.
  2. Both God's mercy and God's grace are the expression of His love. When we are in a pitiful condition, first God's mercy reaches us and brings us into a situation in which He is able to favor us with His grace. Luke 15:20-24 tells us that when the father saw the prodigal son returning, he had compassion on him. That was mercy, which expressed the father's love. Then the father clothed him with the best robe and fed him with the fattened calf. That was grace, which again manifested the father's love. God's mercy reaches farther and bridges the gap between us and God's grace.
  3. Mercy is part of the grace that man receives from God. But self-righteous men do not like to receive mercy or grace from God; they prefer to give something to God. This is contrary to God's way in His economy. Just as God desires to show mercy to pitiful sinners, so He wants us to show mercy in love to others (Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33).
  4. The Lord Jesus bore man’s sins according to the requirements of God’s righteousness. The Lord Jesus propitiated the very matter which formerly prevented God’s love from reaching man.
  5. The Lord Jesus as our propitiation is the provision of God’s love. Because God, in His love, wants to be gracious to man while at the same time God’s righteousness puts requirements upon man, God provided man with the Lord Jesus as the propitiation.
  6. God’s heart causes Him to deal with man in love, but God’s righteousness puts requirements upon man. Therefore God Himself provided man with the Lord Jesus as the propitiation to propitiate the contradictory situation between God’s love and God’s righteousness.