John 8:24, “I said, therefore, to you, that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
This is where Jesus clearly taught what you cannot deny and you must affirm.
Jesus is God in flesh⭐ (John 8:58 with Exodus 3:14). See also John 1:1, 14; 10:30-33; 20:28; Col. 2:9; Phil. 2:5-8; Heb. 1:8
Salvation by Grace⭐
“You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace,” (Gal. 5:4).
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast,” (Eph. 2:8-9).
Both these verses show salvation is by grace through faith and not by works, and that to add works is to not be saved .
The Resurrection of Christ⭐
“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith,” (1 Cor. 15:14). “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins,” (1 Cor. 15:17).
These verses clearly state that if you say that Jesus did not rise from the dead in the same body He died in as he prophesied in John 2:19-21, then your faith is useless.
The Gospel⭐
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:8-9, NIV).
1 Cor. 15:1-4 defines what the gospel is: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Monotheism⭐
There is only one God (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6, 8)
“You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments,” (Exodus 20:3-6).
We can see that God will visit iniquity on the descendants of those who do not follow the true and living God.
“’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us,’” (Matt. 1:23).
Without the virgin birth, we cannot substantiate the doctrine of the incarnation of Jesus being God in flesh. This would put at risk what Jesus said above in John 8:24 where he said, “I said, therefore, to you, that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
Doctrine of the Trinity⭐
Matt. 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” (See also, Matt. 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 12:4-6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6.)
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕊️ The doctrine of the Trinity is arrived at systematically by looking at the totality of Scripture. It is, nevertheless, the proper representation of scriptural revelation concerning the nature of God.
Our faith is only as good as who we put it in. There are false teachers who redefine God, redefine Christ, and redefine the gospel to their own destruction. Jesus warned us about false Christs and false teachers in Matt. 24:24. Paul clearly said in Galatians 1:8 that anyone who preaches a false gospel is to be cursed. Therefore, we can see from Scripture that there are doctrinal/propositional truths we cannot avoid and that these truths cannot be governed by experience and/or the ambivalence of emerging “conversation.” If that were the case, we would not need the propositional truths given to us by God in the Bible.
A Christian wants to be as much like Jesus as he or she can be. Part of being like Jesus is loving like Jesus loved. God has a goal of conforming us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Jesus was always obedient to the Father (John 8:29), He was pure in every way (Hebrews 4:15), and He loved people selflessly (Matthew 9:36; 14:14). He commanded His disciples to love each other the same way He had loved them (John 13:34). But that presents a problem. Jesus demonstrated His love by dying for us, saying, “There is no greater love than this” (John 15:13). Since most of us will never be called upon to die for someone, what does it mean to love like Jesus?
John 3:16 tells us what it means to love like Jesus loves: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” Godly love gives sacrificially. Loving like Jesus means we hold everything we own with loose hands. We are willing to part with money, time, and possessions in order to serve other people. We recognize that all we have is on loan to us from our Father in heaven and we are responsible for what we do with it (Matthew 25:14–30). We give people what they need when it is within our power to do so. When we see a brother or sister in need, and we have resources that could help, we are to share what we have with them (James 2:15; 1 John 3:16–17).
Jesus was undiscriminating in the way He loved. He warned us that it is easy to love those who are like us (Luke 6:32–33). But Jesus loved even His enemies and expects His followers to do the same (Luke 6:35). He healed, fed, and ministered to many who would later cry, “Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:20–22). He washed the feet of Judas Iscariot, knowing that within hours Judas would betray Him (John 13:4–5). He made a point of ministering to the hated Samaritans (John 4), even making a Samaritan the hero of a parable (Luke 10:25–37). Rich and poor, young and old, religious and pagan—people flocked to hear Jesus because He loved them (Mark 10:1; Matthew 9:35–36; Luke 18:18).
To love like Jesus means we cannot be selective in how we treat people. James strongly condemns favoritism based on financial or social status: “But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). We are to treat every human being with dignity and respect, remembering that this person is a special creation, designed in the image of God (1 John 2:9–10; 4:20–21). We must work to rid our hearts of racial prejudice, socio-economic snobbery, and religious superiority. None of that belongs in the life of someone who wants to love like Jesus loves.
We must not equate love with complete acceptance of everything someone does. Jesus did not tolerate sin, deception, or false followers. He was painfully direct with the Pharisees, religious leaders, and those who claimed to love Him but loved their lives more. While still loving them, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, calling them “Hypocrites!” and “Blind fools!” (Matthew 23:13, 16). He challenged the religious leaders with the warning, “Not all who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). He puzzled the half-hearted by telling them, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven” (Luke 9:62).
Loving like Jesus means we care enough about the souls of others to tell them the truth. A rich young ruler came to Jesus with good intentions, but with a lack of surrender (Luke 18:18–25). He wanted what Jesus offered, but he did not want Jesus. He loved his money more, and Jesus lovingly pointed out the young man’s greed. We do not love people by watering down the gospel that could save them. Jesus never changed the truth to satisfy the “itching ears” of His listeners (see 2 Timothy 4:3). He loved them enough to warn them, challenge them, teach them, and forgive them all the way to the cross (Luke 23:34).
Forgiveness is another way we can love like Jesus. We forgive when we’ve been wronged (Matthew 6:14; Ephesians 4:32). Our selfishness wants to hang on to the wound, cherishing it, cradling it, and reliving it. But Jesus forgave and tells us to forgive as well (Mark 11:25). We cannot love someone we won’t forgive. Jesus does not hold our forgiven sins over us; rather, He pronounces us clean and restored (1 John 1:9). There may be consequences for our sin, but He loves us through them and helps us learn from them. When we forgive someone, we can love and pray for that person with a clean conscience because we have done what God commands us to do (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32).
Jesus told His disciples that the primary way the world would know they were His was by their love for one another (John 13:35). If we love Jesus, then we will love what He loves, which is people. And as we practice loving like He loved, we become more like Him.
