"God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:16-19).
If Jesus is God, which is written in John 1, then Jesus also is love as God is love. If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), then also love is the way, truth, and life. Not a cheap love and grace; cheap grace is a "grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."[1] It is Love; which bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things (1 Cor. 13). Christ is the mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 9:15).
In this new covenant we are to boldly come before the throne of a gracious God (Hebrews 4:16). We no longer "come to a blazing fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, sound of a trumpet and voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them" (Hebrews 12:18-19). We have confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way (Hebrews 10:19-20). God gives us a spirit of love, "a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7).
Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear can lead to grief which is defined as sorrow, sadness, or mental suffering. [2] There is a difference between worldly grief and Godly grief. Paul makes this distinction clear, Godly grief is of the will of God and "produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). Without regret; there is no condemnation, accusations, punishment, as this is not of God.
"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:28-29).
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:16-19).
If Jesus is God, which is written in John 1, then Jesus also is love as God is love. If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), then also love is the way, truth, and life. Not a cheap love and grace; cheap grace is a "grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."[1] It is Love; which bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things (1 Cor. 13). Christ is the mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 9:15).
In this new covenant we are to boldly come before the throne of a gracious God (Hebrews 4:16). We no longer "come to a blazing fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, sound of a trumpet and voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them" (Hebrews 12:18-19). We have confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way (Hebrews 10:19-20). God gives us a spirit of love, "a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7).
Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear can lead to grief which is defined as sorrow, sadness, or mental suffering. [2] There is a difference between worldly grief and Godly grief. Paul makes this distinction clear, Godly grief is of the will of God and "produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). Without regret; there is no condemnation, accusations, punishment, as this is not of God.
"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:28-29).
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R.H. Fuller, rev. ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1960), 30.