The God Who is Love
Our God is so Great and Wonderful that I shudder to speak anything of Him that is imbalanced or untrue in any way. And yet, I am a mere man seeking by the Word of God through the Spirit of God to understand the Infinite One. Please bear with my frailty!
Our God is First and Foremost, Love. That is His very essential nature. As Jonathan Edwards puts it, "We may learn by the Word of God that the Godhead, or the Divine Nature and Essence does subsist (His Life "exists") in Love." (1 John 4:8) "He that loves not does not know God; for God is love." As the Apostle John goes on to explain in the larger context, to not love one another testifies that the "Divine DNA" is not in us. Those who are born from above, born of the Spirit of God are new creatures and the foundational "DNA" of that new creature is Love. That God is Love is weighty evidence for His Trinitarian Nature. Love by definition must have an object. Eternal Love has Eternally subsisted in the Delight of His Triune nature. In John 17: 24, a part of the most intimate prayer ever offered up, Jesus prays to His Father, "Father, I desire that they also whom you gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory which you have given Me; for You Loved Me before the foundation of the world." This comes after His request that His people may be one as He is One with the Father and the Father One with Him. We learn in John 1:18 that "the only begotten Son is in the Bosom of the Father." That is a love description! It could be argued from Romans 5:5 that the first work of the Holy Spirit in the new creature's life is to pour out the love of God in our hearts. Tie that to Jesus' words in John 15:26, "But when the Helper (Holy Spirit) comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me."
The Father's greatest expression of Love was the giving of His Beloved Son. He testified to His Son's place in His Heart when at Jesus' baptism, He said, "this is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17 I think that we could accurately paraphrase this as, "This is My Beloved Son, Who is ALL MY PLEASURE." This is born out in the grand work of redemption as the Father receives of His Son the only pleasing and satisfactory sacrifice for our sins. From the Son's point of view, we look at John 14:31, "But that the world may know that I Love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise let us go from here." Following the context, we find that He went to the Garden, and then to the cross. The display of His Love for the Father was the primary motivation for His going to the cross! And what is the foundational fruit of the Spirit? Love!! (Galatians 5:22) And what is it that abides eternally, according to I Corinthians 13? Love!! Faith and hope will be swallowed up in reality and what will remain? Love!! Because God is Love!!
Our God is so Great and Wonderful that I shudder to speak anything of Him that is imbalanced or untrue in any way. And yet, I am a mere man seeking by the Word of God through the Spirit of God to understand the Infinite One. Please bear with my frailty!
Our God is First and Foremost, Love. That is His very essential nature. As Jonathan Edwards puts it, "We may learn by the Word of God that the Godhead, or the Divine Nature and Essence does subsist (His Life "exists") in Love." (1 John 4:8) "He that loves not does not know God; for God is love." As the Apostle John goes on to explain in the larger context, to not love one another testifies that the "Divine DNA" is not in us. Those who are born from above, born of the Spirit of God are new creatures and the foundational "DNA" of that new creature is Love. That God is Love is weighty evidence for His Trinitarian Nature. Love by definition must have an object. Eternal Love has Eternally subsisted in the Delight of His Triune nature. In John 17: 24, a part of the most intimate prayer ever offered up, Jesus prays to His Father, "Father, I desire that they also whom you gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory which you have given Me; for You Loved Me before the foundation of the world." This comes after His request that His people may be one as He is One with the Father and the Father One with Him. We learn in John 1:18 that "the only begotten Son is in the Bosom of the Father." That is a love description! It could be argued from Romans 5:5 that the first work of the Holy Spirit in the new creature's life is to pour out the love of God in our hearts. Tie that to Jesus' words in John 15:26, "But when the Helper (Holy Spirit) comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me."
The Father's greatest expression of Love was the giving of His Beloved Son. He testified to His Son's place in His Heart when at Jesus' baptism, He said, "this is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:17 I think that we could accurately paraphrase this as, "This is My Beloved Son, Who is ALL MY PLEASURE." This is born out in the grand work of redemption as the Father receives of His Son the only pleasing and satisfactory sacrifice for our sins. From the Son's point of view, we look at John 14:31, "But that the world may know that I Love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise let us go from here." Following the context, we find that He went to the Garden, and then to the cross. The display of His Love for the Father was the primary motivation for His going to the cross! And what is the foundational fruit of the Spirit? Love!! (Galatians 5:22) And what is it that abides eternally, according to I Corinthians 13? Love!! Faith and hope will be swallowed up in reality and what will remain? Love!! Because God is Love!!