God’s Love

God’s Love

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

IN WORD “God is love.” Not only is this a profound declaration from the apostle John, it’s also the mantra of a culture that has made God in its own image. We can rest assured that the biblical and the cultural definitions of love do not match up very well. But when it comes to understanding the love of God, not even the biblical language has the full meaning. It’s something we simply cannot understand.

Still, the Bible gives us pictures. One of them is of God hanging on a wooden torture stake in the Middle East a couple of millennia ago. To outsiders, it’s a sad story of martyrdom, but to those within the faith, it’s the ultimate expression of love. Why? Because Jesus didn’t have to go there. He chose to. He volunteered for that torturous execution because it somehow covered our own rebellion. The mutiny was paid for by the very captain against whom it was committed. That’s a kind of grace—a kind of love—the world doesn’t understand. Frankly, neither do we.

Survivors of a violent attack don’t normally pursue the criminal who committed it with only his restoration in mind. Companies don’t often care only for the welfare of the embezzler who bilked them of millions. Victims of slander don’t usually put their own reputation aside in order to preserve the reputation of the slanderer. But that kind of grace is what God demonstrated on the Cross. That’s the kind of love that defines Him.

IN DEED Think of the implications for you. When you sin, God doesn’t discipline you to make you pay for the trouble you’ve caused Him. He does it because He cares only for your restoration. When you go through difficult times, God hasn’t allowed them because you somehow deserved them—though as sinners, we always do. No, because of His love, everything He does for His people is redemptive. Everything—even difficulty—is a sign of His favor. He wants the best for us, all because of His love.

Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, should die for me?

—CHARLES WESLEY