ON BEING LOVED BY GOD Part 1

“God is love.”
1 John 4:8
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy.”
Ephesians 2:3-4
“May the God of love and peace will be with you.”
2 Corinthians 13:11
“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you...But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 86:5, 15

“Heaven is a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore, the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that “God is love, and therefore, seeing He is an infinite being, it follows that He is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing that He is an all-sufficient being, it follows that He is a full and overflowing and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that He is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love”
Jonathan Edwards

Is there anything written or sung about more than love? There are more song titles using the word “love” than any other word. “All you need is love”. “What the world needs now is love sweet love…It’s the only thing, there is just too little of.” “My love does it good to me.” “Love is a many splendid thing.” “Love the one you’re with.” “Give me your unconditional love, the kind of love I deserve.” “Want a whole lotta love.”

Think about the numerous ways we include the word “love” in our daily conversations. We say that we “love” the Lakers. We “love” yogurt”. We “love” movies. We “love” our dog. I “love” surfing. What is love? On a human level, love has thousands of definitions. As a result, it is hard to find out what it really is. A word that means so many things loses its ability to mean a single thing.

The problem gets even more complicated in our attempt to understand God’s love. Even if we believe that God is love, our understanding of it will only be as accurate as our understanding of the love that we attribute to Him. Understanding God’s love is so important that if we fail to understand it, we fail to understand God.

For example, when we consider the love of God, its meaning can in one sense be loaded with idolatry. Is there any other attribute of God more selectively spoken of? How often have I heard someone say to me “My God is a God of love”? I have found that usually when people make this statement about God they say it at the expense of several of His attributes such as His justice, His holiness, His judgment, or His wrath. Thus we create a god who is less than God and a love that is less than God’s love.

If we are going to avoid a God who is an idol, then it is imperative that we listen to what God says in His word about his love and allow God to define for us what that love means on his own terms. This can either be the point of liberation or deeper idolatry. If we are going to accurately understand God’s love, then we must listen carefully to how He defines love.

To speak of God as love is to speak of a love that is absolutely unique. It is peculiar. There is no love like God’s love. It is one of a kind, in a class by itself. Since God is absolutely unique, everything else belongs to another class. There are humans, there are animals, there are trees, there are rocks, there are planets, there are galaxies, there are angels, and there are demons. But only God is God. And therefore His love is a unique love, a Holy love (Exodus 15:11; 1Samuel 2:2; Isaiah 40:25). God’s love is utterly and completely unique, different, and peculiar. There is nothing on this earth we can compare it to. Therefore any attempt to do so is to project human love upon God.

As I have already pointed out, our human understandings of love is colored by a wide variety of human feelings, passions, and concerns, none of which may have anything to do with how God describes His love. Though the world may use the same word “love” as the Bible does, this by no means indicates that the human understanding of love is the same as God’s own understanding of love. On the contrary, the two meanings are not only often different, but they are often antithetical and incomparable.

Let’s look at the world's definition of love. It says: You are loved when you are made much of. In other words, love for someone or something means mainly making him or her or it central or important. The main problem with this definition of love is that when you try to apply it to God's love for us, it distorts reality. God's love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but his giving us the ability to enjoy making much of him forever. In other words, God's love for us keeps God at the center. God's love for us exalts His value and our happiness in it. If God's love made us central and focused on our worth and value, it would demean God’s glory and would distract us from what is most precious, namely, God Himself. God’s love works and suffers to captivate us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God Himself. Therefore God's “peculiar love” labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God.

We see this in the prayer of Jesus on the night before He was betrayed. His longest recorded prayer is in John 17. Here we have before us one of the most intimate glimpses anywhere in Scripture of the mind and heart of the Lord as He prayed this prayer while on His way to Gethsemane. On that night we are revealed Jesus Christ’s ultimate concerns. His words are dominated, even in His darkest hour, by a spirit of high reverence for His Father and a loving concern for His then-present and future followers.

An overview of His prayer is that first, He prayed for Himself that night (Verses 1-5). He spoke of unimaginable glory and of perfect union with the Father in that glory. As He prayed He revealed as never before the single purpose of why He had ever left the glory of heaven. The hearts of the disciples were stirred as they realized the Presence of Deity. And then Jesus prayed for them! (Verses 6-19)They listened as He asked the Father to make them a part of the fellowship and life which Jesus Himself shared with the Father. But then, wonder of wonders, Jesus prayed for you and for me! (Verses 20-26) Jesus reveals His deepest desires and wants to His Father for you and me! Here is the climax of his desire:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am (v. 24).

Here is Jesus praying for us. He loves us in this prayer. Oh how He loves us in this prayer! Jesus is praying for all of His future disciples, these are those whom God has drawn to the Son (John 6:44, 65). These are Christians, people who have "received" Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives (John 1:12; 10:11, 17-18; 20:28; 6:35; 3:17). Jesus says he wants them to be with him. Why does Jesus want us to be with him?
“. . . To see my glory that you [Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

This expresses Jesus’ concern not for our companionship with Him but instead for the fulfillment of our deepest longing. If Jesus loves you and prays for you, do you know what he finally asks for you? That you may see him. The ultimate answer to the prayer of love is, "Show them my glory, Father. Show them my glory, and they will have arrived at ultimate purpose."

As Augustine said, “Oh Lord, thou hast made us for thyself and hearts find no rest except we find it in thee.” The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: THE GLORY OF GOD. Nothing less will do. Jesus is not lonely and is not needy for our companionship. He and the Father and the Spirit are profoundly satisfied in the fellowship of the Trinity. We, not He, are starving for something: THE GLORY OF GOD! Jesus knew this. That is why He prays this way!

“To see my glory”. This is the very purpose of God creating us (Isaiah 43:6-7; Rom. 9:23). This is the heart of all that the apostles preached (2 Cor.4:6). This is the goal of every Christian act (1 Cor.10:31). This is the focus of all Christian hope (Rom.5:2). This is what will someday replace the sun and the moon as the light of life (Rev. 21:23) and even now what the heavens are proclaiming (Ps.19:1). When people see it and discover its worth they cry out like Moses, “Show me your glory” (Ex.33:18) and David “One thing I ask and what I seek after is to behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4).

Are you experiencing God's love the way Jesus prayed? Are you seeing and savoring His glory? Oh to be loved by God in order to truly live and see and fulfill His purpose and have maximum joy and pleasure!

To be continued...