God does not just have love, God is love (1 John 4:7-8). Throughout my life I have personally tasted and seen the Lord’s goodness and His love towards me and my family. I can undoubtedly say that the expression of His love has not only been something I read on the pages of Scripture but something I have experienced.
God is intentional about His love. Although, there are several facets and dimensions of His love, there seems to be very strong and direct expressions of His love towards two categories of people: His Family and the Lost.
First, God expresses His love towards His Family.
Not every human on the surface of the earth belongs to the family of God. Although God is everyone’s Creator, He is not everyone’s Father. The Lord Jesus Christ referred to some very religious people as being the children of their father, the devil (John 8:44).
Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and confess Him as Lord become children of God. They are born again into this family of love, and become righteous with God. God’s love for His family is real and undeniable. This love is precious and it can never fail (Psalm 36:7).
God’s expression of love towards you, the righteous, is pleasure and favor. Psalm 5:11-12 (AMPC) says, “For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor)”.
Someone may say, “Oh, but I don’t feel righteous. I have been backsliding, I don’t think I qualify for this expression of the Father’s love”. I dare to challenge you to repent of that thought because it is from the adversary, the accuser of God’s children, the devil himself. Yes, you qualify for the Father’s love. In fact, you are the object of His love and He is stretching out His loving hand towards you.
As Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:19-19 (NLT), “May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God”.
Secondly, God expresses His love towards the Lost.
God demonstrated His love towards the lost by sending Jesus to die on the cross and pay the ultimate price for the sin of humanity. God was actually “[personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19, AMPC). God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for its redemption (John 3:16). Jesus already paid the price in full. While everyone was at one time in this category, when we accept His redemption, we are rescued out of the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of Light. (Ephesians 2:4-5, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:9-10, Colossians 1:13).
Are you in the Family of God? Have you been washed by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God? If you have, then rest assured that the Father loves you deeply, and the expression of His love towards you cannot be broken, and it cannot be annulled, for it is not based on what you did or didn’t do - it is a legal standing as His child. It is based on the finished work of redemption in Christ Jesus.
As God’s children, we need to know and believe the love that our Father has for us, receive it by faith, and act on our rights and privileges in Christ. Furthermore, we need to express that same love to God’s children even as together we reach out to the lost with the saving gospel of Christ. Believers are an expression of God’s love, and God wants us to express that love to others.
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