“God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing - or should we say "seeing"? there are no tenses in God - the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a "host" who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and "take advantage of" Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.”
-- C.S Lewis
A few nights ago, April 3rd 2015, I attended a Good Friday service which I am not likely to ever forget. Aside from the candles illuminating the stage in the stead of the usual electric lights; the archaic icons of Christ appearing on the screens and fading, like a dream remembered and forgotten again; the theatrical interpretations of the thieves on the crosses; the classical guitar humming reverently to ancient tunes; there was an overwhelming presence of the Divine. The movement of the Holy Spirit within that sanctuary was unmistakable. There, the shekineh of God dwelt, even if only for an hour.
But within that small period of time, I was reminded of the most important Truth: the Love of God.
Now, I could guess what some of you are thinking, for not so very long ago I used to think these things myself when I heard people speak about God's Love. Really? The Love of God? Isn't that a bit overstated? If I were you, I would talk about God's justice, or His wrath, or His grace, or His sovereignty-- or all of those things combined, provided you make His Love a mere subset of those factors. The Love of God is too mainstream. Everyone has already heard that God is loving-- what about the other attributes?
To answer these questions I am afraid I'll have to shake things up a bit. This may disturb you, or at least confuse you. The following statement is revolutionary in the modern culture:
Most of the world has a very distorted view of Love.
Let me elaborate. In the post-Romantic era of the modern world, we tend to view Love through highly distorted lenses of sentimentality. If we were to know what Love truly is, I reckon we would be less eager to claim that "everyone already knows that God is Love." The modern concept of Love is so dysmorphic that it is nearly impossible to claim that even most Christians understand what is meant when they hear the word in reference to God.
The original meaning of the Greek word "Agape" in reference to God is far deeper and more meaningful than any definition of "love" which we humans are likely to ponder without Divine intervention. This fact should not surprise us; on the contrary, it is to be expected. For humanity is a limited creature, and cannot comprehend all things. Do not think I am saying this in order to make an appeal to "mystery." I myself hate it when other people make such nonsensical appeals; it usually means they have given up all attempts at thinking. Nevertheless, in this particular circumstance, the aphorism is true.Our lack of complete comprehension is the primary reason for our misunderstanding of "love."
I am not saying that we cannot comprehend Love at all. Indeed, we often recognize its obvious forms. When two people cannot refrain from thinking about each other-- when they are devoted exclusively to one another, for better or worse-- we say they are "in love." When a person enjoys a particular tune, we say he "loves" that song. Likewise, the master "loves" his dog.
Nevertheless, they all are all lacking. By nature the objects of these loves are mortal, and cannot hope to pass into the realm of the everlasting. They are possessions, and are therefore temporal. The flower fades. The song is over. The Beloved dies. We are left to weep by the graveside. Without the hope of the Divine love, we can only despair. Nothing that is not connected to God, the Author of Life, will ever live eternally, and must therefore die-- even our earthly loves. Only love between those who have Life Everlasting can endure.
But I see that I have not answered the questions. I have shown nothing about what Love in its highest form truly is.
Let me use a definition by C.S Lewis to clear the matter up. It is perhaps the best way to explain the meaning of the divine "Agape" in English. He informs us that "Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."
Go back and read that definition again. Memorize it, even. It is of utmost importance, and cannot possibly be overstated. Once you have an understanding of that definition of Love, continue reading.
I often hear people say things like "Yes, God is Love-- but he is also just;" or, "Yes, God is Love, but He is also sovereign." These people have a distorted view of God. They do not realize that the reason God is sovereign (or wrathful, or gracious, or glorious, or good, or any number of characteristics) is because God is Love. If God were not Love, all His attributes would be in a state of cacophonous warfare among one another. His grace would contradict his wrath, His sovereignty would contradict His goodness, and His Love would be partial. His Love is the reason for our existence, as Lewis stated in the opening quote.
The apostle John, the "beloved disciple," claimed that "God is Love." At the time (and even in the modern era), this statement was revolutionary. No other religion besides Judaism had ever claimed that God, in His essence, was Love. They might have adhered to the doctrines of his sovereignty, or His glorification... but Love? It was unheard of in the ancient world-- they understood only His power.
John certainly had a unique view on God's nature. As the "disciple whom Jesus loved," he was given the extraordinary privilege of revealing what is perhaps the most essential Truth in the world. He emphasized the Love of God to the extent of stating that God Himself is Love! Some might object that it was merely John's opinion. However, those who hold to the infallibility of Scripture will ultimately testify that his words were inspired by God Himself. In Scripture, God reveals who He is through the words of John. God is Love, and we know this because He tells us so.
But let's take a step forward into your life, centuries after John wrote his epistles. It may seem irrelevant, and forgive me if I seem to jump around. But bear with me. I daresay you have a heart full of emotions and desires. If I may be so bold, I believe you also have people whom you truly love. Perhaps you don't always admit it verbally to them-- you may fear rejection, or a half-hearted reciprocation, or disbelief-- but you love them all the same. While you don't constantly express it in words (indeed, perhaps you can't), you may do alternative things to show your affection. You may spend hours in conversation, or give gifts sporadically, or listen intently to him/her rant, or do an act of service, or hold their hand and hug them. Regardless of the method, love usually expresses itself and its genuineness somehow. The level of that expression is an indicator of the level of love.
I am the same, and do not claim to be an exception. I usually don't tell people how much I appreciate them. I find it awkward--cliche in fact-- to say "I love you," even to the ones closest to me. I sometimes find myself wanting to say it, but as soon as the words reach my mouth there appears an invisible barrier separating them from their intended recipients. I fear rejection. I fear the mediocre "I love you" in return, like an unopened letter with the words "Return to Sender" stamped on the front. Every man experiences this fear at some point in life. If you are human, you have felt it-- or if you haven't yet, you simply haven't lived long enough.
Jesus was no exception, either. He was fully human, and knows every emotion we experience. Indeed, as Hebrews 4:15 states, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin." He, too, was tempted with despair. In fact, He was tempted with far worse despair than any we experience in fear of unrequited love.
I am not saying that we cannot comprehend Love at all. Indeed, we often recognize its obvious forms. When two people cannot refrain from thinking about each other-- when they are devoted exclusively to one another, for better or worse-- we say they are "in love." When a person enjoys a particular tune, we say he "loves" that song. Likewise, the master "loves" his dog.
Nevertheless, they all are all lacking. By nature the objects of these loves are mortal, and cannot hope to pass into the realm of the everlasting. They are possessions, and are therefore temporal. The flower fades. The song is over. The Beloved dies. We are left to weep by the graveside. Without the hope of the Divine love, we can only despair. Nothing that is not connected to God, the Author of Life, will ever live eternally, and must therefore die-- even our earthly loves. Only love between those who have Life Everlasting can endure.
But I see that I have not answered the questions. I have shown nothing about what Love in its highest form truly is.
Let me use a definition by C.S Lewis to clear the matter up. It is perhaps the best way to explain the meaning of the divine "Agape" in English. He informs us that "Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."
Go back and read that definition again. Memorize it, even. It is of utmost importance, and cannot possibly be overstated. Once you have an understanding of that definition of Love, continue reading.
I often hear people say things like "Yes, God is Love-- but he is also just;" or, "Yes, God is Love, but He is also sovereign." These people have a distorted view of God. They do not realize that the reason God is sovereign (or wrathful, or gracious, or glorious, or good, or any number of characteristics) is because God is Love. If God were not Love, all His attributes would be in a state of cacophonous warfare among one another. His grace would contradict his wrath, His sovereignty would contradict His goodness, and His Love would be partial. His Love is the reason for our existence, as Lewis stated in the opening quote.
The apostle John, the "beloved disciple," claimed that "God is Love." At the time (and even in the modern era), this statement was revolutionary. No other religion besides Judaism had ever claimed that God, in His essence, was Love. They might have adhered to the doctrines of his sovereignty, or His glorification... but Love? It was unheard of in the ancient world-- they understood only His power.
John certainly had a unique view on God's nature. As the "disciple whom Jesus loved," he was given the extraordinary privilege of revealing what is perhaps the most essential Truth in the world. He emphasized the Love of God to the extent of stating that God Himself is Love! Some might object that it was merely John's opinion. However, those who hold to the infallibility of Scripture will ultimately testify that his words were inspired by God Himself. In Scripture, God reveals who He is through the words of John. God is Love, and we know this because He tells us so.
But let's take a step forward into your life, centuries after John wrote his epistles. It may seem irrelevant, and forgive me if I seem to jump around. But bear with me. I daresay you have a heart full of emotions and desires. If I may be so bold, I believe you also have people whom you truly love. Perhaps you don't always admit it verbally to them-- you may fear rejection, or a half-hearted reciprocation, or disbelief-- but you love them all the same. While you don't constantly express it in words (indeed, perhaps you can't), you may do alternative things to show your affection. You may spend hours in conversation, or give gifts sporadically, or listen intently to him/her rant, or do an act of service, or hold their hand and hug them. Regardless of the method, love usually expresses itself and its genuineness somehow. The level of that expression is an indicator of the level of love.
I am the same, and do not claim to be an exception. I usually don't tell people how much I appreciate them. I find it awkward--cliche in fact-- to say "I love you," even to the ones closest to me. I sometimes find myself wanting to say it, but as soon as the words reach my mouth there appears an invisible barrier separating them from their intended recipients. I fear rejection. I fear the mediocre "I love you" in return, like an unopened letter with the words "Return to Sender" stamped on the front. Every man experiences this fear at some point in life. If you are human, you have felt it-- or if you haven't yet, you simply haven't lived long enough.
Jesus was no exception, either. He was fully human, and knows every emotion we experience. Indeed, as Hebrews 4:15 states, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin." He, too, was tempted with despair. In fact, He was tempted with far worse despair than any we experience in fear of unrequited love.
You may object, "But Jesus was God. He could not possibly have been tempted in the same way, because He had the complete and utter power to endure."
But have you ever stopped to consider the fact that the fact that Jesus was God is the very reason why His temptation was so much worse than ours?
God is omniscient. He foreknew our treacherous adultery with false lovers and idols, and He foresaw that few would accept Him. Yet He extended His arms to the thieves on both His right and His left, in passionate, unconquerable, all-consuming Love for them. Jesus understood that the thief on one side would reject Him, despite His every effort to bring the thief into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Pause for a moment and reflect on that.
Love Himself, though hated, still loved the one who rejected Him.
John recognized the utter significance of the Divine Love in the fourth chapter of his first epistle: "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."
God loves every single human being He has ever made-- even though He already knows which ones will reject him of their own free will. We cannot even partially imagine the pain God feels, knowing that some of His beloved creatures will choose to hate Him eternally. We experience something like it (albeit infinitely less in measure) when we are deserted by those whom we trusted most, or when a spouse is unfaithful, or when a child becomes a prodigal son.
Yet even in our pitiful state, we cannot cry the tears of God. When we grieve His Spirit, a sorrow greater than the sum total of pain experienced collectively by all of humanity is created. We do not have a God who is unable to sympathize-- rather, it is the reverse. It is we who cannot sympathize with our God. God is not impassible-- He is infinitely passionate.
We all too often forget that God's various attributes are rooted in one essential virtue. His wrath and justice are not separate from His all-encompassing Love; rather, they exist only because of it. His Love unifies all His attributes. As a loving husband is jealous for his wife, so is the LORD jealous for us. And just as a loving husband is furious and pained at the very thought of his wife's infidelity, so is the LORD's wrath kindled against those who would adulterate themselves with false gods and idols. His justice is a direct deduction from His goodness-- and God could not be all-good (omnibenevolent) without the essential core virtue of Love.
Imagine the pain that Christ felt. Certainly some of it was physical-- in fact, we had to invent a completely new word to describe such pain: excruciating. Literally, the word means "out of the cross." But more than the physical torment of the flayed back, the pierced hands and feet, the concussed skull with deadly thorns pressed in, the asphyxiating lungs, and the hypovolemic shock, there is a sense in which an even greater agony pressed itself upon the heart of Jesus. The grief which Jesus must have felt because of his absolute foreknowledge of every person's free choices had to have been unbearable.
But He endured it. The miracle isn't just that He was raised-- it's that He submitted to the will of His Father, and died for the atonement of sin. It wasn't His physical power or strength that allowed Him to do this-- it was His Love. As He said to the disciples in John 14:31, shortly before his crucifixion, "The world must learn that I love my Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me." On that cross, Christ conquered the forces of sin and darkness, and crushed the head of the serpent forever. But if you could have traveled back in time to that instant of history, you would not have seen anything glorious about it. The Victor had to be vanquished before He could save us. That, my friends, is the ultimate expression of Love.
And, having endured all earthly suffering,
He gave His very life
That we might one day have Life Everlasting in Him.
"Greater love has no one than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends."
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