I've been thinking about God's Love recently and a few things have been brought to light.
We are taught that God is Love, right? And He is.
We are taught that He loves us more than we could ever love ourselves and His love is greater than the love shown by all of Creation. We are also to love Him more than we love anything or anyone else.
Thou shalt have no other god before Me. Right?
I want to make one thing clear, here. I'm of course, only talking to believers. The rest of you... well, this isn't written to you, but feel free to read it.
So, we shall have no other god, and love him with everything. Great. But what do we get in return?
God, who do you love the most?
Who do you think He loves most?
Well, let's look at this. Here's some evidence... He created us. He allows us to live as sinful, disdainful, horrible people. He sent His Son to be the One Atonement of our sins.
Hmmm, He seems to love us a lot, doesn't He?
But we already addressed that. He loves us more than we could possible imagine.
So who does He love the most?
Well, let's look at the evidence we have.
Was God lonely or sad or incomplete without us? Is that why He created us? No. Heaven forbid we think that. He was, is, always will be perfect, lovely, Holy, and complete.
So, He didn't need us.
Was He ok with our sin? Did He decide to just put up with it for the purpose of not having us be failures? No. Heaven forbid we think this, either. He hates our sin. He wants us to be perfect, like God the Son, Jesus, was, is, always will be. We can't live up to that, so His mercy grants us another breath, for now. But He does not and did not "put up with" our sin. He hates sin so much that when it was all poured on His perfect Son, He struck Him down and killed Him. Many humans will be going to hell because of not accepting this payment for our sins.
So, He didn't just say it's ok that we sin. He forgave us through a just and righteous payment.
Ok, so He loves us, but the evidence doesn't point to any reason. So why would He love us most if there is no reason? (btw, all reasoning is not the only reasoning you can pull from the Bible, but the reasoning most familiar with the modern American Christian)
Well, let's look at this.
What or who should He love most?
I would say, He should love the most important entity that exists. It makes since for Him to work toward the will of the one who holds the most power and is the most righteous and the most intelligent and the most worthy.
Well, who is that?
Him.
He has to love Himself most. Not because He's egomaniacal. He loves Himself most because He that is the most logical and gracious thing He can do. And even if it weren't, He would still be the most wonderful being in existence.
His love of Himself is clearly appropriate. If for one moment He loved you more than He loves Himself, the basis of all existence, the powers of all Creation and beyond, would suddenly be focused on you, instead of Himself and that cannot be.
It would make no sense for Him to love us more than He loves Himself.
It was clear that Jesus, God the Son, loved God the Father more than He loved any human on earth. Everything in His life was done for the Glory of the Father.
And to a redeemed person like me, this makes all sense and clears my head so much.
Everything is centered around God, because everything has to be. All creation cries out His glory because it has no other choice. It's existence is a huge neon sign.
I used to think that meant that all of the natural stuff of the world was so amazing, it cried out His existence, and I still think that's part of it.
But that's not what it means. Look at your shoes right now. You are wearing shoes right? Ok, look at your mouse and/or keyboard, or something man-made.
You see that that thing exists? You can feel it and touch it, right? It is calling out the very existence of God by being there, in your hands.
The fact it exists is proof of Him.
I don't need that as proof, though. These are signs and wonders revealed, but nothing that will call me in to Him.
He calls me.
He pulls me toward Himself with such love that I can't stand it. I can't understand how He loves us at all.
We are merely specs of nothingness, or we were...
When Jesus died on that cross, His worth was not the worth of one human life. For then, maybe, just maybe, He could have died that one human could live and approach the Father. But then He couldn't have come back.
The fact that He not only died, but came back, shows that He was worth far more than all the humans He died for.
He was worth enough to have so much change left over that it was as if nothing was given.
But something was.
Enough to make us more valuable than we could imagine. We are precious to Him because of the price paid.
Let me put it like this, if you go to the store today and purchase two items, one for $1 and the other for $2300, no matter what the items were (and feel free to imagine what each would be) the one worth 2300 times as much would be the one you take care of and handle carefully.
You might even take and spend more just to make sure it's taken care of. Well, He paid so much for us, He didn't need to purchase insurance seperately.
We are worth so much to Him, but that's not why He died for us. Nope.
He didn't die and pay that price because you're great, good, or because He knew you'd say some little prayer.
He died because He loved us. Remember that He loves Himself most, because He is most worthy of it, not us. Just like we love Him most because He is most worthy, not us. Just like all Creation loves Him most, because He is most worthy, not us.
Except that His love is perfect. And that includes His love for us.
And why did He love us?
Because He loved us.
