Perfect Love

#PerfecrLove #Agape #HolyLove #PerfectGod

What is the most enticing attribute of God? Without much thought or hesitation, most Christians would assert His Love! Each person exclaiming so are right, without a doubt. I wonder, however, what is love like when God is the one pouring out the love, compared to humans? I also wonder, what is love from God’s perspective? For this question the answer often points to two different places in the New Testament. Holy Love is more than overlooking wrongs, it becomes the totality of holiness expressed in perfect harmony from God to mankind.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17, NASB)

Here the act of love is made simple. God comes into the world and offers redemption to all who believe in the Only Begotten Son of God. What if this goes beyond a seemingly simple act? What if this is love at its fullest expressed in action? Jesus Christ is love in perfect form. Reading the past two verses you can see how love is present through Jesus, however, this does not nullify God’s divine justice. Scripture tells us, “he who does not believe has been judged already,” referring to the result of a life devoid of God. Eternal wrath due to the offense of sin is already present in the individual as a part of humanity. Humanity, as a whole, benefits from such a powerful love that exists within God Himself in the Trinity.

God’s love in the hypostatic union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [i.e. Trinity] is expressed in that it demonstrates itself in the act of redeeming the world. Since the Son loves the Father with such fervor and perfection, He willingly steps into history to offer salvation to a humanity that is steeped in a world of sin and lost in self-centeredness. God is perfect love demonstrated to an imperfect people.

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (I Cor. 13:4-8A, NASB)

The Gospel message, the fulfillment of the promises for a deliverer by God through Jesus Christ, is the most loving act any deity worthy of worship can ever do. Furthermore, to express love through the act of living, suffering, and dying for the sake of those who by ignorance and willful disobedience choose to have condemnation, is beyond the full comprehension available to humanity. Finally, to make this love the maxim of the word, it is a love the permeates everything God does because it is who He is. Because God cannot lie, He rejoices in the truth. Because God is not unrighteous, he is also not jealous of individuals, but over His own glory. God is patient as he displays grace to all humanity for sins committed against Him. God through Jesus’ gift of salvation keeps no record of wrongs but imputes on us the righteousness of Jesus Himself. God loves us because it is a byproduct of the love that exists between the three persons of the Trinity. What a joy that we should be included in such love!