1. I can guarantee you that when Paul was overtaken by the Spirit and inspired to write these words, he did not have in mind your local school's boys' basketball tournament.
  2. To believe God is love and thus loves you is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit.
  3. Jesus stands before the disciples as the bridge between heaven and earth, and between Old Testament and New Testament.
  4. His love for you is so deep that in his mercy, while you were yet a sinner, God sent his only begotten Son to die for you.
  5. “So loved,” then isn’t about how much but instead simply how.
  6. Love is pointing to Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
  7. Forty days after giving birth, Mary, along with her husband Joseph, presented their firstborn Son at the temple and "bought" him back with a sacrifice of two small birds. This is known as the "Presentation of Our Lord."
  8. Even as he was dying, the heart of God poured itself out for the sake of sinners.
  9. The gospel's message is the scandalous announcement that Yahweh has stooped to our frame, to where we are.
  10. Fullness, truth, reality – all this God gives us as his gift in Christ.
  11. The usual acclamation when one becomes King is: “Long live the King!” But this King of kings, this son of David, has come to die.
  12. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."