Words about the WORD - Randy Walker - Albany Methodist Church
THE GOD WHO LOVES AND PURSUES US
In 1st John, Chapter 3, he says “ Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know him”.
As we read this verse, we may rightly think this is an invitation to look and stand in wonder of the extraordinary quality of divine love. This is the highest form of love. It is agape love. In Romans 5:5 Paul tells us that it is God-Love, it is love without boundaries, it is love without limits. This is love born in the bosom of God the Father, borne to earth in the person of the Son of his love, and shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And, this is not referring to our love for God, but it is referring to God’s love for us, and this love is made real by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. The Apostle Paul points out that the Holy Spirit floods our hearts with the indescribable love of God. When people put their faith in Jesus, the Spirit of God comes to dwell inside of them. The indwelling spirit is a gift of love. God’s love for us has streamed into our hearts, and then that love is poured out toward others. We have received love from God, and now we have great love for God, and love for others. We are never nearer to Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at his unspeakable love. And what creates this amazement? The Holy Spirit. The greatness and the enormity of God’s love was displayed at the cross. Genuine love is always sacrificial, and the act of love on the cross was the pre-eminent sacrifice. God did not merely say that he loved sinners, but what he did was, he acted on their behalf, by putting forward Christ in their place, and Jesus willingly gave himself up, paying a price that we can never really comprehend. We should never lose sight of the cost of our salvation.
God’s love by far exceeds our knowledge of it. In fact, I suspect we only know, or only realize a small portion of God’s love for us. This begs the question, why does God love us? God loves us because he created us and he loves all his creation. He knitted us together in the womb, and he reaches to love us because he desired to, and he longs for us to love him. His love is freely bestowed, and totally unmerited. The greatness of God’s love is displayed in our unworthiness of it. We were helpless, when Christ died for the ungodly. Think about this – Christ died for not one good person. Everyone was and is a sinner, so therefore, Christ died for his enemies, those that don’t deserve his sacrificial love.
In Ephesians, Paul said that God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us, even when we were dead in trespass, made us alive together with Christ. God has written our name on the palm of his hand, and we never leave his mind. We never escape his sight, or flee his thoughts. He sees the worst of us, and loves us still. Our sins of tomorrow and failings of the future, will not surpass him, because he sees them now. God know us better than we know ourselves, but yet he loves us still. No discovery will disillusion him, and no rebellion will dissuade him. He loves us still, with an everlasting love. God’s love doesn’t hinge on our love for him. The abundance of our love doesn’t increase his love for us, and the lack of our love doesn’t diminish his love for us.
We, as human beings like to be around the people that we love, and so too does God. He loves to be in communion with the ones that he loves. If we look at the 23rd Psalm, in the 6th verse, David, the author says “ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. What does it mean that goodness and mercy shall follow us? The word follow, in Hebrew, is radaph. In Hebrew, this means to pursue. God’s goodness and mercy are not dependent on our actions. Certainly, God wants us to follow him with all that we have, but when we don’t, he pursues us. Because of his great love for us, he pursues us.
Goodness in Hebrew is the word Tob, and faithful love in Hebrew is the word chesed. So, it is the Tob and Chesed of our shepherd king that constantly run after us. God’s goodness and covenant faithfulness aggressively chase after us, and we can’t outrun or outlast God. In Luke, Chapter 15, Jesus tells a parable about a lost sheep, saying who among you who has 100 sheep, and has lost one, doesn’t leave the 99 to find the one lost? In the same way, he says there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over the 99 who have no need of repentance. God places a high value in the one soul that belongs to him. 99 people cannot produce more happiness in heaven than just one sinner who turns toward God. The value that God places on each sinner’s soul was displayed on the cross, through the blood of the Son of God. Yes, God loves us and pursues us with all his heart, and as it says in Deuteronomy 6:5 “ As children of the loving heavenly Father, we should love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength”. And, if we value the love that God has for us, we should also love those among us, whom God has also loved.
