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What is Love?
What is love???
God's love is agape
I am aware that agape love is not inherent in me due to my flawed nature. Only the Holy Spirit can provide this divine love, which has been bestowed upon me as a child of God.
Our fallen nature, is incapable of producing such a love.
If we are to love as God loves, that love—being agape—can only come from its Source, the Holy Spirit. This is the love that “has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. When we became His children. " (Romans 5:5 & Galatians 5:22)
How do we know love?
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us & we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers & sisters.” -1 John 3:16.
Because of God’s love towards us, we are able to love one another. Not the other way around.
God is love...
Who God is, is what Love is.
He defines & establishes Love, not us.
John says: "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8
Have you ever felt the deep sadness & guilt that comes from having the intention to honor Jesus with your actions, but the failure of attaining that perfection?
We live on this fallen side of Heaven still, we are bound to the limits of the flesh & it aches realizing the Truth, that I am truly unworthy of God’s love & grace.
Yet, Jesus says: “I will never let you go. I will not let you go. I will not turn you over to what you deserve, but I will lavish my grace on you. I will walk with you. I will not leave you.”
Jesus didn’t die for the good & perfect, but He died for the lost & broken.
Paul says, “God demonstrates His own Love for us in this: While we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8,
Christ died for the sinful us, the struggling us, the broken & ugly us. He will be there for His sheep, always with open arms.
Why?
Because His love for His sheep was never given based on our own goodness or merit.
He chose us, He loved us, wanted us, & sent His son to die for us while we were in full rebellion against Him.
He says He will NEVER leave His sheep, NEVER..
The only hope we have is the Power of that Cross.
Jesus says He does NOT deal with us according to our sin, but abounds in steadfast & long suffering love & mercy.
The Lord forgives our iniquity, He forgives ALL.
1st John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, He is just & faithful to forgive us of ALL our sins.
God pleasure in forgiving His sheep, it gives Him Glory. God can, & does forgive, it is who He is. If we confess our sins to Him, He lifts those burdens off of us.
Not only are we forgiven, but the pit we've put ourselves in, God says He will redeems us out from.
And not only are we forgiven & redeemed from our own sinful wickedness, but then we are crowned with His steadfast love & mercy. Undeservingly Crowned by Him.
Though I have sinned against God & belittled His name through my words.
Though I have not trusted Him through & through..
Though I have spat in His face with my rebellion, in my moments of weakness.
He is still tender towards me. He is tender to us.
He doesn’t hate us, though we do deserve His hate. That's why Jesus died, because we deserve His wrath.
In His love, He is gracious with us.
It's awe inspiring & humbling thinking about how Jesus received a crown of thorns, though He deserved a crown of glory & in stark contrast, we sinners receive a crown of gentleness & mercy, though we deserved the crown of thorns.
This love of His surpasses all human understanding.
The contrast is intense between recognizing the dense weight of my sinful nature & also accepting how loved I really am by the Perfect & Holy Creator of the universe.
When we see our sins as bad as they actually are, we can feel like as if we can’t accept His forgiveness, it can feel as if we are imposters because it feels as if we are somehow lessening the gravity of our sin, or it can feel like we're abusing His grace.
Does God hate us for a period of time until we get our attitude together, then when we fix ourselves, we are forgiven? No, He loves us through all trials, if we are His...
Scripture says, The LORD is merciful & gracious, slow to anger & abounding in steadfast love.
We see that we’ve rebelled against God. That’s what makes sin so evil. We spit in His face.
In moments of weakness, we walk our own way saying through our actions & behaviors, “I don’t care what you say God. I don't care about You.”
& we run to selfishness, greediness, laziness, gossip, crude language, idols, self-righteousness, & lies..
As we run towards these things, we are running away from God. Running from the ONLY One who has TRULY loved us and done what is best for us.
Why?
Because we still fear the Light,
we fear exposure,
we are at war with the flesh & we fear losing control.
Our sins are against God, ALL sin is opposed to God, He is Holy & He is Love, therefore He must hate sin.
God hated sin so much that He sent His Son Jesus on the cross to be tortured, ridiculed mocked & dehumanized because of our sin.
My sins put Jesus on the cross.
Your sin.
Our sin put Jesus on the cross.
My sin drove the nails into His loving hands.
It's easy to blame the "other", be it the Pharisees, Rulers, Romans, Politicians, Pagans, Religious Leaders, Scientists, etc...
But it was nothing more than human nature in our father Adam.
It is in the flesh, it is you & it is me, in the material.
We are all born in iniquity, through one man, Adam, all became sin. All are guilty.
Sin is not a small deal, not in our Creators eyes. It’s an active proclamation that I don’t care about God, nor His authority over my life, nor anything to do with Eternity. It is the mind of Lucifer, planting his seed into us through the fruit of Knowledge, causing us to believe we can be like God... We can't.
Never forget, Who received the punishment for your sins at the cross? Not me, not you, not us. It was Jesus, who is perfect.
He knew no sin, practiced no sin, perfectly Holy, innocent & pure but He became sin for us who rejoice in sin, so that we could become the righteousness of God by His Grace, through Faith in Christ, to the Glory of God..
He imputed Himself onto us, loving us so much that He gave us The Holy Spirit, tearing the veil between Light & Dark, & revealing to all who can See the Truth.
Try & grasp the depth of this reality, in the Spiritual realm.
It is crushing to comprehend.
(Think: Matter (elements of this world) is like a programmed computer... the Spirit is the substance kthe software) giving life to the hardware.
We've trusted in the machine for so long, the appliance, the vessel for so long that we have denied the softwaree, the life, the breathe the Will, which is the only thing allowing our machines to run.
So it is with our flesh. Without the Breath (Spirit) of God we would have no life...)
As we see the evilness of our own sin, so the beauty of God’s grace & forgiveness becomes even clearer & more prominent.
The Lord is merciful. He is Gracious. He is slow to anger & abounding in steadfast Love.
At the cross we can see the evilness of our own sins, & the beauty of God’s Grace showing us to what lengths God is willing to forgive & be merciful to guilty people all because He Said so...
The seeming contradiction, met in a beautiful exchange. Our sinfulness, exchanged for the righteousness of Jesus.
God will not deal with us according to our sins. When I am choked by my own guilt and shame over what I’ve done or said I remember 1 Corinthians 1:30.
When I'm feeling beyond disgraceful of God’s love and grace, this verse comforts me when Jesus says:
“I will not let you go. I will not let you go. I will not turn you over to what you deserve, but lavish my grace on you. I will walk with you. I will never leave you.”
I know the pain of guilt and shame after sinful behaviors & actions. I know the temptation to dwell in that pit of despair, because it feels like you deserve it, & you do.
But the Gospel doesn’t ask you to dwell in those feelings and emotions, but gives us hope for a brighter future.
Jesus has taken your punishment on the Cross. He’s absolved your sins and has given you His righteousness needed to be with God eternally.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, as 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says.
After sinning and becoming the devil that we hate becoming.
The only comfort is looking UP at Jesus. Remembering His body broken for me.
His Blood shed for me.
His Life sacrificed for my sinfulness.
He didn’t die for the good.
God demonstrates His own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Christ died for the sinful you. The struggling you. The broken and dirty you. Go to Him as you are, perhaps for the hundredth time. He will be there with clear & open arms.
Why?
Because His love for us was never given based on our own goodness. He loved us, and sent His son to die for us while we were rebellious. He’s not going to leave us now.
He's the One who does not deal with us according to our sins, but abounds in steadfast (long suffering) love and mercy, our Savior, the one who loves us because we are His.
John says:
God is Light, in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say we fellowship with Him but walk in darkness, WE LIE & do NOT practice the truth. If we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. BUT....
If WE SAY WE HAVE NO SIN, WE DECEIVE OURSELVES, & THE TRUTH IS NOT IN US...
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, WE MAKE HIM A LIAR, h HIS WORD IS NOT IN US. -1 John 1:5-10
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:15-21
Gods love is agape love, the love of self-sacrifice.
He demonstrates this sacrificial love by sending His Son to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin
1 John 4:10 (ESV)
"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Psalm 107:1-19, 21 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
God doesn’t just love; He is love. His nature and essence are love. Love permeates His very being and infuses all His other attributes, even His wrath and anger. Because God’s very nature is love, He must demonstrate love, just as He must demonstrate all His attributes because doing so glorifies Him. Glorifying God is the highest, the best, and the most noble of all acts, so, naturally, glorifying Himself is what He must do, because He is the highest and the best, and He deserves all glory.
Gods love is powerful & active, nothing can separate His People from His love, nothing!!! No powers, no actions, no authorities, no Spirit's, nothing.... God loves His people & knows who we are. Through the good and the ugly.
✝️ Romans 8:34-35, 37-39 says
"Who is to condemn? (Not i)
Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised?
Him who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
God does not love us because we are lovable or because we deserve His love, the opposite is true. The state of humankind since the rebellion, the fall is one of rebellion and disobedience.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 says
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Romans 3:10, 12-18, 22-26
Says as it is written:
“None is righteous, not one; All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
God justifies us by His love, to show his righteousness, the flesh fails & is wicked, anything good within me is bu His Spirit Alone.
1 John 4 15
... the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are JUSTIFIED by his GRACE as a GIFT, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
GOD DISCIPLINES ALL THOSE HE LOVES.
IF WE ARE HIS WE WILL ENDURE DUSCIPline because we are His... when we fall, He will show us our error in love and he will never stray from our thoughts and hearts. Shame can't keep His sheep from Him.
Hebrews 12:3-8, 11-15 SAYS
Consider Christ who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself in LOVE. so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. Remember the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
The following Psalm is so comforting to us sinners who have a heart desperate to trust in the lord and a desire to please Him, but know our flesh will never please Him, the only One strong enough to get us through the valley of the shadow of death is God, Jesus through the Spirit..
His love is made perfect in What?
Our weakness.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame our weakness; he remembers that we are only dust.
The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all, ALL.... Psalm 103
"God knows when we will be tempted and knows when we will fail... but as His children, we will never be given anything that He can't guide us out of, He teaches us and shows us our weaknesses so we will trust him.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10;13
Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written,
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Trusting in ourselves is where our flesh nature comes out, we are untrustworthy, but He is trustworthy. We die, He never dies.
He knows our weaknesses... But He is our strength. He is our Salvation.
He loves us unconditionally.
Who the Father calls. The Son keeps.
© CamilleRusso
God's love is agape
I am aware that agape love is not inherent in me due to my flawed nature. Only the Holy Spirit can provide this divine love, which has been bestowed upon me as a child of God.
Our fallen nature, is incapable of producing such a love.
If we are to love as God loves, that love—being agape—can only come from its Source, the Holy Spirit. This is the love that “has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. When we became His children. " (Romans 5:5 & Galatians 5:22)
How do we know love?
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us & we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers & sisters.” -1 John 3:16.
Because of God’s love towards us, we are able to love one another. Not the other way around.
God is love...
Who God is, is what Love is.
He defines & establishes Love, not us.
John says: "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8
Have you ever felt the deep sadness & guilt that comes from having the intention to honor Jesus with your actions, but the failure of attaining that perfection?
We live on this fallen side of Heaven still, we are bound to the limits of the flesh & it aches realizing the Truth, that I am truly unworthy of God’s love & grace.
Yet, Jesus says: “I will never let you go. I will not let you go. I will not turn you over to what you deserve, but I will lavish my grace on you. I will walk with you. I will not leave you.”
Jesus didn’t die for the good & perfect, but He died for the lost & broken.
Paul says, “God demonstrates His own Love for us in this: While we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8,
Christ died for the sinful us, the struggling us, the broken & ugly us. He will be there for His sheep, always with open arms.
Why?
Because His love for His sheep was never given based on our own goodness or merit.
He chose us, He loved us, wanted us, & sent His son to die for us while we were in full rebellion against Him.
He says He will NEVER leave His sheep, NEVER..
The only hope we have is the Power of that Cross.
Jesus says He does NOT deal with us according to our sin, but abounds in steadfast & long suffering love & mercy.
The Lord forgives our iniquity, He forgives ALL.
1st John 1:9 says if we confess our sins, He is just & faithful to forgive us of ALL our sins.
God pleasure in forgiving His sheep, it gives Him Glory. God can, & does forgive, it is who He is. If we confess our sins to Him, He lifts those burdens off of us.
Not only are we forgiven, but the pit we've put ourselves in, God says He will redeems us out from.
And not only are we forgiven & redeemed from our own sinful wickedness, but then we are crowned with His steadfast love & mercy. Undeservingly Crowned by Him.
Though I have sinned against God & belittled His name through my words.
Though I have not trusted Him through & through..
Though I have spat in His face with my rebellion, in my moments of weakness.
He is still tender towards me. He is tender to us.
He doesn’t hate us, though we do deserve His hate. That's why Jesus died, because we deserve His wrath.
In His love, He is gracious with us.
It's awe inspiring & humbling thinking about how Jesus received a crown of thorns, though He deserved a crown of glory & in stark contrast, we sinners receive a crown of gentleness & mercy, though we deserved the crown of thorns.
This love of His surpasses all human understanding.
The contrast is intense between recognizing the dense weight of my sinful nature & also accepting how loved I really am by the Perfect & Holy Creator of the universe.
When we see our sins as bad as they actually are, we can feel like as if we can’t accept His forgiveness, it can feel as if we are imposters because it feels as if we are somehow lessening the gravity of our sin, or it can feel like we're abusing His grace.
Does God hate us for a period of time until we get our attitude together, then when we fix ourselves, we are forgiven? No, He loves us through all trials, if we are His...
Scripture says, The LORD is merciful & gracious, slow to anger & abounding in steadfast love.
We see that we’ve rebelled against God. That’s what makes sin so evil. We spit in His face.
In moments of weakness, we walk our own way saying through our actions & behaviors, “I don’t care what you say God. I don't care about You.”
& we run to selfishness, greediness, laziness, gossip, crude language, idols, self-righteousness, & lies..
As we run towards these things, we are running away from God. Running from the ONLY One who has TRULY loved us and done what is best for us.
Why?
Because we still fear the Light,
we fear exposure,
we are at war with the flesh & we fear losing control.
Our sins are against God, ALL sin is opposed to God, He is Holy & He is Love, therefore He must hate sin.
God hated sin so much that He sent His Son Jesus on the cross to be tortured, ridiculed mocked & dehumanized because of our sin.
My sins put Jesus on the cross.
Your sin.
Our sin put Jesus on the cross.
My sin drove the nails into His loving hands.
It's easy to blame the "other", be it the Pharisees, Rulers, Romans, Politicians, Pagans, Religious Leaders, Scientists, etc...
But it was nothing more than human nature in our father Adam.
It is in the flesh, it is you & it is me, in the material.
We are all born in iniquity, through one man, Adam, all became sin. All are guilty.
Sin is not a small deal, not in our Creators eyes. It’s an active proclamation that I don’t care about God, nor His authority over my life, nor anything to do with Eternity. It is the mind of Lucifer, planting his seed into us through the fruit of Knowledge, causing us to believe we can be like God... We can't.
Never forget, Who received the punishment for your sins at the cross? Not me, not you, not us. It was Jesus, who is perfect.
He knew no sin, practiced no sin, perfectly Holy, innocent & pure but He became sin for us who rejoice in sin, so that we could become the righteousness of God by His Grace, through Faith in Christ, to the Glory of God..
He imputed Himself onto us, loving us so much that He gave us The Holy Spirit, tearing the veil between Light & Dark, & revealing to all who can See the Truth.
Try & grasp the depth of this reality, in the Spiritual realm.
It is crushing to comprehend.
(Think: Matter (elements of this world) is like a programmed computer... the Spirit is the substance kthe software) giving life to the hardware.
We've trusted in the machine for so long, the appliance, the vessel for so long that we have denied the softwaree, the life, the breathe the Will, which is the only thing allowing our machines to run.
So it is with our flesh. Without the Breath (Spirit) of God we would have no life...)
As we see the evilness of our own sin, so the beauty of God’s grace & forgiveness becomes even clearer & more prominent.
The Lord is merciful. He is Gracious. He is slow to anger & abounding in steadfast Love.
At the cross we can see the evilness of our own sins, & the beauty of God’s Grace showing us to what lengths God is willing to forgive & be merciful to guilty people all because He Said so...
The seeming contradiction, met in a beautiful exchange. Our sinfulness, exchanged for the righteousness of Jesus.
God will not deal with us according to our sins. When I am choked by my own guilt and shame over what I’ve done or said I remember 1 Corinthians 1:30.
When I'm feeling beyond disgraceful of God’s love and grace, this verse comforts me when Jesus says:
“I will not let you go. I will not let you go. I will not turn you over to what you deserve, but lavish my grace on you. I will walk with you. I will never leave you.”
I know the pain of guilt and shame after sinful behaviors & actions. I know the temptation to dwell in that pit of despair, because it feels like you deserve it, & you do.
But the Gospel doesn’t ask you to dwell in those feelings and emotions, but gives us hope for a brighter future.
Jesus has taken your punishment on the Cross. He’s absolved your sins and has given you His righteousness needed to be with God eternally.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, as 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says.
After sinning and becoming the devil that we hate becoming.
The only comfort is looking UP at Jesus. Remembering His body broken for me.
His Blood shed for me.
His Life sacrificed for my sinfulness.
He didn’t die for the good.
God demonstrates His own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Christ died for the sinful you. The struggling you. The broken and dirty you. Go to Him as you are, perhaps for the hundredth time. He will be there with clear & open arms.
Why?
Because His love for us was never given based on our own goodness. He loved us, and sent His son to die for us while we were rebellious. He’s not going to leave us now.
He's the One who does not deal with us according to our sins, but abounds in steadfast (long suffering) love and mercy, our Savior, the one who loves us because we are His.
John says:
God is Light, in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say we fellowship with Him but walk in darkness, WE LIE & do NOT practice the truth. If we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. BUT....
If WE SAY WE HAVE NO SIN, WE DECEIVE OURSELVES, & THE TRUTH IS NOT IN US...
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, WE MAKE HIM A LIAR, h HIS WORD IS NOT IN US. -1 John 1:5-10
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:15-21
Gods love is agape love, the love of self-sacrifice.
He demonstrates this sacrificial love by sending His Son to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin
1 John 4:10 (ESV)
"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Psalm 107:1-19, 21 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!
God doesn’t just love; He is love. His nature and essence are love. Love permeates His very being and infuses all His other attributes, even His wrath and anger. Because God’s very nature is love, He must demonstrate love, just as He must demonstrate all His attributes because doing so glorifies Him. Glorifying God is the highest, the best, and the most noble of all acts, so, naturally, glorifying Himself is what He must do, because He is the highest and the best, and He deserves all glory.
Gods love is powerful & active, nothing can separate His People from His love, nothing!!! No powers, no actions, no authorities, no Spirit's, nothing.... God loves His people & knows who we are. Through the good and the ugly.
✝️ Romans 8:34-35, 37-39 says
"Who is to condemn? (Not i)
Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised?
Him who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
God does not love us because we are lovable or because we deserve His love, the opposite is true. The state of humankind since the rebellion, the fall is one of rebellion and disobedience.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 says
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Romans 3:10, 12-18, 22-26
Says as it is written:
“None is righteous, not one; All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
God justifies us by His love, to show his righteousness, the flesh fails & is wicked, anything good within me is bu His Spirit Alone.
1 John 4 15
... the righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are JUSTIFIED by his GRACE as a GIFT, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
GOD DISCIPLINES ALL THOSE HE LOVES.
IF WE ARE HIS WE WILL ENDURE DUSCIPline because we are His... when we fall, He will show us our error in love and he will never stray from our thoughts and hearts. Shame can't keep His sheep from Him.
Hebrews 12:3-8, 11-15 SAYS
Consider Christ who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself in LOVE. so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. Remember the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
The following Psalm is so comforting to us sinners who have a heart desperate to trust in the lord and a desire to please Him, but know our flesh will never please Him, the only One strong enough to get us through the valley of the shadow of death is God, Jesus through the Spirit..
His love is made perfect in What?
Our weakness.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame our weakness; he remembers that we are only dust.
The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all, ALL.... Psalm 103
"God knows when we will be tempted and knows when we will fail... but as His children, we will never be given anything that He can't guide us out of, He teaches us and shows us our weaknesses so we will trust him.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10;13
Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written,
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Trusting in ourselves is where our flesh nature comes out, we are untrustworthy, but He is trustworthy. We die, He never dies.
He knows our weaknesses... But He is our strength. He is our Salvation.
He loves us unconditionally.
Who the Father calls. The Son keeps.
© CamilleRusso
