Volume 26, Issue 2
W is c onsin Ch ristian N e w s .c om
Pa g e 21
God So Loved...that He Gave
who is hungry, you give him food. You see someone who is lonely, you befriend him. Your neighbor is sick, you visit him and pray for him. Many Americans are self-cen- tered, or preoccupied with the bad news of places near and far that they do not see the people around them that need love and care. True Christians see these
our bodies as a living sacrifice.” See Romans 12:1. Love and worship God. He is worthy! Isaac D. Martin
Rod & Staff Publishers W6053 County Rd. X Withee, WI 54498 (715) 229-9400
By Isaac D. Martin May 2025
needs and respond.
“God so loved the world that He gave….” What did He give? God gave the world the best that He had, His only Son. That Son was the fulfillment of His promise to Adam and Eve. Jesus was the seed of the woman that bruised the head of Satan and it was the heel of Jesus that Satan bruised. Read Genesis 3:15. God, with His Son, decided before the world began how He would redeem man from his sinful state and reconcile us to Himself again. Read 2 Timothy 1:9-10. That plan involves the blood of the Sinless One. The blood of Jesus was offered on the Cross at Golgotha! It is all a marvelous work and it is so simple that man struggles to believe that faith in that sacrifice can make an eternal difference, but it does. This struggle is intense because of the hu- manistic education of the last century. The Gospel story of Jesus is a marvelous story. It’s a story of how Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin as it was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14. The Gospel records many things that He taught and did. It was always good and yet there were those who hated Him, because He exposed the wickedness of reli- gious man. So they killed Jesus, even as it was prophesied He would be killed in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Now we have the rest of John 3:16; “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus continued this thought, saying; “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This salvation was costly on God’s part. The essence of the Gospel is love that gives of it- self. Jesus said, “If any man will be My disci- ple, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” God gave and we who believe give our lives in sacrifice to Him. How do we do that? We give our life to serve others. We serve God as we serve others, if we have the life and love of Jesus in our heart. We see the needs of others and we do what we can to relieve that need. We are not talking about big needs; we are talking about little needs. These little needs show up around us. You see someone
Christians do not do these things to be saved. They do them because of the love of Jesus in their hearts. Today, for many, the govern- ment provides a monthly check. This turns the eyes of many eyes toward the government as the great benefactor. This grabs the attention of many people and they forget that God is our Creator and the Sustainer of all life. God is the One who makes the earth fruitful. God is the One who can bring disasters to cause men to think about Him. When men refuse to believe in God and worship Him, He brings different kinds of judg- ments in an effort to make them remember. Many fear, but they do not re- pent. In the Revelation it says that they will not repent and give God glory. In light of that, we can expect God to bring more adverse conditions be- cause there is no revival of righteousness. We do pray that there would yet be a revival of truth and righteousness. We Christians expect the re- turn of Jesus. Life will get more difficult as evil increases and Christians are persecuted and killed for their faith. But “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” (Revela- tion 14:13). God gave us the best that He had. It is reasonable that He ex- pects us to give our lives to Him for service to others. Paul said, “It is a reasonable service to give
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