Volumes have been written about the characteristics of God, but when it is distilled to the most basic categories, He is love (1 John 4:8), life (Jeremiah 10:10; Revelation 22:1), and holiness (Psalms 99:9). And in reality, His life and holiness are based upon and are an expression of His love: love gives, so He gives life; love desires the best, so holiness proceeds from Him.
Love is not something he chooses to do or give. It is the very essence of who He is. He doesn't just love-He is love (1 John 4:16). It motivates His every action, directs His activities, and reflects His desires (1 John 4:10). Love is the greatest and purest essence of who a person is and its proper expression brings fulfillment.
However, God's love is not like the love expressed by many in our culture today: a love of convenience and ego. That is, "I will love you as long as you add value to my life and please me. When that ceases, so does my love for you." For many, love is conditional. The conditions may be different depending upon the relationship, but there are still conditions to be met in order to "earn" our love.
William Bennett, former Secretary of Education and author of The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories(1993), once said that he attended a wedding where the vows had been changed to reflect this love of convenience. He decided to send a gift to the couple that reflected their commitment to the marriage-a package of paper plates! He said he figured the package would last as long as the marriage.
This attitude stands in stark contrast to God's unconditional love, which never fails (Psalms 52:8), endures forever (Psalms 106:1), is uncalculating (Proverbs 30:5), and not motivated by personal gain (1 John 3:16). Unconditional love does not mean that God loves everything we do, but rather His love is so intense that He loves every sinner, no matter how vile and despicable he or she may be in the eyes of humanity, so much that He provides a way for them to find love, life, and holiness (John 3:16). "Intense love does not measure, it just gives" (Mother Teresa).
The Focus of God's Love is Redemption
Daily, Adam and Eve walked with God, until the desire for pleasure overcame their love for God (see Genesis 3). This break in the relationship required redemption.
God's love (and our own!) is not an abstract ideal, but a concrete reality that finds expression. Love that is not expressed through the giving of self, practical action and sacrifice is not love. Love must meet the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of those loved. It is costly, brings vulnerability, and seeks the person's highest good (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
God's unconditional and intense love for fallen humanity motivated the plan of salvation (Revelation 1:5). Simply, salvation is God making us whole or complete. It is a healing of the soul, bringing us back to the state of Adam when God breathed life into him and made him a living soul. Separation from God, caused by sin, is separation from life. A person might have biological life, but not the quality of life God envisions for us.
God's love brings cleansing, freedom, and wholeness. True love is liberating, not restrictive. This does not give us a license to sin, but the freedom to serve God completely, motivated by love, and empowered by the Spirit.
God's love motivates His compassion and mercy (love in action). His love brings transformation. Usually at baptism, the minister will quote from Matthew 28:19 and baptize the person "in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We clap, raise our hands, and miss the truth of the event. It is more than a public expression of one's faith. At baptism, we are baptized (immersed) into the very character of the Father (love), the character of the Son (grace), and the character of the Holy Spirit (fellowship; see2 Corinthians 13:13).
Salvation is based on God's fervent love and mercy, not our worthiness (Titus 3:4-5). One response (in the image of Jesus Christ's offering on the Cross) is that we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Rom 12:1).
The Goal of God's Love is Relationship
Love requires relationship, as love is a dynamic force or presence that naturally seeks expression. Simply put, love loves! And in order to do that there must be an object of that love or it is incomplete.
God's love is revealed in that He created us in His own image (a position of responsibility before God) and likeness (moral freedom; Genesis 1:26-27; Job 33:4). Part of that image/likeness is freedom of choice. We can choose to accept and embrace God's love or we can choose to ignore or reject it. We were formed from dust, but because of God's great love for us, we received the breath of God, with its intrinsic and inherent life. This life gives us the capacity and desire to be in relationship (understanding; self-awareness; communicative; ability to have fellowship) and to love in return. To live in God is to live in love (1 John 4:16).
Our relationship with God is an intimate one. There is a sacred knowledge and expression that takes place. To know Him intimately is to open the door for revelation and fulfillment. It brings change or transformation-change of essence, expression, behavior, desires, identity, and security. The bond is so strong that God says a nursing mother may abandon her child, but He will never abandon us (Isaiah 49:15-16). He becomes the ultimate Father!
When we reflect upon the intensity of our relationship with God, self-doubt often arises. Can we keep our end of the bargain? Of great comfort (and a pressing challenge) is the thought that our relationship with God is not the sum of our activity directed toward God, but the intensity of our relationship with God as expressed through our devotion to him, our obedience to his wishes, and our attitudes toward his will and best desires for us. He loved us first, enabling us to respond properly to His love (1 John 4:10-11). And His love (and ability) never fails.
A young student asked Karl Barth to share the most significant theological truth he had discovered in all of his years of study. Barth, one of the most prolific theologians of the 20th century, wrote approximately sixty volumes of commentaries and theological studies. This brilliant man that many call the most important theologian of modern times thought for a moment, smiled, and said, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Nothing-absolutely nothing-can separate us from God's love (Romans 8:35-39)!
7 Ways God Loves Us
1) God loves us with Atoning love.
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (Jhn 3:16-17)
God's love for us is what motivated Him to send Christ into the world to save us. Christ paid for our sins, which had separated us from Him. This sacrifice not only brings us peace with God, it also brings us into a personal, loving relationship with Him. (Rom 5:1-5)
God's atoning love through Christ is the source of all our spiritual blessings.
2) God loves us with Calling love.
"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Pet 2:9)
Another way God shows His love for us is by calling us out of the darkness of sin and into the light of fellowship with Him.
Even more, because God has called us to Himself, He promises to protect that relationship (Jhn 10:28) and never leave or forsake us (Heb 13:5, 1 Thes 5:23-25)
God's calling love is a promise to always be with us.
3) God loves us with Redeeming love.
"God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Rom 8:3-4)
Because of our sinful nature, we have no power to fulfill God's law. But God's love is shown through Christ who redeemed, or paid, the price we owed for our rebellion. (Gal 3:13)
God's redeeming love frees us from guilt and fear.
4) God loves us with Justifying love.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." (Rom 3:23-25)
God's love is shown by justifying us (or declaring us innocent) by grace through faith in Christ. Christ is treated as if he were the sinner, and the sinner is treated as if he were the righteous one. God now sees us through Christ's righteousness instead of through our sin.
God's justifying love allows us to stand accepted before Him.
5) God loves us with Adopting love.
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"" (Rom 8:15)
God shows His love for us by not only forgiving us of our sins, but by going even further and bringing us into His family. He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints. (Col 1:12) This inheritance includes salvation, strength, hope, peace, comfort, providence, fellowship and so much more!
God's adopting love allows us to call Him "Father".
6) God loves us with Sanctifying love.
"We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Heb 10:10)
Still another way God also shows His love is by sanctifying, or setting us apart, for His purpose. We're sanctified in two ways: positionally and progressively.
We're sanctified "positionally" when we come to Christ. In the Old Testament the priests would continually make sacrifices because they never permanently paid for sin. But Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice and has paid for our sins once and for all. So we've sanctified, or set apart, to obtain salvation through Christ.
We're also sanctified "progressively" throughout our Christian lives. Progressive sanctification isn't about our salvation - we're saved by grace and not by works (Eph 2:8-9) - it's about how we live after we've been saved.
Progressive sanctification is the process of dying to sin and living for Christ by becoming more like Him. It's about producing the fruits of the Spirit as opposed to producing the fruits of the flesh. (Gal 5:19-23)
God's sanctifying love sets us apart for His special plans.
7) God loves us with Glorifying love.
"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:1-2)
Finally, God shows His love by glorifying us. Throughout our lives we'll wrestle with sin, but we're promised that the good work God begins in us will be completed. (Phil 1:6) When we go to be with the Lord our sinful nature will be left behind and we'll like Him, and with Him, forever.
God's glorifying love is the ultimate destination for Christians.
Sources
Biblestudyplanet.com
Biblestudytools.com
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