The Love of God That Overcomes Condemnation (Part 1 of 2)
My goal in this study is not merely to look at what the Bible teaches about condemnation, but primarily to understand what it means to love God. We can only understand how to love God when we understand God’s love for us. There is a reason why the Bible tells us that we love God because he first loved us. As we explore the scriptures, my hope is that we’ll end this study understanding why love covers a multitude of sins, and see the doorway of love, given through Christ, that leads us out of condemnation.
1 John 4:7-8
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God is love. If God is love, then how can a loving God bring condemnation upon those who reject him? This question is asked dozens of ways and is a point of confusion to both the church and the unchurched culture. How can this statement, which seems like a contradiction be true? There are some who try to deny that God will avenge anything, and even deny the Bible teaches these things. In order to honestly examine the topic of a loving God and a God who judges, let’s bring in a few more verses. We’ll start with looking at the judgment of God, and then see how it ties into the loving God we base our hope upon. Look at 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8
7 And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of this passage is to give the persecuted church rest, knowing God sees, and will avenge the hardships we endure for living the faith. However, the question at hand is, why would a loving God repay vengeance on those who do not know him? Why would the Bible say in Jude that those who deny Christ have been marked out for condemnation along with the angels who didn’t keep their proper state? Also, consider the words of Jesus in John 8:23-24
23 And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."
In each of these passages, we are told that judgment and condemnation come to those who don’t believe and don’t obey the gospel. Why must we believe that Jesus is our savior in order to keep from dying in our sins? How can God condemn or judge a person for simply not believing, and still claim to be the God of love?
To understand this, we need to look at the nature of love and the character of God as he has revealed himself to us in scripture. The first thing to keep in mind is that we are finite creatures, living in a finite world. God has revealed himself to us in finite terms that we can understand, but we still cannot grasp the infinite. God is infinite; therefore, it is not possible to wrap our minds around God, or to fully understand even a single attribute of his infinite character. So as we move forward, keep this in mind.
Man cannot grasp infinity. As an illustration of this truth, think of the number line you probably learned in third grade math class. In the center of the number line is a zero. To the right, the numbers start at one and go forward until you reach an arrow that represents infinity. What is the biggest number? There isn’t one. Regardless of how high we count, there are always more numbers to add. We stop seeing the numbers when we stop looking, but our limitations do not end the infinite span of numbers.
What if we go the opposite direction to discover where numbers begin? The same infinite problem faces us. While zero may represent our starting point, it does not represent where numbers begin, for we can go backward to infinitum.
What if we divide a number? As children, we used to say, “You have until the count of ten to hide.” But when we played with a younger kid, we’d reach nine and see they were still trying to find a hiding place. So we would say, nine and a half, nine and three-quarters, nine and nine-tenths. We could continue to delay as long as we wanted. If we divide the number between nine and ten, we can fraction it to infinitum. We can also divide each fraction forever. Each portion of that fraction can be divided forever. It never ends.
Each effort of man to explore any portion of mathematics finds the limitation of his own patience and ability. Man ends at the limit of his own mind, but infinity remains beyond him. No matter how far he gets, he has not begun to understand or touch what is available. It’s never ending, infinite, and unattainable by the human mind. The so-called super computers have only touched a fraction of infinity. Through technology, man has taken a larger portion of information, and made it accessible to the finite mind. Even with these major leaps forward, mankind will never begin to ascend the infinite scale of the simplest task of counting or dividing numbers.
If we honestly look at God as an infinite being, we realize that it is impossible to understand God or even know him. In Galatians 4, Paul says, “You have known God, or rather are known by God.” He stopped himself in mid-sentence to correct the assumption that man could ever know God. We know him within our world, but we are only grasping the attributes God has revealed within a world we can understand. We can understand that we do indeed know him within our personal relationship of Christ, but we cannot know him as he is. Our knowledge of God is bound within our limited point of view.
To understand judgment and love, we have to understand how God has revealed himself to man, and that he has done so for the purpose of revealing his love to us. I’ll explain this more fully as we go farther into this study, but be aware that God’s love originates within himself, and he is calling us to enter that love through Christ.
Understanding Agape through the fellowship of the Godhead
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Why is the greatest attribute in the Christian life love? Why did Jesus say, “The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind soul and strength. And the second commandment comes out of the first – to love your neighbor as yourself?” He also explained that on these two commands, hang all the law and the prophets. The entire fulfillment of scripture is summed up with, love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Yet people say, “I love God,” but deny him with their actions. Jesus said that if we love him, we’ll keep his word and if we disobey, we don’t love him. In the epistle of 1 John, we are told that if we say we love him, but don’t show love to each other, we are a liar. And if we love the things God hates, the love of God cannot abide in us. In John 15, Jesus explained that we keep ourselves in the love of God by walking in his commandments. Yet, by nature, man does not shun his own selfish desires, and obedience becomes a miserable experience when we are trying to enter God’s love through our own obedience.
Love produces obedience, but obedience without love produces legalism and an illusion of righteousness—a false righteousness that cannot please God and often oppresses man. The Christian obeys joyfully because the love of God is poured out in our hearts when the Holy Spirit is given to us (Romans 5:5). Love must first begin with God, for God is love. So let’s look at love from its source.
God is love, and only his love is the source of perfection. Keep in mind that the love of God is the Greek word ‘agape’, which is self-giving, self-sacrificing love. Agape is only attributed to God for he is the source of agape. Agape is a love that seeks the good of another, even at the cost of self-sacrifice. Love is why Jesus became obedient, to the point of death—even death on the cross. This is also why Jesus said in John 15:9-10
9 " As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
God is the father of love. Love is a gift, given to us without merit. It stands true, and we must choose to abide in it by living in the commandments that allow us to have unity with God. Love is found in God, for God is love. Outside of fellowship with God, agape love is absent. Love firsts exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creation does not exist because God needs to be loved; creation exists because God is filled with perfect love, and the Lord desires to share the overflow of his love with us. He is not asking for you to produce love for him; he is asking you to abide in his love so you can experience the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Some miss this important principle in scripture. It is argued that three persons in one God is impossible to comprehend; therefore, it can’t be true. This argument is flawed, for God himself is incomprehensible. Does God cease to exist because we can’t comprehend an infinite God with our limited mind? Does math cease to exist because we can’t grasp it through limited minds?
The question is not, can we understand all that God is; the question is, how has God revealed himself to us in scripture. He has given us glimpses of his attributes, but even if we know the scriptures, we can’t know all that God is. The Bible reveals what we need to experience faith and love, but they do not reveal all that God is. However, to understand what God has given us, we must accept what he reveals about himself. Consider Isaiah 48:16-17
16 "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me."
17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.
Add to this Isaiah 44:6
6 " Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.
When the English translation of the Bible puts the word ‘LORD’ or ‘GOD’ in all caps, it is to alert us to the fact that the word ‘yhwh’ is used. This is translated as Yahweh or Jehovah. It is a reference to the highest name of God. So in Isaiah 44, Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, who is also called Yahweh, declares that he is one God and there is none beside him. In Isaiah 48 we see the same thing. GOD (Yahweh) and his own Spirit has sent the Redeemer, who is the LORD (Yahweh). There is another passage from the Old Testament we should especially consider. Look at Zechariah 2:10-11
10 " Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," says the LORD.
11 "Many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
The Redeemer who promises to dwell in the midst of Israel is calling himself Yahweh and foretells that Israel will one day know that Yahweh has sent him (Yahweh the Redeemer) to Israel. Chapter 13 tells of the last days when the people of Israel will ask what the wounds in his hands and side are, and then they will recognize that they have killed their Messiah. They will mourn over their sin and receive God’s grace, ending their judgment for rejecting God. The point for us to consider is that Yahweh is declaring that he was sent by Yahweh.
Now, let’s look at the New Testament. Start with 1 John 5:5-7
5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 This is He who came by water and blood -- Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
The Gospel of John begins with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God.” John goes on to explain that Jesus is the Word, and in his letters to the church, he continues to refer to Christ as the Word. The word ‘Trinity’ is not found in scriptures. It is a Latin word that the church has adopted in order to identify with these passages that explain the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The word Trinity means three unified in one. It is merely a single word to explain a complex doctrine about God found in both the Old and New Testaments.
Man can’t fathom what it means to be three distinct persons who have fellowship and perfect love, but declared to be one God. How can Yahweh, the ruler of Israel, and Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, declare “I am one God, and beside me there is no other God?” The human mind can’t grasp this concept because God does not exist within the realm of man, nor within the finite boundaries we can understand. That is why people come up with analogies that fall short. I’ve heard people explain that the Trinity is like a man who is a father, son, and husband. He is known by each role, but is one person. This example completely misses the point. I am a father, son, and husband, but I cannot have fellowship and perfect love with myself. I am one person and one being. God is three persons and one being. Consider these three passages:
John 8:16 "And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.
John 8:29 "And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."
John 16:32 "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
John 5:30 "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
If I’m alone, I am alone. I cannot have fellowship with myself, obey myself, send myself, deny my own will to obey the will of myself, etc. God is complete, self-sustaining, self-existent, and in perfect fellowship and love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I went through this scriptural look at the Trinity to make this main point clear. God expresses and experiences perfect love through the fellowship of himself as the Father, Son, and Spirit. This is why Jesus, who is Yahweh, can say that he abides in the love of the Father, Yahweh, and how he can declare his own love in return. If God existed alone in the universe, his love is still expressed perfectly within his own being, without need of anything or anyone. His love is perfect in him alone. Nothing can give what God does not already possess. Nothing can exist without God’s sustaining power. Our love is not what we have produced to give him. True and perfect love is what God has given to us and we express in return by abiding in that love.
If we understand the love of God, we understand the Christian life. The Bible is not complicated once we realize that everything good comes from God and we are dependent upon him for everything. If we shift the attributes of God, and put it upon man, the gospel becomes complicated as we try to reconcile contradictions that cannot be fulfilled by mere religion. Jesus said that he came to give the blind sight. When the religious leaders thought they could see through their own abilities, Jesus said their blindness and sin remained. Those who look to God will have their eyes opened, will have the faith to believe, will have the righteousness of Christ, and will accomplish good works as the Lord does his work through them.
Love comes from God alone. God is love, and we must enter his love to experience love. Love cannot be found any other way. Look at 1 John 5:3-5
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith.
5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This goes with what Jesus said in John 6:28-29
28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. This is the work of God, that we believe on Jesus. We’ve already seen that Jesus warned that we will die in our sins if we don’t believe he was the one sent for our redemption, now let’s explore why this statement is true.
Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eddiesnipes
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