The Love of God

A collection of the greatest doctrines of Scripture must include the doctrine of the love of God. Consider the facts:

1. Love is a description of the very nature of God - 1 John 4:8

2. Love is the motive for the mercy shown to the elect - Ephesians 2:4

3. Love is a display of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer - Galatians 5:22

4. Love motivated Jesus Christ to obey the Father’s will and to endure the cross - John 14:30

5. The Love of God and the love of saints is the singular Law of Christ - John 13:34

6. Love is the quality and condition of the eternal relationship in the godhead - John 17:24​

These descriptions are a few of the many references to this love as to its quality and origin. To ignore the vast and broad references to the love of God, love that is from God and is directed back to God again, is to ignore what is a foundational element to God and His Word.  

In order to reclaim something of the understanding of this love of God, we need to rehearse the above elements. We need to see these truths, understand them, and let them lead us to worship God by walking in the same love.

1. Love is a description of the very nature of God - 1 John 4:8 

The Apostle John teaches us about the love of God in no uncertain terms. The particular verse above lays for us the groundwork for the love that should and will exist between regenerate people. In other words, because God is the One who loved us first, and He has given us a new heart, one in which love is poured out, we are now not only able to love one another, love is the nature of our relationships as Christians. It would only seem right, then, that if the nature of God is love, then Christians would love one another.

But, considering the phrase, “God is love,” we have a most extensive and incredible description of God in Scripture. The phrase is worded in such a way that it refers to the nature of God as love. That is, the quality of the core of God, the very nature of Who He is, is love. There are other descriptions of God and His nature in Scripture. However, this is particularly profound considering that this term describes God, not only in abstract terms, but it also defines the relationship between each Member of the Godhead. In other words, God is holy, holy, holy, but that descriptor does not tell us how He is holy towards the Son or the Spirit. Rather, love describes how the Father, Son, and Spirit view one another. It is this emphasis which John is making in his little epistle.

2. Love is the motive for the mercy shown to the elect - Ephesians 2:4

Given that we understand that God is love, the demonstration of that love towards those who are His chosen, His “elect,” makes sense. It is the very nature of God to love what belongs to Him. However, through the disobedience of Adam, the elect became spiritually dead to Him and guilty of their transgressions. As a result of this condition, the wrath of God was determined to be expressed towards them, just as He would spend His wrath on the non-elect.

However, because of His love, instead of determining His wrath upon His chosen, He extends mercy enough to remove His wrath. The motivation for this mercy is His “great love” with which He loved us. It was His great love with which He loved His elect that caused God to show mercy to them and refuse to show His wrath to them.

3.​Love is a display of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer- Galatians 5:22

Galatians 5:22–23 (LSB)

​22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

​23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When a person repents from their sin and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, at that moment that person is given a new soul by the particular creation of God. He becomes a “new creation” in Christ. The evidence of this new creation, this new soul, in the person is the presence of, among other evidences, love. A love for God and for His people specifically is unmistakably evident because God makes it evident in the person.

4. Love motivated Jesus Christ to obey the Father’s will and to endure the cross - ​John 14:30

John 14:31 (LSB)

​“…but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.”

In that same Upper Room discourse, Jesus Christ said something as they were parting for the Garden of Gethsemane. After introducing the great truths of the Upper Room discourse, Jesus tells the men that it is time to leave the room and begin the 1-2 mile walk to the garden. In that garden, Jesus will be arrested, and the disciples will flee. There, also, Jesus will approach His Father and request, if it would be His will, to remove the next few hours from the predetermined plan. He is not wanting anything other than the Father’s will in this request. He is only asking if it is His will to remove the suffering of the cross from Him, to do so. He knows what this suffering will mean for Him.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a gruesome and heinous travesty. The most incredible aspect of this event was that both God and man treated Jesus Christ as if He were guilty of great sin. God treated Christ as if He were the sinner. Pontius Pilate and the Jews treated Him as if He were a blasphemous self-proclaimed king of Israel and Rome. Jesus’s own testimony as to why He endured that treatment is given to us in John 14:31. As Jesus Christ and His disciples get up to leave the upper room and leave for the Garden of Gethsemane to be betrayed and arrested for crucifixion, He tells the disciples that He goes forward, knowing this is coming, because He loves the Father. This love is the same love that God pours out into the soul of the regenerate man. It is the same love that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have shared for eternity. It is a powerful love, indeed.

5. The love of God and the love of the saints is the singular Law of Christ - John 13:34 

John 13:34 (LSB)

​A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 

While in the Upper Room the final night of His earthly life, Jesus Christ gave to His elevendisciples a singular command that is the basis of all His other commands and instructions. Judas has been dismissed from the group, and the rest of the men are still unclear about what is happening. Upon the exit of Judas, Jesus told the men:  

The basis of this command is not the Old Testament command of similar instruction  since that command is given to Israel and this command is given to the church, the soon-to-be-apostles being the foundation. The similarities exist because of the nature of the same God, love. This “Law” of Christ, similar to the “Royal Law,” also called the Law of freedom, is the Law of Christ in our above passage of John. This command is the command which supersedes all other commands of Scripture for a number of reasons. Primarily, the priority of this command is seen in the fact that it is closest to the very nature of God.

6. Love is the quality and condition of the eternal relationship in the godhead - John 17:24

John 17:24 (LSB)

​“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 

As love is the definition of the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it is also the request of the Son to the Father that the same love is in the disciples as well. It is significant, then, that the Son request this very thing of the Father since that quality of love defined their relationship from eternity. In fact, it is this love that defines the glory which the Son had with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This, then, is the reason for the reality of the rest of these assertions. It is the love that the Father has for the Son, the Son for the Father, and the Spirit for them both etc., which gives God the glory He requires and deserves.

Conclusion

The astounding reality and quality of what love is, and how God defines genuine love, is not developed like it should in the church today. This love defines the relationship within God. It is the singular law of Christ for His church. It is the request of the Son that His saints love one another like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love one another. Being the very description of the nature of God, love is a stupendous and magnificent glory to God when it is the fruit of His Holy Spirit in the believer.