What are some of the most important aspects of Biblical theology?

What is God Like?

God is a Faithful God.

  • The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished...(Ex 34:6-7).
    • God's faithfulness extends both to his commitment to oppose and punish sin, as well as his commitment to keep his good promises to those who fear Him.
    • Yet how can God be faithful both to "forgive wickedness" on the one hand and yet "not leave the guilty unpunished" on the other?
  • God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement - to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus(Rom 3:25, 26).
    • By executing our sentence on His Son, God reveals Jesus Christ to be the answer to the riddle of how God can forgive our wickedness while at the same time remaining faithful to punish the guilty.
    • Jesus Christ is therefore the fulfillment of God's promises - His promise of judgment for sin, and His promise of forgiveness for sinners.

God is a Loving God.

  • God's faithfulness is a function of His love. More specifically, He is faithful to forgive the sins of His people and bring them holiness because He loves them. God's love motivates His faithfulness.
  • This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us (1John 4:10, 19).
  • Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved (Eph 2:3-5).
  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).