The Gospel message of, “God is love and He has a wonderful plan for you life”; is in the greater picture deceptive and only the second half of the Gospel. Let’s review it… God is Love, (1John 4:8) the key point is that God actually is love.

When we look at scripture we also need to take context into consideration. In this verse love is comparative of God’s love for His children, the “Christians”, but this modern method of sharing the Gospel is using love from this verse to over shadow God being a just God and must punish sin.

This in turn gives false hope to those who still have a non-Christian world view of love. Love to most in the modern world is comprised of two basic thoughts both of which tend to be wrong. Let’s review two of the most common…

Wrong thoughts of Love…

1. If you love me you will do everything in your power to make me happy…
2. If you love me you will not judge me for my faults (Sin) Where the common thought everyone goes to heaven as long as they mean well and think good thought… Do Good.

Sound familiar?

A better view of the attributes of love…

Webster says: strong affection arising out of kinship; unselfish loyal benevolence for the good of another. (Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, pg 680)

Nurturing but with restraint, discipline, asserts leadership, lives by example, gives room for failure to solidify growth…

Can you begin to see the differences?

Now as for the Wonderful plan for your life… Let’s look at a more clear picture of the Gospel. In order for the good news to be so great we need to see our own need for such a Gospel. So, the bad must prepare us for the good.

• God the Creator is Holy  (Lev 19:2, 21:7) and  Just.(Deut 32:4).
• Man failed to maintain his relationship with God. Man sinned against God by partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This brought death to man both physical and spiritual. Have you sinned against God? Go through the 10 Commandments. This judgment comes to all men… “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment…”Hebrews 9:27
•  Christ came to earth born of a virgin, lived a PERFECT sinless life, fulfilling the prophesies. Then he willingly laid down His own life and was crucified, a sacrifice for our sin. Heb 9:28
• The Response is each individual must for themselves make a decision. to believe or not there is no middle ground. The Bible says if you make no decision you have decided already. John 3:18 You are compelled to believe that these things are true. “Repent (Be humble and truly sorry for your sin) and be Converted (be changed) that your sins maybe blotted out…”Acts 3:19 “Repent and be baptized…”Acts 2:38, “Repent and believe in the good news…”Mark 1:15

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16