Considering God’s LoveTo look at God’s
love there are a number of things that one must consider. Now the Study of Theology is very broad, and
so is the study of God’s love. The Love
of God is such an amazing thing both languages of the bible have their own word
for this love.
In the Greek its
agape. That means the most amazing love
of God to his people. It’s a form of
love that goes well beyond Human understanding. The NT writers had to create this word so that they would have a
proper word for the love of God. This
was because the other words in the Greek are so poorly looked upon in their
society. Its just somewhat of a general
love Philo is it is also more of a brotherly love, and the other word
for love the Greek language has is the word Eros which is more of a
physical kind of love.
Now in the OT
the word ‘Hesed is special because this is the people of God and their
word for the Love of God. It is mostly
translated “lovingkindess” the consistent,
ever-faithful, relentless, lavish, extravagant, unrestrained, furious love of
our Father God!
To really
understand why there is such a big deal about God’s love, we must look at Who
God is.
First, we must
understand that God is Holy, now this archaic word is very hard
for us 21-century people to understand.
The word in the Greek is hagios. It is literally, where we get
our word holy. The English Language has
no other word like it; therefore, we must adapt it. We had to bring it into our language. Now because we are so far removed for 1-century language we must
understand that this word does not necessarily speak of moral goodness. Although that is a part of it, the picture
we are missing is that Holy means “set-apart” The idea that God is so morally
good that when anything thing else compares to him it all seems to be very
little, he is so great that he is literally Set apart. When anything or anyone,
that is not holy, is in the presence of God’s holiness, those things respond in
humbleness because of the overwhelming holiness God possesses. This is evident in Isaiah 6
1 In the year that King Uzziah
died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of
his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim.
Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his
feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and
said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his
glory! 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the
voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And
I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts!
Isaiah
realizes that he is not worthy to be in the presence of God and that his
character is nothing close to the character of God. It is only when we look at God and his characteristics and his
statues that we realize how truly bad we are and how amazingly Holy God is.
Now because God
is holy he has a passion for his glory, or to make that simpler he has a love
for himself. Yes, you heard me
correctly. God is selfish. He is the only being that could ever be
selfish, and that is because of his holiness.
His holiness allows him to boast in himself, he is the only one worthy
he is the only one who deserves anything.
He is Yahweh God. Creator,
sustainer and founder of life.
Continuing in Isaiah 6:
5 And I said: Woe is me! For I
am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!
When faced with this Holy God Isaiah he can do nothing but
relize his sin, and when Isaiah sees all of God’s character, he can do thing
but praise God! And this is what God
wants from us and the entirety of Creation. When Jesus was confronted with a
bad situation, he explains this.
John 9
As he passed by, he saw a man blind
from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned,
this man or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus
answered, It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works
of God might be displayed in him
In other words, so that the Glory of God would be noticed
by the work Jesus was about to do in his life.
Jesus healed that man right after the disciples asked the
questions. Moreover, that man caused
many to believe in Christ as savior.
That is the reason for anything God does. In the Gospel of luke chapter 19 this is apparent. This is the triumph entry. Jesus is come
down the Mt. of olives and everyone is rejoicing and praising God for his
coming and the Pharisees came to him and said:
39 And some of the Pharisees in
the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. 40 He
answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.
This is Jesus, who is God, talking about himself. Saying
that if I tell them to be silent the rocks will cry out. He is boasting in
himself saying that is how great I am!
Therefore, we have this Holy God who loves himself, and Deserves to love
himself, and deserves our love. Nevertheless, when we look at things like this
we realize that we don’t deserve his love. To quote Isaiah we are “men with
unclean lips, from a people of unclean lips.” We are un-pure in his sight,
unholy; we are utterly desolate and completely dead in our sin.
Then we have a promise.
We have something that God did not need to do but he did it for his
glory.
John 3:16-18
16 "For God loved the world
in this way: He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will
not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send
His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might
be saved through Him. 18 Anyone who believes in Him is not
judged, but anyone who does not believe is already judged, because he has not
believed in the name of the only Son of God. (HCSB)
The “For God so loved the world” is archaic
language. Its old English, King James
English. The translation is good if you
would read it with a mindset of the people to whom it was translated. They understood that it meant For God so(or
in this manner) loved the world. That he Gave his son so that who believes in
him will not be destroyed but have life eternal.
17 For God did not send His Son
into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him. 18 Anyone who believes in Him is not judged,
but anyone who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed
in the name of the only Son of God. (HCSB)
He
wants to save us to glorify himself.
Him sending his son to save us, a people of unclean lips, was all for
his Glory. We don’t deserve it and we could never earn it. That’s what the 10
commandments were for. To prove to us we needed God’s intervention in our
lives. God loves us in this way, that
he sent his son.
John
Piper explains love in two ways.
The
first is to make much of somebody. To
talk about them everyday be consumed by them and who they are. To know everything about them. This is the
way we normally love; however,
He
also explains another kind of love. The
love Jesus talked about when he said
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down
his life for his friends.”
Piper explains that the
other kind of love is a love that takes the punishment for the wrong doing of
their loved one. To endure what they
don’t deserve but do it lovingly for the one they love. And God does this through
the grace of Christ. To make us
hagiazo, holy so that we can enter his presence.
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