God's Eternal, Glorious Love

Most people who have sung "Jesus loves me, this I know" have much to grow in our appreciation, acceptance and giving of God's love.  How can we comprehend the eternal, infinite love of God in a moment of time?  God's love is not like the love of mankind which is limited by degrees and according to personal preferences.  Like there can only be one winner of a grand final, our love is doled out in a complex pecking-order based upon loyalty, sense of obligation, consideration of a person's relationship to us, and what we know of them.  We are limited in what we can say and do with the time we have, fettered by geography and availability.  In contrast, God's love is eternal and infinite.  Being one God revealed in three Persons, He is able to completely love an infinite amount of people--and demonstrate fullness of love all at one time.

Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:22-24 and revealed God's will:  "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."  Jesus began this prayer by saying before the world was created, He was glorified with the Father.  The glory Jesus had before He created the heavens and the earth He gave to all those who trusted in Him.  Because born-again Christians are in Jesus Christ and Christ is in the Father, we have been loved by God the Father as Jesus is loved.  Jesus and His Father are one God.  Jesus was loved before the foundation of the world, and thus we who are members of the Body of Christ, the church, are partakers of this everlasting love that remains in full force today and throughout the eternal state.

God's love is an active love that seeks our good at all times offered freely by His grace.  We should not limit the benefits of God's love only in a judicial sense, that because God loves Jesus He loves us.  God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son, not because we were in Christ or worthy of His love, for at one time we were all enemies of God and deserving of eternal damnation.  It would be a distortion to view God as still intending to smite us for our sin, yet relenting only because He looks at us through the lens of the work of Jesus on Calvary.  The reality is Jesus has washed us clean by the atonement He provided on the cross, and the righteousness of Jesus has been imputed to us by grace through faith.  He loves us, not because of Jesus, but because He loves us.  God is love, and Jesus demonstrated His love for all by dying for lost sinners.

The basis of God's love was established in the Old Testament on the basis of His goodness and faithfulness and not in the worthiness of the object, as expressed in passages like Deuteronomy 7:7-8 to His chosen people:  "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; ⁸ but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."  God set His love on His people because He loved them, simple as that.  This remains true under the New Covenant established by the shed blood of Jesus, for He loves completely and fully all the sheep of His pasture.  While He loves all people, those who respond to His call in faith are His elect and chosen who receive all that pertains to life and holiness, redeemed from sin and reconciled to God.  Jesus cried out to whosoever was thirsty, and He is the open Door to all who place their faith in Him and receive Him.

God loves every Christian completely as He loves Christ, and He loves you because He loves you.  Having received Christ by faith, we are to demonstrate our love for Him by keeping His commandment:  to love one another as He has loved us.  It is a big step to tell a person out loud you love them, and God's love was shown by more than words.  Jesus did this by His patience, rebuked those who erred, encouraged the downcast, held little children, washed His disciples' feet and carried His cross for the joy set before Him.  God has kept His covenant and redeemed us by the Gospel, and now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and empowers us to walk in God's love today and always.