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.