From early in the Old Testament, where God says in Deuteronomy 7 that His love was upon Israel, to the close of the Bible, in Revelation 1 when John says that Jesus Christ loved us and washed us from our sins, the magnificent theme of God’s love for His creation throbs throughout. John epitomizes the subject when he stated in chapter 4 that “God is love.” In no other religion, large or small, is the subject of love so extolled as it is in Christianity. And, we know of no other supposed god claimed by anyone in any belief system, whether past or present, that dwells on love as does biblical Christianity. Besides the host of Scripture texts, the songs written and the poems composed that focus on the subject of love in general, and God’s love in particular, is simply staggering. To love and be loved by another human is the second greatest thing in the world, and that’s because the first greatest thing in the world is to love and be loved by the God who created all, sustains all, and gave all on behalf of His fallen creature. Love on all levels and in all venues is so euphoric those who describe it best complain of their inability to do it better. Only in the truths of Christianity do we encounter the incomprehensible love God shed abroad when He and His Son teamed up with the Holy Spirit to affect the greatest demonstration of love that will ever be known.
So many know the verse, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” One cannot contemplate a truth more sublime than that, or a truth possessed of such eternal consequences as that. And, God’s love is not an issue that is quantified but qualified. God’s love was not dispensed as an amount of love but a quality of love. God’s love was of such a kind, such a sort, such a quality is the meaning the Greek gives it. No mortal anywhere can fully describe the indescribable. We can only make feeble attempts. And, isn’t that truly the way it should be, must be? Who, indeed, could describe the indescribable love of the indescribable God?
A breathless passage is found in Romans 5, wherein the inspired apostle reminds us that God commended, or demonstrated, His love toward us in that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The only ones not greatly moved by that statement are those who simply do not understand it. To understand it is to be utterly in awe and in gratitude of it. This great love with which He loved us can only be appreciated when one grasps the truth of sacrifice and substitution. Miss that, and you miss all the Bible and Christianity is about. Miss that, and you miss everything that’s worth anything. Miss that, and it makes no difference what you didn’t miss. The love of God is one of His several attributes par excellence. All His attributes are par excellence.
CC-05-20
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