Spiritual Love (16) - The Love of God
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January 06, 2013 |
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 "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
We feel happy when we see the beauty of the nature and all things in it and feel the heart of goodness. How happy we will be if we achieve the heart of God! God is the origin of all beauty, all goodness, and love.
God's love is peace that melts pain, and it is brightness and hope that drive away darkness. It is the source of strength that encourages those who lose heart. It is also joy that drives out sadness. It is the comfort that wipes tears away and the source of life energy that makes weary bodies and hearts well.
This beautiful love is God's love towards us. It is the highest level of love.
1. God's love that cultivates humanity and leads them to become His true children
God created the first man Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden. There all kinds of flowers and trees grow. The lovely animals live and run in the beauty of its nature. The fruit abounds everywhere.
And God also gave Adam a lovely helper, Eve. It was not because Adam felt lonely, but because God, who had existed alone for a long time, foreknew what Adam would feel like in advance and in His love He gave him a helper.
As the first man, Adam walked with God and enjoyed great authority as the lord of creation in the optimum surroundings for countless years. But he lacked something as God's true child because he was not able to really feel God's love even though God gave His love to Adam in full measure.
Adam enjoyed all things that God gave to him, but he didn't feel value of them or thankful for them because nothing was gained through his own efforts. Also, he didn't understand the meaning of unhappiness or death because he had never experienced them. Because Adam had never experienced any hatred toward anyone he didn't know the true value of love. In other words, he lacked the experience of relativity.
That is also why Adam and Eve fell to the temptation of the serpent and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said to them, "For in the day that you eat from it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). But they didn't know what 'to die' really means. Then, does it say that God didn't know they would eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? No, it doesn't. He foreknew what would happen. But Adam and Eve had freewill with which they could freely choose between things, and it is here that the providence of human cultivation was hidden.
'Human Cultivation' is to let us experience tears, sorrow, pain, and death so that we will be able to feel how precious and valuable what we enjoy in Heaven truly is and so that we can enjoy true happiness there. Through this, God wanted to share love with us forever in the beautiful Heaven that the Garden of Eden cannot even begin to compare.
In the end, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden because they disobeyed the Word of God in their free will. Because Adam lost authority of ruling over all things, the animals and plants under his authority were also cursed. On the earth that was abundant and beautiful, thorns and thistles started to grow and men were no longer able to eat without toil.
Although Adam and Eve disobeyed, God made garments of skin and clothed them. He clothed them to protect the bodies of those who would live in the place that was totally different from the Garden of Eden and He sent them out to the earth (Genesis 3:21). God might have felt like a parent who sends his child away to some far place so that his child's future might be better. But not having the heart that was like that of God, from the very beginning of human cultivation, mankind has become increasingly stained with sin and has rapidly become distanced from God (Romans 1:21-23).
2. God prepared Jesus Christ since before the ages
1 Timothy 2:4 reads, "[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." God's love is given not only to specific people in a specific period. God desires all men to be saved. He has the door of salvation opened and greatly rejoices whenever each soul returns to Him and He warmly welcomes them.
By the love of God who never gives up on us until the end, the way of salvation is opened for all men. The way is Jesus Christ who is God's only begotten Son. Through His precious blood and His life, Jesus paid the price of sin which sinners should have paid. He paid it on behalf of them.
For as said in Hebrews 9:22, "…Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness", God allowed Jesus to shed His precious blood to redeem mankind from all sins. In the end, Jesus was crucified, but He overcame death and He was resurrected on the third day because He was sinless. By this, the way of salvation was opened.
Most parents say that their child is the apple of their eye when they express their love for them. They consider their children more precious than their own lives. Thus, it is the ultimate in love that God sacrificed His only begotten Son for us. In addition, He is preparing the beautiful Heaven for souls who were taken back through the Lord's precious blood. How amazing His love is!
3. God's love that sends the Spirit as a gift and leads us to Heaven
God's love doesn't end here. He also gives the Spirit to anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ and who has been forgiven of sins. The Holy Spirit is the heart of God. After Jesus was crucified, resurrected and ascended into Heaven, God sent the Spirit into our hearts.
The Spirit intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words and leads us to turn back when we commit sins. He gives faith to those with weak faith and also gives hope for Heaven to those who lose hope. Just like a mother tends to her child so delicately, the Holy Spirit lets us hear His voice at the proper time so that we won't fall or be hurt. He teaches us the heart of God who loves us and leads us to Heaven.
If you realize such love deeply in your heart, you can't help but love God. If we love God from the bottom of our hearts, then God will return to us His love that is too great and amazing to express. He will bless us with good health, everything's going well, and prosperity. Of course, this is the spiritual law, but God also wants us to feel His love through the blessing and answers.
When you met God for the first time and your problem was resolved you might have felt thankful for the love that forgave you who used to be a sinner. You also thought 'How should I repay God's grace?' You might have been overwhelmed with the love of God who has given you eternal Heaven where there is no worry, no anxiety, no disease, no pain, and no death. It is not that we loved God first, but He first loved us and came to and gave His hand to us (1 John 4:19).
He loves us not because we are worth it. But it is the love of God who sent His only begotten Son to us who were destined to die as sinners. He loves all men and takes care of them with more love than that of a woman who cannot forget her nursing child (Isaiah 49:15) and He awaits us feeling like a thousand years were but a day.
Dear brothers and sisters. God's love is genuine love that doesn't change even after a long period of time. I pray in the name of the Lord that by feeling the love of God who is waiting for the day when we can enjoy the beautiful Heaven and glory with Him, you will be blessed to be filled with thanks.
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