Firm Foundations – Session 11 : The Love of God

Notes:

The Love of God

  • It’s not that you believe in God which is important, but what you believe about Him.
  • What you believe about God determines how you will relate to Him.
  • If you believe He is against you and wants to judge you and punish you for your mistakes, you will fear Him rather than trust Him; you will run from Him instead of drawing near to Him.
  • Fear has torment but perfect love casts out fear.
  • The love of God is our foundation for faith.
  • There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there’s nothing we can do that will make Him love us less. We need a revelation of this.
  • God wants us to wake up every day with an overwhelming sense of His love towards us.
  • The love of God is our resting place…and His. ‘TheLord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing’ (Zeph. 3:17). He will cause us to rest because of His love.

Where do we get our perspective of God? Jesus is ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Col.1:15). Therefore, any image we have of God which does not conform to the image we see in Jesus is a false representation of God.

The relationship Jesus had with His disciples is a model of the relationship God wants us to have with Him.

Jesus loved His disciples ‘unto the end’ (Jn. 13:1). The Greek for ‘unto the end’ is telos, meaning to the utmost degree; without limits. The NIV says, ‘He showed them the full extent of His love’.

  • What is the full extent of His love?
  • The Cross is the full extent of God’s love to us. There is no love greater than this. ‘Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends’ (Jn. 15:13).
  • Jesus wanted them to see that in the same way He loved the disciples, the Father loved them also. ‘“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him”. Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him,“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”’ (Jn. 14:7-9).

Did the disciples get the revelation of His love?

  • Some got it. E.g. John referred to himself several times as ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ (Jn.13:23). See also Gal.2:20.
  • Some were going to get it. E.g. Peter thought that his relationship with Jesus was determined by how much he loved Jesus. He wanted to show Jesus that he loved Him more than the other disciples. When Peter’s love failed, Jesus revealed to him that his relationship was based on how much Jesus loved him, not vice versa, (Jn.13:36-38; 21:15-17).
  • Some never got it. E.g. Judas. He was the only disciple who never lived to see the cross, (Jn.13:24-26).

John received the greatest revelation of God’s love and was the best teacher of it. He taught us that:

1) The unconditional love of God is the foundation of our relationship with Him. ‘In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 Jn.4:10).

  • We are rooted and grounded in love. Paul prayed that the church, ‘being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints whatis the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God’ (Eph. 3:17).
  • Mary sat at His feet until she knew she was loved. Out of this flowed her service to Jesus.

2) Knowing God’s love is not sufficient; we must also believe it. ‘We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him’ (1 Jn.4:16).

  • When we truly believe God’s love we experience it in our emotions, ‘…the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us’ (Rom. 5:5).
  • If we don’t experience God’s love with our emotions it will be difficult to retain it in our thoughts.

3) Faith reaches maturity through a revelation of God’s love. ‘The one who fears is not made perfect in love’ (1 Jn.4:18).

  • Fear isn’t in God’s nature. He fears nothing. Therefore His holiness, like all His other attributes, is not a product of fear but of love.
  • Likewise, fear will never produce holiness in us. Only love will. Fear will not change us, but responding to God’s love will transform us more than anything else.
  • Therefore, before God can change us, He must expel our fear and teach us the wonder of living in His love. ‘Perfect love casts out fear’ (1 John 4:18).
  • There is nothing more critical to spiritual growth than making the transition from living by fear to knowing God’s love and responding to it.