God loving us is an act of grace on His part because we don’t deserve His love. We rejected Him! Yet He sent His only Beloved Son to die on the Cross as Jesus the Man, a mere man, just like you and I [Philippians 2:6-8]. Thus the mystery in Psalms 8:4, “What is man, that thou [God] art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou pay attention to and care for him?” The answer to that mystery is because God loved us all unconditionally.
He loved us so much that He sent His best of the best, the treasure of His treasures, the Son of His love to show and prove that He loved us while we were still sinners; still rejecting His love [Romans 5:8]. He hath transferred us from the dominion of darkness [i.e. thinking He does not love us] into the kingdom of the Son of His love [the proof of His everlasting love for us all] [Colossians 1:13]. His great love for us that spans from before antiquity to eternity! [John 3:16].
John 3:16 tells us the scope and depth of God’s love for us. The scope of that love is seen in the word “loved” as in how long He has loved us. The giving of His only Beloved Son shows the depth of His immense love for us.
Noah, which means rest, found grace. We rest when we accept the proof of God’s love for us by the death of His only Beloved Son on the Cross. His perfect and unconditional love that cast out guilt and condemnation which manifest as fear. Fear torments. [1 John 4:18]. We inherited these sentiments from Adam when he partook of the forbidden tree. The same sentiments, which reside in what we called conscience, that drive us to pain and despair thinking that we are on own to fend for ourselves like nobody’s child. The only Beloved Son of God came in the flesh as Jesus the Man to change this erroneous thinking. Repentance.
With His death, we need not fear anymore. We need not do things out of compulsion or obligation. Those things are driven by fear. Fear makes us vulnerable to manipulation and desperation which result in misery. Fear torments. Fear is rooted in guilt and condemnation.
Jesus has totally, completely and permanently appeased those sentiments by His death on the Cross! Perfect love has cast out fear together with its roots of guilt and condemnation.
We start our new life in Christ Jesus or God’s love for us with the gift of no condemnation [Romans 8:1]. God hath not given us a spirit of fear but of love, and of power and of a sound mind [2 Timothy 1:7]. The power to tread on serpent and scorpions and above all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm us [Luke 10:17]. Since God is for us, with us and in us, who can be against us? [Romans 8:31]. God’s love for us lives in us. And that great love that lives in us is greater than he who lives in the world [1 John 4:4].
By the death of Jesus the Christ, He demonstrated to us that God Himself tenderly loved us as a Father [John 16:27]. We can run to Him for help any time crying, Abba, Father! [Romans 8:15]. We can now boldly approach the throne of grace, the King of love [Hebrews 4:16]. He Who loved us deeply renders practical help in times of need [Psalms 46:1]. We are His beloved children in whom His soul delights.
When we can see God as a tenderly loving Father, we can then begin to receive and enjoy the spoils of His generous love which He lavishes on us. This is evident from the parable of the prodigal son [Luke 15:11-32].
God provides for us and cares for us like earthly fathers do for their children. The children do not need to do anthing to be provided and cared for or to earn them. The earthly fathers do so simply because they love their children. This is grace.
God having sent His only Beloved Son to die on the Cross is radical grace. Hence, when we rest in knowing that God Himself tenderly loved us like a Father, we can start to receive His gracious provisions in every area of our lives. This is the simple truth that God’s only Beloved Son came to tell us by His death on the Cross as a mere Man; God loved us!
God loved us from before antiquity to eternity. It is so! And because He loved us, He won’t spoil us by giving in to our every whim and fancy. He is loving, not spoiling!
When we were just an idea in His mind, He had already chartered our individual paths all the way through to eternity. This is the path of the righteousness of God, that is, the beloved of God. We, the righteousness of God or the beloved of God, walk on this path guided by the knowledge and acceptance of His immense love for us. Therefore, no matter what happens, we can rest in knowing that His immense love is working all things, both good and bad, for our good. Meanwhile, we do whatever we can and thereafter, stand on or trust in His love for us [Ephesians 6:13].
Since He did not spare even His only Beloved Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not also together with Him freely and graciously give us all things?!? [Romans 8:32].
We wait patiently to see the wonders and goodness of His perfect plan unfold for each and every one of us. We let patience do its thorough work [James 1:4]. Then, we shall see for ourselves the good and perfect will or plan He had prepared for us from before the foundation of this world [Romans 12:2]. Then shall we understand the scope and depth of His love for us [Ephesians 3:17-19].
We can have confident expectations of His goodness because the blessed Holy Spirit has been given to us to convict us of His everlasting love [Romans 5:5]. The psalmist David advised, “Wait for the Lord or trust in the love of the Lord for us” [Psalm 27:14]. David was a man after God’s heart or sought God’s love or conscious of God’s love for him shared with us his experience, “I would have fainted if I had not believed in the love of God to see His goodness”. [Psalm 89:20, Acts 13:22, Psalm 27:13].
It is God’s goodness that leads men to repentance [Romans 2:4]. It is His goodness that causes us to change the way we think of Him.
He is not an abstract idea. He is real. He is not angry or morose. He is loving. We can trust in Him because there is nobody in this entire cosmos who loved us like the way He does!
We can only begin to see God as our Father Who tenderly loves us when we accept the proof of His love by the death of His only Beloved Son as Jesus the Man on the Cross [John 16:27]. We love Jesus by believing that He is the only Beloved Son of God. With that belief comes the knowledge of God as a tenderly loving Father.
Simply trust in His love for us.
Since we trust in His love for us, we live our transient lives in this temporary world guided by His commands:
1. Love God as in accept the proof of His love for us as demonstrated by the death of His only Beloved Son as Jesus the Christ on the Cross;
2. Love one another starting with not doing harm to each other.
Disobedience is not believing in God’s love for us. It was this unbelief that led to the rejection of God’s love, a.k.a. sin. It was by one man’s disobedience [not believing in God’s love] that sin [rejection of God’s love] entered the world [Romans 5:12, 19].
It was because we do not believe that God loved us that we reject Him.
But by one man’s obedience [belief in God’s love], many will accept God’ love and become God’s beloved [Romans 5:19].
Jesus the Man epitomized acceptance and consciousness of God’s love. As the only Beloved Son of God, He came to show and prove God’s love. He is the Door [John 10:7]. He is also the shepherd [John 10:11]. He is Man [Philippians 2:6-8]. Yet He is also God [John 1:1]. He accepted and believed in God’s love. He is also God’s love personified.
I end this with the theme song from the show “The Love Boat”. The love boat reminds me of Noah’s ark. Noah’s ark speaks of Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Christ points to God’s love for me.
We love God because He first loved us [1 John 4:19]. That is to say, we can trust Him because He has proven His love for us by the death of His only Beloved Son as Jesus the Man on the Cross.
Ps: I have chosen to read and interpret the Bible in the context of God’s love for me. Since God sent His only Beloved Son to die on the cross as the display and proof of His love for me, it is my personal conviction that the Bible which speaks of Jesus should be enjoyed in that context.
Don’t ever look at me to find God’s love for you. For that matter, don’t look at any Christian to see God’s love for you. Christians are those who finally realized that we cannot live in this world without the gracious provisions of God that stems from His deep and unconditional love for us. Rather, look at what God has done and is doing in our lives to catch a glimpse of His love for you.
God’s only Beloved Son dying on the cross as Jesus the Man remains the only and ultimate display and proof of God’s everlasting love for you. A love that spans from before antiquity to eternity!
You can dive right into the deepest oceans of His great love for you when you accept the proof of His love for you by the death of His only Beloved Son as Jesus the Man
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