The Love of God

In defining the love of God, I am going to define what is not the love of God first.

The Blood Hound Gang in 1999 released a song that is an excellent example of the falsest view of love, “You and me baby ain't nothin but mammals, so let’s do it like they do on the discovery channel.” This is not the love of God, and in reality, is no love at all.

The next false love but a step up from the animalistic notion we have already seen is the Walt Disney view of love. Sleeping beauty and Prince Charming, this gives the false hope of perfection and is simply something we will not find on earth even though my wife is as close to perfection on earth as any man should have. Disney has begun to blur the lines of sexuality now, which drops their view of love a notch or two.

The only God-ordained love in this world is between a man and a woman committed to each other until in death they part. Obviously, in the world of human imperfection, even this God-ordained view love is sullied by sin — men and women cheating on their spouse’s divorce rates that are far too high. My greatest delight in life is knowing God loves me. My second greatest delight in life is knowing that I didn’t waist 36 years of my life. At some point in your life, you realize that the person standing next to you means more, because of their devotion to you. More than any youthful desires of the flesh. I digress, but for those who are young and wondering, is it worth all the hassle? I say, yes. There is no one on this earth that I would rather spend time with than the wife that God has given me.

Now I will focus on the love of God,

“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded” (John 13:1-5, KJV). 

  ^“So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:12-15, KJV).

This is an example of the sacrificial love of God; God incarnate, washing the feet of His disciples. Jesus, not only loving those who were with him, but also those who were to come. Christ gave us an example of how to love one another. But this was not the greatest example to be given,

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, KJV).

The Son of God having never been separated from the love of the Father, willingly went to the cross where He would become sin for us,

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (1Corinthians 5:21, KJV).

How did this happen? Christ took our sins upon himself; God, the father can’t tolerate sin. This forced separation from the Father for the first time in eternity. The love between the Father and the Son severed for the first time and the last in all of eternity. God, the Father’s wrath for our sin, was poured out upon Christ, the Son of God. I have mentioned this before in other writings, not just the eternal wrath for my sins alone, but the eternal wrath for the sins of all who would believe, the elect. All of this wrath was poured out on the Son of God. Try meditating on that for a while, if you are a believer, I promise it will break your heart. The Son being of infinite value, however, was not separated from God the Father for all eternity. Because he is of infinite value, the payment for the debt we owed was paid for on the cross. Because the debt was paid, and Christ was the worthy sacrifice, God raised Him from the dead, and he now sits at the father’s right hand never to be separated again. Because Christ did this,

“Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30, KJV).

We are predestined in Christ, called in Christ, justified in Christ, and now we are being sanctified in Christ for the day of glorification.

In this is the Love of God and now we can say,

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are” (1 John 3:1, NASB).

To those who do not believe in the inerrancy of scripture, this will make little sense because it is based on something that can’t be known for sure. If one piece of the bible is false, then no one can have hope, and nothing is to be believed. Without the high and holy standard of scripture, we can make up whatever we want. Feminism and social justice are as good a gospel as any. I will not debate the inerrancy of the word of God. If you do not believe that the word of God is inerrant, then you are lost. Apart from the word of God, you are not Christian and have no hope, because apart from the word of God, you cannot know Christ. Anybody that tries to tell you different is of the spirit of antichrist and is not to be believed. Trying to be Christian through extrabiblical writings is folly and false religion and leads only to judgment and hell. Therefore, friends, I beg of you, with all that you are seek Christ, seek him soon, and do not relent until you have found Him. He is the word of God, and He will be found in the only book that is all about Him, the Holy Bible.

The love of God is sacrificial, Purposeful, and has been decreed from the beginning. I hope, and I pray that you can find this love.

The Goodness of God

 For God’s goodness, the definition we will use is from Thomas Manton,

“He (God) is originally good, good of Himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation and communion from God. He is essentially good; not only good but goodness itself; the creature’s good is a superadded quality. In God, it is His essence. He is infinitely good; the creature's good is but a drop, but in God, there is an infinite ocean or gathering together of good. He is eternally and immutably good, for He cannot be less good than He is, as there can be no addition made to Him, so no subtraction from Him.”

Dictionary definition; noun

1.      1.

That which is morally right; righteousness.

Similar

Virtue, righteousness, virtuousness, goodness, morality, ethicalness, uprightness, upstandingness,

Integrity, principle, dignity, rectitude, rightness, honesty, truth, truthfulness, honor, incorruptibility, probity,

Propriety, worthiness, worth, merit, irreproachableness, blamelessness, purity, pureness, lack of corruption, justice, justness, fairness

Opposite:

wickedness

When describing God as good, good is a noun. The dictionary gives a list of words that are encompassed in the noun good. Righteousness and Justness are attributes we will discuss down the road.

The goodness of God refers to His nature: “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5.)

I want to point out that I italicized No, and at all. That is because God is not evil, and you will find no darkness in Him. God is not just the greatest, He is the best, and He has been this way from all eternity. All that comes from God is good, all the attributes we have spoken of, and we will talk of are good because they come from God. His first manifestation of good was in the act of creation when He gave being to all of His creatures. His decrees are good, His law is good, His creation is good, His providence is good, “And God saw everything He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:3).

All that God does and is good and worthy of approval. Let me give you an example of the goodness of God, in which all of God’s attributes are on full display. Look at the cross, and you will see God’s GOOD and perfect love, His GOOD, and perfect wrath, His GOOD, and perfect Justice, His GOOD and perfect mercy, and all the other attributes. What happened on the cross? Yes, Christ was beaten, spat upon, scourged, and humiliated, and these things are important. These are the things we can see, and they tear at our hearts if we are believers. But this is not all that happened on the cross.

Imagine with me, a sinner facing 10,000’s X 10,000’s of years of eternal separation from God, where all you will ever know is His wrath, torturous wrath. We are only speaking of one individual at this point. Now imagine on the cross the perfect and holy God-man, took that punishment for you. That’s right God poured His wrath out on the undeserving Son of God for your sake.  “For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Now multiply what we just imagined by the number of stars in the sky and you might be able to comprehend what Christ and the Father decreed in eternity passed and carried out on the cross. If you’re a believer, this should bring you to your knees, if not, you need to meditate on it and try to understand the fullness of what happened on the cross. If you are an unbeliever, you should be terrified. Look and see that God did not spare His own son. Make no mistake; the wrath of God is eternal. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).  You are slaves to sin, “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.  “So, if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36).

 Seek the Son while He may be found!

The Truthfulness/ Faithfulness of God

How do we define God’s truthfulness/faithfulness? God's truthfulness means that He is the one true God and there is no other. God can only speak the truth, and because He can only speak the truth, He is faithful. Because He is faithful, He will carry out all of His decrees faithfully.

Jeremiah 10:10-11, “But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation. Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”

These gods are idols created by men’s imaginations. The LORD is the true God; does not mean there are untrue Gods (except in the imaginations of men). It means He is the only God. There is only one God, and when Christ returns, these little g gods will be purged from the earth. Those who believed in these little g gods will be sent to their punishment. Those in Christ will receive their reward. That was the first part of the definition given.

Definition part two; go back and look again at the blog on omniscience. To say that God’s knowledge is perfect, is to say that it is never wrong. God’s decrees are based on His perfect knowledge; therefore, His decrees will always be true, and His decrees will always be accurate.

Numbers 23:19; “God is not man, that He should lie, or the son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” 

God is reliable and will never be proven wrong. Because God is true, he is also faithful. Unfaithfulness is probably one of the most glaring sins of humankind. Our sin is evident in our politics as our elected officials continually lie to the people, and their debauchery rivals the sins of Rome. Marriages are dissolved, and new partners found as quickly as changing your socks. Many do not even bother with the institution of marriage anymore. We walk away from the love of our youth, and we walk away from our children like they are disposable. Mothers, in many cases, murder their babies in abortion clinics and then brag about it like they did something great. In a world like this, how refreshing to have a God who is reliable, True, and faithful.

Deuteronomy 7:9, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.”

The scriptures are filled with demonstrations of God’s faithfulness, and all one needs to do is look. But there are two sides to every coin as someone once said. God is not just faithful to keep His promises to those who He sovereignly decreed He would redeem through the sacrifice of our risen savior. He will also fulfill His decrees concerning those who do not believe. Eternal damnation awaits. So, if you feel God’s calling on your life seek Christ while he may be found, don’t wait, don’t sleep on it, but with all urgency seek Christ until He gives you assurance that you are saved. The alternative is eternity under God’s wrath.

 “There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or oversimplifications. People think they’re preaching the gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life,’ or that ‘you can have meaning to your life,’ or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the gospel.

The gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy, and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.

The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead–so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith–and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him–and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.” (RC Sproul)

What he said; if you are feeling called, then seek until you have found.

For those who do believe, when you start to wander, God is faithful to chastise and bring you back in line. This chastisement is not to be considered mistreatment by God; it is His loving correction that he brings to you. Because He is faithful, you will in no way be lost. 

The Wisdom of God

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight,” Proverbs 9:10 (ESV). “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, pride, and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech,” Proverbs 8:13.

When we become born again by the Spirit of God, through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the sovereign decree of God in eternity past, we fear for our souls. Once enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we understand that we have sinned against the Holy and righteous God. We begin to hate pride, arrogance, and perverted speech (EVIL). So, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines wisdom as “knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it.” 

Once saved by the grace of God, we now have a basic knowledge of God. So, where do we find more knowledge of God? In the word of God, God has given us through his word all the knowledge we need to navigate this life and to store up riches in heaven for the next life. By His grace and mercy, we can seek out the wisdom to know Him more richly, more deeply than we could ever imagine. We have the word; we know how to gain knowledge through the word. How do we get more wisdom? When we are born again, we also are given a comforter, the Holy Spirit. One of the Holy Spirits' primary missions after salvation is to lead us into all truth.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come,” John 16:13.

 “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD,” Isaiah 11:2.

The Spirit of God leads us into all truth. He is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. As we study the word of God, we are to seek wisdom and understanding in the Holy Spirit of God. So, to be clear, we, through the Holy Spirit, by studying the word of God, can gain knowledge and put it to use. This is the dictionary definition of wisdom. This is how we seek the wisdom that can only come from God.

I have a systematic theology book here, and from time to time, I will use it as a guide. When it came to the wisdom of God. I wanted something more practical for those who might be starting in their Christian walk, and for those who are curious. I hope this doesn’t leave you with questions that I left unanswered. I honestly do desire to help you to seek the wisdom of God. If you are not born again, and you are feeling God’s call on your life. You should seek to know Christ. He is the only way,

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture”, John 10:9.

Seek Him while He may be found.

I am praying for you. Are you praying for me?

The Foreknowledge of God

I could have covered Foreknowledge in the previous Blog on God’s Omniscience/Knowledge. I chose instead to include it here, separately. The reason I wanted to cover it individually because we must discuss the fallacy of it being a mystical act of God seeing into future to determine who would choose Him.  We must examine the use of foreknowledge in the new testament in context. In our case the dictionary definition will not help, we will study the scriptures to see how the Holy Spirit uses the term foreknowledge.

“The word "foreknowledge" has two meanings. It is a term used in theology to denote the prescience or foresight of God, that is, His knowledge of the entire course of events which are future from the human point of view; and it”s used in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) to translate the Greek words proginoskein and prognosis in the New Testament, in which instances the word "fore-knowledge" approaches closely the idea of foreordination.” (Encyclopedia International).

 Foreknowledge is never used in scripture to describe events or actions by men, and it only applied to the foreknowledge God has of individuals,

Acts 2:23; “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

If we pay close attention to the sentence, it is not the act of crucifixion that the apostle said God foreknew; but, this Jesus was the object of God’s foreknowledge. In that foreknowledge, there was a definite plan.

The second text is,

 Romans 8:29; “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that  he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

So, this is quite specific to those He foreknew. What about those He didn’t foreknow? Here again, the apostle is speaking of individuals and not actions taken by a man. He predestined; God decreed that specific individuals would be conformed to the image of His Son. So far, man has nothing to do with anything. God’s decree, God’s foreordination, God’s predestination, is doing everything.

The last one concerning foreknowledge, foreknew, or foreknown,

1 Peter 1:1-2; “To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

 Here again, the reference is to individual believers who were dispersed by the oppression of the Jews. They are elect according to God’s foreknowledge, and it wasn’t just their election. He foreknew their sanctification, and He foreknew their obedience. He foreknew these thing’s because he ordained them to be by His sovereign decree.

For God to know someone, it is to be fully known. God’s knowledge of His elect is an intimate knowledge that only God can know. It is not the elect as a group but as individuals. He knows you personally if you are elect. He knows you intimately, your actions mean nothing when it comes to God knowing you. He is working all things out for your ultimate good. He has chosen to love you with a love that the rest of humanity cannot know. But don’t let that make you proud,

1 Corinthians 1:27; “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;”

 God did not choose base on looks, intelligence, or any other wonderful attribute of yours. He chose because He is God.

The foreknowledge of God is a very touchy subject because it has to do with predestination. So please try to read it and be prayerful about it. I will also pray for us. May our sovereign God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the promised comforter (Holy Spirit) fill all of God’s elect.

God’s Omniscience/Knowledge

God’s Omniscience/Knowledge can be defined as follows: God fully knows Himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act (Grudem,190).

Simple does not mean easy, in that it should be easy for us to understand. Simple means that God’s knowledge is not divided into categories that he needs to shuffle through to find answers. God knows everything all at once, and it is ever before Him. God does not need to pull a book off the shelf to know the number of stars in the universe, or the number of grains of sand on the seashore, or the number of hairs on your head. God knows everything all at once.

God fully knows Himself. This is quite incomprehensible to us because God is infinite in His existence. He has no beginning or end. Paul says, “The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what Pearson knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). God is morally pure, Holy, and filled with self-knowledge.

God knows everything actual, everything that exists. Because He is the creator and decrier of all things. I know I keep harping on this but, God does not know because He can see into the future, He knows because He decreed in eternity past all things that would be. By decree, he created the heavens and the earth, Genesis chapter 1: 3,6,9,11,14,16,20,24, “And God said.” And by decree He again tells us future history, “I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isaiah 46:9-10).   

God also knows what is possible, David inquired of God at Keilah,

“Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, I beseech you, tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” Then said David, “will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will surrender you.” Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition” (1 Samuel 23:11-13).

You can see that God knows all the possibilities; if David had stayed, he would have been captured.  Knowing this David left, and the outcome changed. Jesus being God could say, “Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day” (Mathew 11:23). There are many more examples of God’s all-knowing or omniscience, but it goes further.

God knows the intent of your heart; He knows your words before they are formed on your tongue.

1 Kings 8:39, “then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men,”

Psalm 139:2-23, “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”

Matthew 9:4, “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?”

The fact that God even knows the intent of your heart should keep believers on their toes, at least, be on guard about sin in your life. For unbelievers, you should be terrified, in your current condition you are at enmity with God and His wrath burns against you. If the Holy Spirit is causing you to desire Christ, then seek Him with all your heart and don’t quit seeking until you have assurance from Him that you are saved. Assurance from men, or because you said a prayer or confidence based on your own seemingly good intention are all false assurance, your assurance must come from Him and then live your life accordingly in obedience to the word of God.

As always, I pray for those who read this, for your eternal souls, that God would glorify Himself through you. That you would know the peace of God and that His love would be with you. I call myself, through the name of my blog, God’s old man, but honestly, I am just a sinner saved by grace through faith, and none of that was of me but a gift from God. That paraphrased quote from Ephesians 2:8 is how I honestly see what God has done for me through Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, And I pray this for all of you.