Soli Deo Gloria: For the Glory of God Alone

The Messenger, July 28, 2011
The Love of God, Part 2

By REV. WALLY BUMPAS
Special to The Messenger
The Bible says, twice in I John, that “God is love.” This might be the most profound thing scripture ever says, period. But what does it mean?
Having seen in our last article that love originates in the persons of the Trinity, who have loved and glorified one another from before creation, now we can consider God’s love as it is experienced by fallen human beings. First we must clear away the frightfully common and potentially fatal idea that love is all God is, and that this love is a sentimental, indulgent softness divorced from any moral standards or concerns. In I John another brief description of God is found: “God is light” (1:5). He is absolute moral perfection and purity, and “in Him is no darkness at all.”
Since moral darkness is at the core of our fallen nature, we immediately have a problem. How can God love us without tainting Himself and compromising His own character? To many in our day, this is no problem at all because “God loves everybody. That’s what He does. That’s His job.” The reality is not that simple. In fact, the whole Bible is the story of how God Himself has solved this problem.
J.I. Packer offers this definition: God’s love is an exercise of His goodness toward individual sinners whereby, having identified Himself with their welfare, He has given His Son to be their Savior, and now brings them to know and enjoy Him in a covenant relation.
God’s love is an exercise of His goodness. By goodness the Bible means generosity, God’s inclination to deal bountifully with His creatures, delighting in them and giving them not only what is needed for life, but what is needed for their joy and happiness.
God’s love is an exercise of goodness toward sinners. As such, it has the nature of grace and mercy. It is an outgoing of God in kindness which is not only undeserved, but is the opposite of what we deserve. All of us have broken God’s law and thus have forfeited any claim on His love. Sin makes us unlovely and (one would think) unlovable. Love among men is awakened by something in the other person, but the love of God is free, spontaneous and uncaused. The Bible says God loves us because He loves us, because He wants to (Deut. 7:7-8).
It is an exercise of His goodness toward individual sinners. God’s love is not a vague sentiment of goodwill toward everybody in general and nobody in particular. The Bible says that God chose the objects of His love from before creation, individuals with names registered in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 13:8).
God’s love to sinners involves His identifying Himself with their welfare. Such an identification is involved in all of love. Indeed, this is the test of whether love is genuine or not. If a father continues cheerful and carefree while his child is in danger, or if a husband is unmoved while his wife is in distress, we wonder if there is any love in those relationships.
God’s love to sinners was supremely expressed in the gift of His Son to be their Savior. God identified Himself with our welfare by taking on a human nature and walking among us. The supreme measure of love is what it gives. God gave His Son to die in the place of sinners. The New Testament writers constantly point to the cross of Christ as the crowning proof and demonstration of God’s love. In addition to the more famous John 3:16, the Bible says plainly in I John 4:10, “This is love … that God sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.”
God’s love to sinners reaches its goal as it brings them to know and enjoy Him in a covenant relation. A covenant relation means that two parties are permanently pledged to each other. This is how God relates to people. He promises to be their God and Redeemer and they promise to love and serve Him alone. We cannot keep our side of this covenant, so God kept it for us in the person and work of Christ. This is Christianity. Salvation is to look away from self and toward Jesus crucified, the proof of God’s love.      
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Editor’s note:  Rev. Wally Bumpas serves as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dyersburg.

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