UNDERSTANDING GOD’S MATCHLESS LOVE
By Peter C. Cay-ohen
I was born and raised in a strictly pagan community. My religious experience as a boy was molded in an atmosphere of fear of the wrath of the “spirits.” I was never taught to love and worship these spirits because they love and care for my life. Rather, I was educated to think that we must perform the many prescribed rituals to appease the anger of these spirits and to escape being the subject of their wrath.
GOD LOVES ALL MEN
When I became a Christian, I was taught that “God is love,” and we are to love and trust God “because he first loved us” (1 John 4:8, 19). What distinguishes the God of the Bible from the pagan gods is that He is a loving God. To the nation of Israel, His message was:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31:3.
Although this was spoken to the Israelites, we should understand it to mean that God loves us Gentiles in the flesh as much as He loves the Israelites in the flesh because God shows no partiality. Peter explains:
“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:34, 35.
Apostle John also explains that God’s love embraces all men regardless of color and social status in life. He wrote:
“For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
The universality of God’s love was also explained by Jesus in this manner:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and send the rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:43-45.
God’s act of making the sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sending rain on the just and on the unjust shows that He loves all men regardless of their character, color, or social status.
NATURE REVEALS GOD’S LOVE
Through the things of nature God has sought to reveal to man His love. Apostle Paul wrote:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20, RSV.
In the beautiful flowers covering the thorns and thistles and in the many trees laden with delicious fruits of varying color and taste are found God’s message of love, for He gave us all these to enjoy and for us to know that He loves us and cares for us. Every time we eat our food we should remember that we are holding in our hands the tokens of God’s love to us. Every opening bud and blooming flower speaks to us of our Father’s love and care and His desire to make us healthy, happy and wise.
Unfortunately, Satan has blinded the minds of men and led them to forget God and honour the creature rather than the Creator. Paul explains:
“For although they knew God they did not honor him as God…but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened…and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” Romans 1:21-25, RSV.
The blindness in men’s mind was so great that instead of looking to God as a loving and caring Father, they would look upon Him as a severe judge who delights in giving punishment rather than love and forgiveness.
CHRIST REVEALS GOD’S LOVE
It was to reveal to men the true character of the Father that Christ came and lived among men. No man has seen the Father, but all can see the beauty of His character – His goodness, gentleness, kindness, mercy, and love – by “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). The Bible explains as follows:
“No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” John 1:18.
“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Matthew 11:27.
In order to know the Father it is not necessary for us to see Him personally. If we have seen the only begotten Son of God that would be as good as we have seen the Father personally. Jesus explains:
“If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also…. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father… the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” John 14:7-10.
Through Christ the world was given a clearer view of the Father’s love. In the ministry of Jesus on earth, we can see a living demonstration of our Father’s love. The Bible tells us:
“Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the word which he sent to Israel…the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Acts 10:34-38, RSV.
THE ULTIMATE REVELATION OF GOD’S LOVE
But the supreme demonstration of God’s love for man was Christ’s dying for our sins. The Bible explains:
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6-8.
Paul here explains the contrast between God’s love and human love. Human love is dependent on the beauty or goodness of its object. People naturally fall in love with one who is beautiful, intelligent, honest, and attractive, and would turn away from one who they believe is ugly, ignorant, rude or offensive. In other words, men love only the good and lovable and dislike the bad and unlovable. But human love, although basically selfish, may be developed where it may have some semblance of unselfishness. The highest form of human love is demonstrated when a man would dare to die for a good friend of his. Jesus explains:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.
This spiritual truth was demonstrated in the ancient story of Admetus and Alcelis. The story goes that Admetus, a noble and handsome young man got sick with a disease that, according to the words of the gods, would cause his death unless someone could be found who would die in his place. His parents and close relatives were consulted. All agree that he was a wonderful young man, but “sorry,” they said, “we couldn’t die for him.” Finally his friends asked Alcelis, the beautiful girlfriend and lover of Admetus, if she could die for him. “Yes,” she said, “because he is a good man and because the world needs him so I am willing to die for him!” According to ancient philosophers, this is the highest development of love – where one is willing to die for a good man!
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
But Paul tells us that no man can dare to die for his enemies, not even to a bad friend. I remember the experience of a neighbor in Mindanao. This man has a son with damaged kidneys. The doctor ruled that if the father would donate one of his kidneys to the son, both of them could survive with each one having one healthy kidney. But the father refused and the son died. This father does not love his son enough to share one of his kidneys to save him from physical death. He may not have been a good son.
But the love of God is far higher than human love for God loves even the unlovable. This fact was shown in the life of Christ. We read:
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.” “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6, 7, 8. RSV.
Christ’s death for us while we were “still sinners” and “enemies” clearly demonstrates God’s unconditional love towards us.
UNSELFISH LOVE
Moreover, human love rest on a sense of need. A husband loves his wife because he needs her, and a wife loves her husband for the same reason. That is why we see many spouses leaving their partners when they no longer supply their physical, social, or financial needs.
In contrast, God’s love is unselfish. He loves us, not because He needs us, but because we need Him. We are the one in need because we are spiritually and materially poor. God loves us because it is His nature to love (1 John 4:8) and His love “seeks not her own” (1 Corinthians 13:5), but seeks to benefit and uplift those He loves.
“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9, RSV.
Christ became poor when he was “born of a woman, born under the law.” (Gal.4:4,5). The earthly parents of Jesus were poor as indicated by the burnt offerings that they offered when they presented him to the Lord at the temple, a pair of turtledoves (Luke 2:22-24). This was the offering prescribed for a poor family (Lev. 12:1-8). But before he became poor for our sake Paul said that Jesus was rich (2 Cor. 8:9). Speaking of the time when Jesus was rich, the Paul explains:
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8, ARV.
Before Jesus was made in the likeness of men, He was “existing in the form of God…being on an equality with God (the Father).” This was the time that Paul said Jesus was rich. But He humbled himself and became poor that we through His poverty, might be made rich. Thus true Christianity is not man seeking after God, but God seeking after man. It was Christ who came from heaven to find and save us.
“The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
“God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
Christ left the the adoration of heavenly angels, and came to our world to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death just so He could lift us up from degradation, and transform us into something more valuable than silver and gold. God said:
“I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even more than the golden wedge of Ophir.” Isaiah 13:12.
SELF-SACRIFICING LOVE
God’s love is also a self-sacrificing love. This fact may be better understood when we consider the kind of death that Jesus was willing to go through to save us. We read:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who… took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and…he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8.
The emphasis made by Paul is not so much on the fact that Christ “became obedient unto death” but more so in the kind of death that He experienced as indicated by the expression, “even the death of the cross.” Many suffered death by slow tortures and others have suffered death by crucifixion. So in what does the death of Jesus Christ differ from the death of these martyrs? Paul explains:
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.” Galatians 3:13, 14.
Christ becoming a curse for us means that He received the curse of the law because of our sins. What is the curse of the law? Paul explains:
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” Galatians 3:10, first part.
To be “of the works of the law” means keeping the law in order to be saved or looking at your personal obedience to the law as that which merits or earn for you eternal life. Paul was saying to the Galatians, “Anyone who tries to earn or purchase eternal life and go to heaven by keeping the law is under the curse.” Why? Because it is written:
“Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” Galatians 3:10.
If anyone wants to receive eternal life and go to heaven through the law, he has to keep it in every particular in his lifetime. If he transgresses in one point he will come under the curse as a transgressor (James 2:10); meaning, he will receive the wages of his sin, which is death (Romans 6:23). This means being forsaken of God to receive the full measure of God’s wrath against sin. This was what Christ experienced at the cross when He tasted death for every man’s sin (Hebrews 2:9).
Who made Christ a curse for us? It was not the devil, because the devil can’t punish sin. He too will be cursed because of his own sin. It was not the Jews either, though they ask God to curse Him. It was God the Father who cursed Christ for our sins. At Gethsemane Jesus pleaded three times:
“Oh my Father, if it is possible, let this cup (curse) pass from me” -Matthew 26:39-44.
Surely the Father loves His only begotten Son and we would think that He would come to rescue Him from the curse of of the law. But did the Father spare His own Son? The Bible answers:
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:31, 32
God did not spare his own Son, but delivered Him up to be cursed because of our sins in which He has no share, that we might receive eternal life in which we had no share.
FORSAKEN OF GOD
At the Cross the Father abandoned Christ to bear the curse of the law because this was the only means by which humanity could be saved from the curse of the law. That Christ experienced being forsaken of God is evident in His agonizing cry while hanging at the cross. Matthew wrote:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46.
Hundreds of years before the cross the prophet Isaiah wrote:
“Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows….smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed…. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:4-6.
Bodily pain was but a small part of the agony of Christ. There was a pain greater than the bodily pain of the crucifixion that Christ experienced. The weight of the sins of the whole world was laid upon Him and the sense of the curse of the Father’s wrath against sin crushed His soul. The hiding of the Father’s face – a sense that His Father has forsaken Him – brought despair upon Christ. The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering man of Calvary. This was what Christ pleaded with His Father to be taken away from Him.
But the Father said, “No, I cannot remove the cup (curse) from you. This is the only way we could save man from eternal death.” We know that this was the case because we read that the Father “spared not His own son” (Romans 8:32). In that fearful moment when the destiny of humanity hang in the balance, Jesus made His final decision saying:
“Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” “If this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Matthew 26:39, 42.
Why was it that the Father did not spare His own Son? It was because the Father loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son to be made a curse for us. It was because Jesus also loved us so much that He was willing to be cursed for us, to say goodbye to life forever, th at you and I might enjoy eternal life.
The Father loves us, not because of the sacrifice made by His Son in our behalf, but He provided the sacrifice because He loves us. His beloved Son was the medium through which God the Father could pour out His infinite love upon us, sinful and unworthy as we are.
A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT GOD
This fact tells us that we should no longer think of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice, a severe judge who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them. Rather, we should see God as He really is, a loving Father whose heart yearns over His children with a love stronger than death. To appreciate God’s matchless love, what did the Apostle John urge us to do?
“Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the sons of God…” 1 John 3:1.
John understood something of the height, the depth, and the breadth of the Father’s love toward our perishing race and his heart was filled with admiration and reverence. Finding no suitable words to express this love of God he calls upon all men to behold it:
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” What a value this places upon man!
CHANGED BY BEHOLDING
God’s love is without a parallel in its purity and power. By beholding the marvelous love of God sinners may be transformed into saints. One who experienced the transforming power of God’s love in her own life wrote:
“He who beholds the Saviour’s matchless love will be elevated in thought, purified in heart, transformed in character. He will go forth to be a light to the world, to reflect in some degree this mysterious love. The more we contemplate the cross of Christ, the more fully shall we adopt the language of the apostle when he said, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’ Galatians 6:14.” The Desire of Ages, page 661.
Knowing that Christ “has borne our grief and carried our sorrows… smitten of God and afflicted;” that “He was wounded for our transgressions,” “was bruised for our iniquities,” “and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6), let us appreciate this amazing sacrifice that Christ has exerted to reclaim us back to our Father’s house. Let us be encouraged to give our heart’s loving service to our Creator and Redeemer. Instead of doubting God’s love and wondering in the desert of uncertainty and hopeless despair, let us follow the divine counsel given by the Apostle Paul:
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Moreover, let us not resist the power of God’s love now drawing each one of us towards a loving relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. God is telling us individually:
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3).
Indeed God loves us, and He wants us to enjoy life to the full in His kingdom. But He does not use force to compel us to follow Him. He is drawing us with the “cords” and “bands” of His matchless “love” (Hosea 11:4). If we allow ourselves to be drawn by the love of God, the experience of the apostles will become our experience. E. G. White beautifully explains their motivation to follow Christ as follows:
“It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour’s matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary’s cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him.” The Desire of Ages, page 480.
ASSURANCE OF FINAL VICTORY
It is good to allow ourselves to be drawn by the love of God, to have our hearts softened and subdued, and be enlisted as followers of Christ. It is true that the Christian life is a battle and a march, and the way we are traveling is narrow (Matt. 7:13, 14), and trials abound to test our characters and faith to the utmost, but we should not fear and let our courage fail. Our Saviour is as compassionate and powerful today as He ever was and He assures us of final victory through his grace:
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13.
“Though now He has ascended to the presence of God, and shares the throne of the universe, Jesus has lost none of His compassionate nature. Today the same tender, sympathizing heart is open to all the woes of humanity. Today the hand that was pierced is reached forth to bless more abundantly His people that are in the world. ‘And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.’
“The soul that has given himself to Christ is more precious in His sight than the whole world. The Saviour would have passed through the agony of Calvary that one might be saved in His kingdom. He will never abandon one for whom He has died. Unless His followers choose to leave Him, He will hold them fast.”
“Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battle with evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you. ‘I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore.’ Rev. 1:18. I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touch no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live. ‘The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.’ Isa. 54:10.” The Desire of Ages, pages 480, 483.