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[andersontheology]

A Week in Review: 2/10/2019-2/16/2019

What is new at Anderson Theology this week:

Church Historians page created.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. A.D. 250 – c. 340) page created.

Philip Schaff (A.D. 1819-1893) page created.

Socrates (c. A.D. 380-450) page created.

Theodoret (c. A.D. 393 – c. 460) page created.

Modern Theologians (A.D. 1840-1945) page updated.

Alexander Maclaren (A.D. 1826-1910) page created.

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[quotepixel]

"Man's course begins in a garden, but it ends in a city."

- Alexander Maclare

[indecisivelyconfused-blog]

"L" is for Love

God is love. Maybe more than any other statement, this one has been used to identify God's essence. But if we consider God's love outside the totality of God's nature, our understanding of God will be dangerously skewed. Often the nature of God’s love is characterized using the 13th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, neglecting the fact that it was written as a model for believers, not as a theology about God. So what does God mean when he says that he is love? John Piper defines God’s love in a sense that many in the modern church need to examine:

Biblical love is the overflow of joy that God has in himself, spilling out on unworthy people to draw them into the greatest experience in the world, namely knowing, tasting, enjoying, praising, being swept up into the glory of God.

          John Piper, “The Pleasure of God in Election” Sermon message from 2/22/87

God’s love is the delight and happiness he has in his own greatness and worth, which becomes the fountain of our joy. This definition sounds unusual to many today because it places God, not people, uppermost in God’s affections. But it is not new at all. Almost 100 years ago, Pastor Alexander Maclaren, commenting on Ezekiel 36, said the same thing:

I do not do this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name’s sake (Ezekiel 36:22). The foundation of all God’s love to us sinful men. . .lies not in us, not in anything about us, not n anything external to God himself. He and He alone, is the cause and reason, the motive and the end, of his own love to our world . . . the love of God- a love that has no motive but himself . . . by its very nature must be pouring out the flood of its own joyous fullness forever and ever.

          Alexander Maclaren, Sermons Preached at Manchester p.29-30

It would be a mistake to make this into a simplistic man-centered story. Taking this definition with its depths of meaning and teaching it, is a challenge. But we can begin to sow in the hearts of many the seed of truth that God loves himself most of all. That truth is the source of our joy.