UNDERSTANDING THE LOVE OF GOD

 

The knowledge of God; His ways and how He operates, is so vast, that even our little mind cannot comprehend fully (Isa. 55:8, 9; Rom. 11:33, 34). And one of His ways is His love dimension; ‘… for God is love.’ (1 Jn. 4:8). We cannot fully grasp of the love of God.

 

Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT

17           Then Christ will make his home in your heart as you trust in him. Your root will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

18           And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

19           May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

 

Because His love is not fully understood, that is why men, with their carnal mind, see contradictions in His display of love, most especially in the Old Testament. Before God created man in His image and likeness, He saw the end of man from the beginning; even before the foundations of the earth, and prepared His Son for the redemption of man (Isa. 46:10; Eph. 1:4, 5; 2 Tim. 1:9, 10).

‘For God so loved the world that he gave…’ (Jn. 3:16). So true love is an act and an art of giving. God gave His creativity to creation, that is, He created the heavens and everything on this earth in His love.

Every true relationship is built on love. So God created man in His image and after His likeness as a demonstration of His love. He created man so that He can have a relationship and a fellowship with Him.

 Even when man lost fellowship with Him, He disciplined Him in His love (Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb. 12:6). ‘And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and His wife.’ (Gen. 3:21). That was a display of affection. He saw how shameful they were and in His love, He made clothing for them. And the reason why He sent them out of the Garden of Eden was because of His love and mercy; so that they won’t eat from the tree of life and remained eternally doomed (Gen. 3:22-24).

We see His love being displayed to Cain after killing his brother, Abel. He disciplined him in His love, but Cain thought God hated him for his sin. No! God doesn’t hate you because you sin, but He hates the sins we commit. That’s why He gave His only begotten Son so as to bring us into a life of holiness (Jn. 3:16; Eph. 1:4, 5; 2 Tim. 1:9-10).

 

Romans 5:8 NLT

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

 

If God doesn’t love you, He wouldn’t have sent His Son while we were still sinners. He loved us! But our sins have separated us from Him (Isa. 59:1, 2).

So when Cain felt that God hated him, God placed a mark on him as a sign of His love. Same way He placed the Holy Spirit in us as a seal of His redemption (Eph. 4:30; 2Cor. 1:22).

Sin came to its peak during the days of Noah, but God in His love gave the children of men about 120 years to heed to Noah’s instruction.

Even when certain things happened to certain people like Job, it was because of His love- His love is mysterious. God does not do evil, He only permits them for our perfection (Jam. 1:13, 17; 2-4).

God gave the laws to the children of Israel as a sign of His love; ‘… The law simply shows us how sinful we are.’ (Rom. 3:20). And anyone who broke any of the laws in the Old Testament faced the consequences; ‘… the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.’ (Rom. 7:5). So when the law revealed our weaknesses, we then saw the need for grace in Christ Jesus. That was why Christ came as a demonstration of the love of God.

Whatever you’ve seen as a contradiction, that God has changed from who He was when Christ came is all a lie. God does not change (Mal. 3:6), He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). He has always displayed His love from time past till eternity. His love has always been a mystery that we cannot grasp fully. GOD IS LOVE!

The only val you need is reviVAL. Let’s return to our first love for Him, and let’s also allow the love of God to fill our hearts. This is a celebration of the love of God: Happy reviVAL!