THE GLORY OF GOD’S LOVE

 Many of us feel that we are unloved by God. If this is so, this chapter is for you!

Many of us feel that we are unloved by God. If this is so, this chapter is for you!

Firstly, God is not robotic. If God’s love is no more than an obligation or decision to behave in a certain way towards His people, it would be difficult to see the glory in such a love. Instead, His love can be partially understood because we are created in His likeness. Therefore, we should expect that His love is passionate since our love is passionate. We become sick when our love isn’t reciprocated.

When God sees His people chasing after other gods He too is tormented, since He is jealous for our welfare. Therefore, Paul warned:

·       …I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:20–22)

Besides, He actually suffers as we suffer:

·       In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9)

During the times of the Judges, Israel continued to turn from their God. This caused Him to turn from them. But eventually, He could not bear their oppression any longer and sent His judges to rescue His people:

·       …For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. (Judges 2:18)

Love is also the greatest command, the goal of all His commands, the icing on the cake. This tells us about what is His ultimate concern:

·       And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37–40)

He demands love from us because He is love and wants us to partake of His love. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise that God is love before all else, and the Cross is the greatest demonstration of His love:

·       God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

 

The Cross was also the time of Christ’s greatest glory:

·       And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:23–25)

The Cross is the ultimate testimony of the nature of God. It is this testimony that God is love and not a deceptive sadist as my depression and panic attacks had been telling me! A sadist would never suffer and die for our sins!!

 

The life of Lot reminds me of God’s love. In many ways, he had been a spiritual failure:

 

·       He chose to dwell in one of the most sinful places.

 

·       He entertained angels but wanted to speed them off early in the morning before they could see his town, Sodom, for what it was.

 

·       He was willing to give his two virgin daughters to a rape mob.

 

·       He allowed his daughters to get him drunk on two successive evenings so they could bring forth babies by him.

 

However, his sins did not disqualify him from God’s love:

 

·       and (God) delivered righteous Lot, sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their lawless deeds) (2 Peter 2:7-8)

 

How are we to reconcile these two apparently opposite portraits of Lot? The same way we reconcile the perplexing portrayals of faith we find in the “Hall of Fame of Faith,” and those found throughout the Bible, like:

 

·       By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

 

By faith? Israel had been in rebellion against their God as they heard the Egyptian chariots approaching them and indicted Moses for bringing them out of slavery. However, in the depths of their heart, God perceived a tiny mustard seed of faith, and that was enough. He also perceived the same faith in the heart of Lot.

 

The same thing pertained to Abraham’s wife Sarah who laughed in disbelief when this barren 90-year-old woman heard God’s promise that she would give birth the following year:

 

·       By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. (Hebrews 11:11)

 

By faith? Underneath, God perceived an element of faith in Sarah heart.

 

King David was the “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). However, he had committed adultery and then killed her husband to cover his sin. Then, he engaged in a cover up involving others in his sins. As a result, his first child by Bathsheba died. He named the second one Shlomo (“peace” in Hebrew) probably in hope that there might now be peace and reconciliation between he and God. However, the Lord had His own name for Solomon:

·       Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah [meaning “beloved of God’], because of the LORD. (2 Samuel 12:24–25)

 

Paul had been the worse sinner. Not only did he kill Christians, but he also forced them to renounce their faith in God. However, he too had been forgiven and was called to be perhaps the greatest evangelist and church planter:

·       though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:13–16)

 

Our God graciously and lovingly doesn’t want any of His precious children to be lost. In many cryptic ways, He reassures us that no one will ever pluck us out of His steadfast arms, not even our multitude of failures.

 

He is the good Shepherd. It is on the love and care of this Shepherd that I meditate daily. How else can we stand!

 

IT IS THE GLORY OF GOD TO RESCUE US

 

 

Intellectuals tend to look at what is, trying to figure out probabilities, rather than looking at the unseen:

·       So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

 

Instead, we tend to place too much trust in our own highly limited understanding and abilities to our detriment:

 

·       Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5–8)

 

I am guilty of this. Recently, my wife and I sustained injuries in a highway accident which totaled our one car. Tears became my daily food, and I no longer wanted to live.

(I tend to overreact!) The Psalmists often complained to God regarding their suffering, but they also resolved that there was no other answer but to trust in their God:

·       Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (Psalm 44:23–26)

 

The preceding psalm makes a similar complaint, but the psalmist also resolves to trust in God:

 

·       Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

 

The Psalmist understands that his own understanding and ability to change his mental state are grossly limited. Instead, he needs the light of God, His perspective:

 

·       Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:1–5)

 

Consequently, overwhelmed by life, he preaches against his despair, as the Psalmists had often done and decides to trust in God alone:

·       For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. (Psalm 62:5–10)

 

If you are a child of God, this is also your plight—to trust in Him alone. This is also my plight. This had been Paul’s plight. He had found himself in a situation where he despaired of life. His self-trust had fled far away:

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8–10)

 

God humbles us by teaching us that life is too big and threatening for us, and that our only hope is in our Savior. This teaches us to trust in Him alone—the very thing that He wants us to do—and to wait patiently for Him to act (1 Corinthians 10:12-13):

 

·       Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (Psalm 27:14)

 

Hope is a matter of waiting for God alone to glorify Himself amid our need.