Our Love for the Beloved

In my previous post I looked at the infinite love that God the Father has for God the Son, our Lord Jesus, a love that transcends our ability to comprehend its height, breadth, depth and width, a love that has been expressed and enjoyed throughout eternity between God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (1 John 4:16) (John 14:21) (Romans 5:5).

It is a love that mankind, created in God’s image and likeness, was created to share in, not as divine equals but as beloved children, in intimate relationship with the eternal, triune God.  However, mankind, beginning with Adam, spurned that love, replacing it with love of self, and love of the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17) (Philippians 2:3-4), thus separating ourselves from God’s love, making ourselves the enemies of God, the object of His wrath and judgement (Isaiah 59:1-2) (James 4:1-4) (Romans 1:18-25).

However, the Bible reveals that God, who is rich in mercy, and who delights in freely displaying His mercy (Ephesians 2:3-8) (Micah 7:18), displays it most clearly in providing a means, the only means, by which sinful men and women can escape His wrath and judgement, be reconciled to right relationship with Him and granted eternal life, the glorious life with God of mutual love for which men and women were created.  And that means is through faith in the beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and His saving work on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin, a faith that is a gift from God, faith that displays or works itself out in our love for God and by extension our love for our image-bearing neighbor (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Galatians 5:6).  Jesus made it clear that such love is essential for us to receive eternal life, and that it will be displayed in our glad obedience to His will (Luke 10:25-28) (John 14:23-24) (Psalm 40:8).

As I noted in a previous post, our love for God in Christ is a love that ultimately is a result of Him first loving us (1 John 4:7-11) (1 John 4:19), wherein we are justified, declared righteous as a result of Jesus’ sinless life and substitutionary  death on the cross, and the regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit who restores to us spiritual life, removing the spiritual blindness that has kept us from seeing the glory of Christ and His worthiness to be passionately pursued as the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy. (Romans 3:21-26) (Titus 3:3-7) (2 Corinthians 4:6).

In 1 Peter 3:15 we are instructed, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, meaning that as our knowledge and understanding of Jesus’ infinitely glorious person, and of His equally glorious work of salvation on our behalf increases through our diligent study of His word and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our heart, God is to be joyfully set far above and apart from all other rival loves and competing affections (Luke 14:26).

Christian author and theologian John Piper, in his insightful book titled Desiring God, notes the depth of love that God is due and deserves from His redeemed people when he writes:

 “If we are not captivated by His (God’s) personality and character, displayed most clearly in the person and work of Christ in our salvation, then all of our other declarations of love and thanksgiving are like the love and gratitude of a wife to a loving husband for the many and beautiful clothes and jewels she receives from him, which she uses to further her love affair with another man. … God is then nothing more to us than a tool, a means-a machine to produce for us the things we really love, and desire and delight in. … Our soul is not born again unless or until it is excited by the knowledge and person of God (in Christ), where He is loved, desired for His own sake, where there is a deep and spontaneous love and affection to God as the most excellent of all beings-the most excellent of all relationships-the most excellent of all riches-the most excellent of all pleasures …. wherein we lose our appetites for lesser pleasures and lesser delights.”

English Puritan author Thomas Vincent in his wonderful little book, The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ writes:

True love to Christ is in every case the Holy Spirit’s work and must be wrought in the heart by him. He is the efficient cause of it; but the logical reason why we love Jesus lies in himself. Why do we love Jesus? Because he first loved us. Why do we love Jesus? Because he “gave himself for us.” We have life through his death; we have peace through his blood. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. Why do we love Jesus? Because of the excellency of his person. We are filled with a sense of his beauty! an admiration of his charms! a consciousness of his infinite perfection! His greatness, goodness, and loveliness, in one resplendent ray, combine to enchant the soul till it is so ravished that it exclaims, “Yea, he is altogether lovely.” Blessed love this–a love which binds the heart with chains more soft than silk, and yet more firm than adamant!

 Vincent wrote this book during a pandemic far more lethal than what we have endured the past two plus years, namely during the Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, in which over 68,000 people died, seven in Vincent’s own household. He was known as “a friend of the afflicted”, fearlessly offering direct comfort and assistance to the diseased and dying, while regularly preaching to multitudes on the “Lord’s Day” (not sure if there was a mask mandate).

Vincent was adamant about the necessity of our loving God truly, deeply and intelligently; of our having a love for Him that will sustain us in the most difficult of times, a love that will compel us to live holy lives, faithful to the one who loved us and gave His life for us, a love that is not lukewarm, resulting in God vomiting us out on the last day.  (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) (Galatians 2:20) (Revelation 3:14-16).  Thus, he writes:

It is well to be able, without any “if” or “but,” to say of the Lord Jesus–“Thou whom my soul loveth.” Many can only say of Jesus that they hope they love him; they trust they love him; but only a poor and shallow experience will be content to stay here. No one ought to give any rest to his spirit till he feels quite sure about a matter of such vital importance. We ought not to be satisfied with a superficial hope that Jesus loves us, and with a bare trust that we love him. The old saints did not generally speak with “buts,” and “ifs,” and “hopes,” and “trusts,” but they spoke positively and plainly. “I know whom I have believed,” saith Paul. “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” saith Job. Get positive knowledge of your love of Jesus, and be not satisfied till you can speak of your interest in him as a reality, which you have made sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit, and his seal upon your soul by faith.

I will be sharing more from Vincent’s book in upcoming posts, to help us in our efforts to love our God and Savior as He commands and deserves to be loved, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind.   Amen.

Grace and Peace ×