Transformational Love

" I am still learning so much about God’s love. It is exciting to me that I will spend the rest of my life learning more and more..."

2018

Looking at the Bible as a whole story has changed me. I knew that God loves us and gives us His grace (unmerited favor), but I did not realize the depth of it all. I did not see the story as a whole, the story of His love for us all for His glory.

From Genesis, we have a perfect world, the Garden of Eden. God walked there with Adam and Eve. He created this place to enjoy with mankind. From day one of man’s creation, God wanted man to have a special relationship with Him. Man destroys this beauty through rebellion against God. God, however, does not stop pursuing this relationship with man.

Even before man is told of the consequences for his sins, God speaks of a Savior. Genesis 3:15- “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Jesus Christ is the one born of a woman who will crush the head of the serpent. God wanted to save us from the very beginning. He wants us. I cannot stress this enough for God has stressed it so much. He is screaming out, “I love you and I want you!”

Think about this, He did not have to make us. That is the start. He chose to make us and that in His image. So we are not only alive; we are His. We are created in His image. We were made for fellowship with Him. Meditate on that.

Man was banned from the Garden and death entered the world. Man was in need of a Savior for man could not do it on his own. The Israelites serve as an example of man’s inability to save himself.

The Israelites were a chosen people by God through His faithful servant Abraham. Excluding some, the Israelites overall were an unfaithful people. The Israelites could not keep God’s commandments, and instead of keeping Him as King, they wanted to conform to the world around them by asking for an earthly king. Instead of being a holy (set-apart) nation, they wanted to be nothing more than like their neighbors. Due to their disobedience to God, they indulged in their sinful nature and became worse than the pagans who lived around them. Man could not save himself. Man still cannot save himself. The Law which God gave to the Israelite's was not given for salvation; it was given to show us our own wickedness and desperate need for a Savior.

God knew that man could not save himself, and that is why He speaks about the Savior from the beginning. Jesus Christ becomes our Savior. The very Son of God, being God, became fully man so as to meet the regulations of the Law that God ordained. You must understand that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets. He is the Messiah. He is our salvation. He became the Lamb, He died, rose from the grave and is now our High Priest pleading on our behalf. All we must do is believe on Him who gave it all. We need to see Him for who He is, LORD. The proclaiming of Jesus Christ as LORD is our saving grace.

He did all of this so that we may again have fellowship with Him. Upon believing, the Holy Spirit becomes our seal, our mark that we are His. We become co-heirs with Christ. So what is it that we are inheriting? We are inheriting a new heaven and a new earth with Him. We will enter into His presence for eternity.

God’s desire from the beginning was to have fellowship with us. He desires to have a beautiful and pure relationship with us. This is why He came down to earth and saved man by dying on the cross. He rose from the grave defeating death. He did all of this so that we may live with Him.

He did not have to do this. He is God. He created us. He could recreate man or create something completely new, something that would not rebel against Him. So why does He not do this? It is because He loves us.

I am completely and utterly undeserving of such love.

I am still learning so much about God’s love. It is exciting to me that I will spend the rest of my life learning more and more. He is more than I can handle; so the little bits of Him I get are amazing. A little bit of what He has shown me is this mystery. It really is not a mystery, but we hide or run away from it so much that it is mysterious. Why can we not accept love?

I always feel so weird accepting love. It is the most humbling thing for me. Why? Well, to accept love is life-changing. This is scary. When someone loves you wholeheartedly, it is transforming.

I am not talking about a love that comes from someone because of what you can do for them or what they can get out of you. Sorry, that is manipulation not love. We know this “love”. In fact, it is because of this “love” that whenever something really good comes along, our defenses go up immediately. As well, I am not talking about love that comes from a false idea. Someone might love the idea of you, but not love you. What I am talking about is unconditional love.

God’s love for us is perfect. Get this, God knows you. He told Jeremiah that He knew him before he was in his mother’s womb (Jer. 1:5). Jesus says that He knows the number of hairs you have on your head (Luke 12:7). He knows you better than you even know yourself. The reality is that I am the one who knows me best for I am always with me. (I get annoyed with myself quite often.) Yet, I do not know the number of hairs on my own head. I do not know the depravity or depth of my own heart. I do not fully know myself. Yet, God knows me, and He loves me. So there goes that “false idea love”. God does not love the idea of me; He loves me.

Furthermore, He knows me, and therefore, He knows that I have nothing to give Him. Scripture says that all of our good deeds are like filthy rags (Is. 64:6). God does not love me for what I can give Him. I remember one time my little brother picked up some poop. He was so young and had no idea what it was. He attempted to give it to me and my siblings. This is like us trying to give to God. My siblings and I love our little brother, but it has nothing to do with what he can give us. We do not want poop. Same with God! He loves us no matter what. That is who He is. He is love.

He also does not love me for who I will be. He loves me now. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8. A friend reminded me of a great truth that God cannot love you more than He does right now. God already loves me. He acted upon His love. John 15:13- “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. Listen, God is love.

We all want to be loved and to love. Everyone wants love. It is what consumes us. Love comes in many avenues and is not always pure. It can come through the wrong person. It can come through a thing. It can come through a movement or idea. With God, love is pure and perfect. Remember, God is love. There is no greater avenue of love than the original source.

Love changes us. When I am madly in love with someone, I change. I want to do things for them. I want to serve them. I will go out of my way for them. I consider them above myself. I desire the best for them even if it is not found in me. How is it, though, that I know to love this way? It is because I am loved this way. We learn love from those that love us. “We love because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19.

God loves me so much that I stopped ignoring it and embraced it. I yearn for His love, and in the midst of His pursuit of me, I turned to Him. His love has transformed me. I said that when I love someone, I seek the best for them even if that best is not found in me. This is self-less love. (I want to note here that I do not perfectly love others. I am not always self-less in my love. I long to be self-less, though.) So is God’s love for us self-fish? He tells us that He wants all of us for Himself. He is a jealous God.

Well, let’s start with jealousy. When the word jealous is used in the Bible, it is referring to desiring something that belongs to you. It is not envy. Envy is strongly desiring something that is not yours. It does not in any way belong to you. God is jealous for us for we do belong to Him. He is our Creator. More than this, Jesus Christ died for us, paying the penalty for our actions so that we can be His. He is rightfully jealous for us for we are His. Even though we are rightfully His, He does not force us to choose Him. He gives us the option to be His. He allows us to choose.

His love for us is not self-fish for He is the best thing for us. I spoke earlier on love that is not pure; however, His love is pure and perfect. There is nothing better for us than Him. Although I may love someone, I may not be the best person for them to be around. But God is the best for us all. No matter what, He is the one we need the most. So for God to tell us to draw near to Him and for Him to instruct us to give our lives, all that we are, to Him is loving. He is drawing us to the best possible life. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.” Fullness of life is found in Him. Do you want to have a purpose in life? Do you want to be truly and deeply loved? Do you want to love purely? Do you want to be better? Do you want to walk in the light unashamed and without fear, blameless? We are incapable of this by ourselves, but with God this is life and life to the full. “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27b. There is an enemy in this world who wants to steal this joy from us, who wants to kill the life we could have here on this earth and who wants to destroy our eternity with God. Yet, we have God who has defeated this enemy and calls us to wholeheartedly come to Him, who is our best possible life.

Now, I said earlier that we do not accept love for it is life-changing, transformational. So how does God’s love change us?

God’s love is still changing me. I do not know it all and will continue learning. What I do know is this, His love saved me.

I am saved from the eternal condemnation of hell. I am saved from the entrapment of sin. His love saves me not only from eternal condemnation; it saves me also from sin today. He desires the best for me, and that is not sin. Sin is ugly and destructive. There are consequences to our sin. It has a devastating effect. Romans 5:12- “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” My sin results in death, but He is life. He has saved me from death to life. I can now live.

My physical death is a consequence of sin, yet my eternal life with Him is a gift from God (Romans 6:23). I am not without sin. Consequently how could I, a sinner, be with a Holy God? God is holy, set apart and without sin. It is by Jesus Christ’s death that paid the penalty for all our sins. Through Him, I am seen as holy in the eyes of the Father. I am now holy because of the sacrifice of my Lord Jesus Christ. I can live a life worthy of the Lord (Colossians 1:10).

Love has saved me. I am no longer who I once was. I am free. I am His. I am alive. His love for me has made and is making me into the best possible person I can be and giving me the best possible life that I can have. He is love, and I am His