God is Love

God Is Love
                                                                                                                                                          06-15-18

Summary

It is true.  God’s love is central
and core to His Person – we cannot read His Word and conclude otherwise.

We’ve all been schooled on the problems of ‘romantic love’, the idea
that love centers around often blind, warm feelings.  Is this a true basis of love?  Perhaps not, if we look to the essential
issue behind love – a willful commitment, per God’s law, to another who we have
no expectation to repay us.  Consider
Jesus’ discourse in Lk 6.32-36.  It ends with the commandment to “be merciful,
just as your Father also is merciful.”

The last time we met, John walked us through the problem of assuming
that Father’s love is as performance-based as the fallen-Human love around us, expressed
in the way our world teaches us to expect to be treated.

In this (RE)Cap, let’s look at an aspect of our Father’s willful
commitment and mercy towards us.  Let’s
look at how a devoted love is expressed to a people who can’t but fail to show
Him a worthy response, and who by our very nature, often begin our trek to the
Cross kicking and screaming against Him. 
We go to the Cross for the first time, even as His enemy.  Against all of this, He demonstrates how His
devoted and merciful love overcomes the worst we have to offer.

Spoiler alert: God’s Offer, in love, has conditions.

Key points

Conditional love is usually cruel – but why?

Life, and our peers, both teach us about the often conditional use of what
is called love and acceptance.  This is
no secret.  But, let’s also recall Paul’s
words – he knew of God better than most anyone – that we see through a glass
dimly (1 Cor 13.12, Job 36.26).  Let’s recognize that starting even now, the
remainder of our existence in Christ will be spent pondering our God and
shedding our misconceptions about Him. 
We grow to see His worth.

We could likely agree that conditions for acceptance can be distasteful
to us.  But why?  It’s likely due to fickle or unfair terms, or
perhaps a person’s disingenuous motives that result in our being rejected.  But, are conditions and their use the problem,
or could it be that the one in charge of the conditions misuses them?

We approve of conditions with those we call friends, those we invite
into our home, or share personal information with, or give help, money, care,
love.  God Himself prescribed conditions
for guests to join His people Israel in worship and even nationhood.

While God’s Offer is conditional, His resultant relationship-Love is
unconditional.  This flawless,
God-branded love is possible through Christ’s fulfilling those conditions and sharing
(imparting) Father’s satisfaction of those conditions, to us who accept the
Offer.

The conditions of Father’s Offer cannot be cruel,
because He’s not cruel.

We might recognize the conditional nature of the relationships around
us, and see inconsistency and inequity. 
The chain of relationship between us and Father is also conditional, but
with an important difference – the conditions required for our relationship
with God have been borne by Jesus.  The
conditions were God’s intent even before Creation, before we existed.  As God unilaterally carries His Covenant with
Abraham (Gen 15.9-11, 17-18a),
Jesus also is the sole Author of our Salvation once we have answered His
irresistible Call.  We who will accept
the Offer were already intended to be included without a chance of
failure.  Father ensured we could not
escape, that His Goal would be met, by His assuming responsibility for His
Conditions.  Father’s demand for sin’s
payment, and the sinless Man-Vessel Who would satisfy Him, are non-negotiable
to us.  To answer that Condition, He
specifically gave Jesus to accomplish the job of Sacrifice.  Father’s terms being ‘finished’, Jesus revealed
the New Covenant allowing us forgiveness, and so satisfaction of God’s Wrath
against us who accept.  Father intended
the overall plan before anything began. 
Jesus alone would perfectly satisfy Father’s Wrath and impart the
benefitting result to us.  Jesus, as our High
Priest, will protect and keep us safe us in that Covenant.  It is God’s to Offer – but He will never,
never take it away from His children, once received and cemented in His holy
Salvation.

So, yes, conditions exist in all relationships.  The difference between the relationships we
know with our peers and the one we know with God are that God is perfectly
wise, righteous, loving, and without sin. 
Our peers, fellow sinners like us, are not.  Therefore, we cannot rightly project our
peer-relationship expectations upon God. 
We must shed what we think we understand of relationship, embrace the
truth of His Conditions, and believe Him – even when we fail Him, even when the
Enemy tempts with “Did God actually say..?”.

Conditions from God can’t be confused with conditions
between peers.  We are not God’s peers.

Does Father have Conditions over our eternal life with Him?  Yes: We would choose Jesus, else we will
suffer Judgment and endless torment in Hell.

Are a Fireman’s conditions of “Climb down the ladder from the burning
building – only the ladder, there’s no other choice available” – cruel?

Does Father have Conditions over His children adopted under the Blood of
Jesus? Yes: He fully accepts us into His family and loves us no matter
what.  Bound tight under His love and
life’s Sovereign circumstances, is escape from the call to trust and obey
possible?  We are, as glad bondservants
of Christ (Eph 6.6b), conscripted
into learning obedience to His ways as His Law is written on our new heart.

There are no conditions excluding us from God, once
we’ve met The Condition of confessing Christ.

Will He swivel from us and turn away? He cannot, because He adheres to
the Conditions met by the Son He gave, into Whom we can be grafted.  Does He tend to us, watch us, correct us?  Does He sit with us as we mend from the hurt
of life, either anonymously at the hands of a fallen world or from
self-inflicted pains as we went the way He didn’t hope for us? Yes: He is our
Father, He loves us, He won’t quit us.  (2 Sam 7.14-15, Heb 12.5-11)

Disappointed with His children?  Apparently, not possible.

Devoted to His reputation and to seeing His designs
through?  Absolutely.

Is God ever disappointed with us? 
Perhaps a strong argument could be made that the answer is no.  Consider Webster’s definition of ‘disappointment’: The feeling of dissatisfaction that follows
the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest.

Disappointment happens when the expected, doesn’t.

Note:  Disappointment is different
than yearning or longing.  Consider
Jesus’ appeal in Matt 23.37 – “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are
sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  See! 
Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me
no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”  Jesus demonstrates His knowing the future in
saying ‘you
shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
Lord!’.  He also states His desire
to see this sure end brought forth in ‘How often I wanted to’.  This is not disappointment, but His urging
the people forward in a knowing, patient concern.

Is disappointment possible for a God of Omniscience – all knowing, including of future
events – Who knows the end from the beginning? 
If God cannot be surprised, that would mean His hopes cannot be dashed
when something doesn’t happen.  He
already knew that would be the case. 
And, no, this doesn’t give us license to do nothing – we’re here under
His sanctified training for our benefit, not God’s.  He needs nothing from us, but intends to use
life and opportunities to teach us obedience and peace.

If He cannot be surprised, then God is not disappointed when His child
fails, due both to Christ’s Blood and His seeing it prior.  Our sin elicits His dissatisfaction, and
moves Him to correct us.  But, the Gift
of Christ’s Atonement has freed us from Father’s Wrath, and in exchange, we
have been bought into a relentless, loving path of Sanctification.  Our job is to pursue Him, repent and cooperate
with Him, learn to know and to trust Him, to live in the Spirit and not the
flesh – “I
thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! 
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh
the law of sin.  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the
Spirit.  For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death.” Rom 7.25-8.3

Never surprised, but knowingly patient and diligent
in making us better Worshippers.

Jesus our High Priest has compassion for us and our failures.  Father intimately knows who we are, and we
never surprise Him.  This ‘program’ of
Salvation is not capable of nor is designed to put us under God’s
disappointment, (For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved.  Jn 3.17) but to allow boundless
room for us to maneuver under God’s instructive care (For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them. Eph 2.10) and
learn how to see Him, ourselves, and Creation as He does.  We are granted time to learn what it means to
be a child of the King, and to grow in our capacity to love and Worship Him for
it. (But
you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special
people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. 1 Pet 2.9)

Therefore, as we will certainly discover ourselves opposing God
(sinning), let us believe Him and not the Enemy who lies and accuses.  Instead, we must search His Word for the
truth, reform our thinking to His, confess our fault, and move ahead in
already-assured love and forgiveness through our Brother and Friend Jesus.

A hard life, but not a hardened Father.

The Fallen world is a hard place to reside, but the difficulties
suffered by a child under his Sovereign God cannot be attributed to His turning
away.  Instead, ask:

Do I belong to Him through faith alone in Christ?

     If so, is this hardship the natural
outcome of not following Him?

         If so, He loves me and I
must still repent, obeying His Word.

If not of my own consequence, shall the clay question the Potter?  Shall we accept only the good and bemoan the
bad?  Instead, follow the Rabbi Who was
blameless and remember “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things
which He suffered.” (Heb 5.8),
learning of the Spirit’s Fruit, bearing instruction as He did, and asking Him
for the necessary peace and strength He promises to complete the task. (And He said to
me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in
weakness.”    2 Cor 12.9a)

Either way, I will not call Him a liar and question His devotion to His
child, and I will ask for and expect His sure help (Joshua
1.9, Matt 6.25.33, Phil 4.11-13, Heb 5b-6, Rom 8.28).  All the while, I know my God loves and cares
for me, working as the author and perfecter of my faith (Heb
12.1-2).

So, Christ follower – have you too skinned your knee (or broken your
leg) on Life, even crashed and burned, even found yourself opposing the God Who
loves you?  Seek Him and His directions,
know yourself, repent and ask forgiveness – and move ahead in the unconditional
love of the Father Who delights in the contrite heart of His child, Who He
intends to see succeed.  Let’s revel in
His generous conditions, and His boundless love.

Final thoughts to consider.

The above might read like a Calvinist’s TULIP tract.  Whether it does or not, let’s be faithful to
the plain reading of His Word and let the labels fall where they will.  In fact, Scripture threads together the
Effectual Call to the predestined soul, yet of a person who has
responsibilities as a free moral agent (who cannot escape God’s Sovereign
influence).  Our ‘heart’ is the only thing
in Creation that God allows to oppose Him. 
Perhaps, we have our choice of ‘will’, yet it is never outside of a God
Who steers it sovereignly: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the
Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever
He wishes.” Prov 21.1.  I suspect His joy is in capturing and winning
the affection of that otherwise hopeless, hateful heart.  In the end, God’s love conquers all.

His willingness and sure ability to suffer our rejection, even under
forgiveness in the Blood, is held in place by the Conditions He has offered, fulfilled,
and abides by.  Is that not the greatest
love, worthy of Worship?

Finally, if how our Father deals with us is true, then how might this
teach us to treat others – especially those who we are to love (everyone), yet
who disappoint us (everyone, given enough time and opportunity)?  The
parable of the ‘unforgiving servant’ is one good illustration (Matt 18.23-35).  I know I have (decreasingly?) been that
servant, and I praise God that He continues in loving patience to train, even
discipline, me to be like Him instead. 
Praise to Him whose love will never quit His children.