But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
" + "Love is not merely an attribute or characteristic of the divine nature. Love constitutes God's nature. Love is not just what God does or is, but who God is. God is love (1 John 4:8). In truth, Scripture, God's self-revelation to us, is essentially a love story. Scripture frames the unfailing story of God's willing, desiring, and purposing our ultimate good even at God's expense. For, Scripture is the story of God's relentless self-giving.
" + "In the beginning when God commanded light to be, God was unleashing Himself on the void of the earth (Genesis 1:1 – 3; 1 John 1:5). God gave His all in the act of creation. In the beginning, Light – God – shined in the darkness. In the beginning, God, who is love, expressed Himself. In the beginning, Love loved.
" + "The Old Testament informs us that God expressed Himself to the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God sought covenantal relationship with man and addressed Abram with the promise of blessing and multiplication in and to his seed (Genesis 12:1 – 3; Hebrews 6:13 – 20). God expressed Himself to Jacob, renamed him Israel, and through Israel God sired the twelve tribes that signified His love for all creation. When the lush fruitage of Goshen gave way to the straw and mortar bricks of Egypt, God expressed Himself to Pharaoh and brought the god of this world to his knees to deliver His people. Through Moses, God expressed Himself to His treasure, His royal priesthood, Israel so that through them the world would see a godly way of being human.
" + "When Israel committed adultery, God changed not. God kept being Himself; Love kept on loving. God expressed Himself through Judges. Even when God's chosen people continued to do what was right in their own eyes, Love kept on loving. When Israel rejected God's judgment and sought to crown itself a king, Love kept on loving. When the kings forgot Him, Whom was really on the throne, Love kept on loving; God expressed Himself through the prophets. When the kingdom of Israel gave way to the divided kingdoms of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, Love kept on loving. When the kingdoms ceased and captivity and exile began, Love kept on loving. When God's chosen people traded the bitter sands of Babylonian and Egyptian captivity for the harsher dirt of Roman occupation in Palestine, again God had to express Himself in order to bring the god of this world to his knees and deliver His people. Love kept on loving. As God's chosen people continued to use God's Law to blind themselves to God's Love, God did something new. God expressed Himself to His chosen people, by expressing Himself in human flesh, so that God could change, or transfigure, His people from the inside out.
" + "In one life, God expressed His life to us. In one life, Love showed us that He alone can fashion the past, present, and future according to His will. In the life of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, God remembered the adulterous past of His chosen people and love kept on loving. In the life of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, God lived the millennia-long love-hate relationship with His chosen people. In the death and rising of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, God anticipated the time beyond time of inevitable consummation of Love's desire from the very beginning.
" + "Paul reminds us that "God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." This means that God continues to express Himself to us. God's love and sacrifice for us in Christ reveals to us the integrity and character of God. God's love is not contingent upon our response, though Love enables the response, but Love loves because this is Who God is. There is none else. Jesus Christ did not die for us after we were saved. Jesus Christ died while we were yet in sin and, therefore, in need of salvation. Love died for us when we were incapable of properly responded to Love. Jesus' sacrifice did not change God, but it transfigures us.
" + "Ours is a real hope. Love judges sin. Love sentences death to death. Love places the enemy in chains. God, or Love, wrote His Word to us. In the person of Jesus Christ, God read and lived His Word to us. In the person of the Holy Ghost, God witnesses to us that we are called to do as Jesus did and does: to read and live the Word of God. God spared no expense. God is relentless. God is unstoppable. God is sovereign. God is waiting. All we have to do is receive God's Love. Yet, how impossible it is to believe and know that Love conquers all if we are unacquainted with the Love story! May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all!
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