[Living Word] Love of God - Part 1

"God is love" - 1 John 4:8

Sounds good, doesn't it? This is what the God of Jesus Christ, of Israel, of Abraham, of Moses, of Noah, of David, the Lion of Judah is explicitly stated in the Word to be - love.

The problem is that in our post-modern world today, we have varying notions of "love". That in itself is not a problem: the real problem is that God's love is the Original Love, the intended absolute example of love, while we, fallen humans who have gladly made ourselves masters and determiners of 'good' and 'evil', have chosen to ignore this fact and pitched these deviated/distorted ideas of love as standards of our lives, surreptitiously dragging us deeper into the dominion of darkness.

Let me tell you why God's love is such an inexplicably difficult doctrine to grasp. If our Lord is so loving...

• Why does He allow the Original Sin? (Gen 2: 15-17, Gen 3)
  
• Why does He allow suffering & pain? (Ps 6, Ps 13, Acts 9:16, even to His own Son! - Luk 24:46)
  
• Why does He allow us the freewill to sin, and then hold us responsible for our sin?
• Why does He only show mercy to His elect (His chosen people, e.g. Israel, us Christians who receive His salvation) (John 15:16, Eph 1:4)
  
• Why does He pour His wrath on His people? (e.g. Ezek 5:11-17, Isa 13:4, Rev 8-9)
  

Perturbed? You ought to be. Your God is not your mollycoddle cartoon character, nor is He your imaginary best friend who will justify/condone/forgive everything you do and say, and protect you from every form of pain and hurt in the entire galaxy. He is God.

This short series on the Love of God will cover the many difficult issues surrounding the very notion of God's love. It will briefly cover issues such as Election, Predestination, Providence, and Pain.

Do not fret the jargon: this series is meant to expose you to them and yet will not stumble you, it is meant to build you up, not turn you away, meant to show you who God really is, and help you eradicate a false image/idol of God that may exist in your mind now. Take heart because Jesus has told us: "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." (John 10:28) Find security and comfort in Jesus today, because by God's grace we have been saved, and it is by His grace we are here studying His word, to know Him for who He truly is.

N.B. Much of the content will be drawn from "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God" by Donald A. Carson, and other literature such as "Problem of Pain" by CS Lewis and New Bible Commentary from IVP.

blessings,
Ronald