God’s
love is a selfless principle that
maintains a perfect balance between
righteousness and justice, mercy and
forgiveness. Decisions based on
love can be very difficult.
Some situations require infinite
wisdom, patience, and
persistence. The Bible is the
best source for explaining
love. For example,“For
God solovedthe
world that He gave His one and only
Son, that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal
life. For God did not send His
Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through
Him.” (John 3:16,17, italics
mine) After reading this verse,
have you ever wondered why the
Father, rather than Jesus, could not
have died for us? If the
Father’s death would have
produced a better result, He surely
would have. He loves His
children just as much as He loves
Himself! However, the Father
foresaw a better solution to saving
sinners than giving up His own life!
The
Father designed the plan of salvation
before Creation. He foreknew the rise
of sin so He created a plan with such
a high price for salvation that no
one could ever challenge the idea
that saving undefiant sinners was
unjust. Moreover, when the
drama with sin is finally completed,
no one can challenge the law that
requires a future sinner to be
executed on the day he sins. (Genesis 2:17)
Using
His infinite wisdom, the Father
decided to take what belonged to
Jesus and transfer it to those who
would live by faith.
Simultaneously, the Father transfers
everything that the curse of sin
produces to Jesus. The Father
chose to send Jesus to Earth and have
Him nearly scourged to death before
dying hopelessly on the cross.
Through the Father’s infinite
love, He chose to crush the life out
of His own heart. Which would
be more painful for a loving
parent: Dying so that his child
could live or putting the child to
death? Can you imagine the
agony that Jephthah endured when he
put his only daughter to death?
(Judges 11) Many parents have
said they would gladly give up their
lives if it meant their deceased
child could live. No earthly
love matches the depth of parental
love.
“Brotherly
love” is also very intense.
Jesus said to His disciples,“Greater
love has no one than this, that he
lay down his life for his
friends.” (John 15:13)
There is a higher love than parental
and brotherly love. The Father
and the Son demonstrated divine love
through their incredible mission and
sacrifice to save sinners.
Jesus willingly gave His life for His
enemies (Romans 5:10)
and the Father put His only child to
death. Only deity, not humanity, took
the Jesus’ life at Calvary.
The
plan of salvation includes several
objectives. For example, the
Father has revealed the depth of His
love for His children by giving us
Jesus. He killed His dearest
and closest friend to save us!
He sent Jesus to live as one of us to
show the love that exists between
Jesus and the Father. The
Father also chose to use the plan of
salvation to reveal that the ever
humble Jesus really is an Almighty
God just like Himself!
Therefore, when the Father designed
the plan of salvation He deliberately
took steps that made His own
suffering unfathomable and the
sufferings of Jesus unbearable.
When we understand that the Father
loves Jesus with all His heart, mind,
and soul, giving us “His only
Son” goes beyond comprehension.
The
Father designed the plan of salvation
to make Jesus an eternal hero.
Jesus has sovereign power equal to
the father. The Father lives in
unapproachable light and will reign
as Almighty God throughout eternity,
but He wants everyone to know that
Jesus is His equal even though Jesus
lives in the humble form of a created
being. Throughout eternity,
Jesus will receive honor and worship
wherever He goes. This
adulation will not compete with the
honor and worship which belongs to
the Father because the Father is just
as humble and selfless as
Jesus. In character, they are
identical. There is no
jealousy. The Father is thrilled
every time Jesus receives worship,
honor, and praise.
The
humility demonstrated by Jesus (who
created the universe) when washing
the dirty feet of the disciples in
the upper room is the same humility
the Father demonstrated toward
Jesus. The hearts of the Father
and Jesus are identical, filled with
love for each other and for their
neighbors. Their differences
are in their roles, not in their
deity. This is why the Father
decreed before Heaven and Earth were
created that all created beings must
honor and worship the Creator as they
honor and worship Him. Lucifer and
his followers chose to rebel against
this law. This decree is
described as “the eternal
gospel” inRevelation 14:6.
God
is Love
One
of the best arguments favoring the
existence of three separate, equal,
distinct, coeternal, Gods is the
Biblical declaration: “God is
love.” (1 John 4:8,16)
This declaration is far more profound
than many people realize.
The
Godhead lives and acts within the
boundaries of love at all
times. The Trinity is a perfect
demonstration of “what love is
and what love does.” The
Bible has revealed the words,
thoughts, and actions of the Godhead
over a period of about seven thousand
years. This is long enough for
every possible situation to arise for
God to demonstrate what love does and
does not do. It also provides
enough time for the curse of sin to
mature so that everyone can see the
results of sin. God has miraculously
preserved the Bible through the ages
because it isthe only book
on Earth that correctly
reveals His ways, plans, character,
and love. God wants everyone to
know Him and His ways by studying His
Word. He wants sinners to understand
the principle of love because the two
highest laws in the universe are laws
of love. One day, a lawyer
asked Jesus: “
‘Teacher, which is the greatest
commandment in the Law?’ Jesus
replied: ‘Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind. This is
the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’
’ ”(Matthew 22:36-39)
Love
should not be confused with feelings
or emotions. Love is not
indulgence, lust, or an insatiable
desire or addiction. Love is
wise and patient. Love has firm
boundaries. Love includes
discipline. Love is always humble and
fair. Love exalts righteousness
and it always honors integrity and
truth. Love requires endless
study and intelligence and love
grants everyone the power of choice,
the freedom to be self-directed.
The
boundaries of love are called
laws. Sin occurs when a
boundary is violated. For
example, it is a sin to commit
murder, to steal, to commit adultery,
to lie, and to covet. Love does
no harm to others because love
originates from selflessness.
On the other hand, selfishness causes
harm and offenses. Selfishness
destroys relationships with abusive
words and actions. Hatred,
murder, lying, cheating, stealing,
sexual immorality, greed, and
dishonesty are the fruits of
selfishness. Lust (I want) is
the opposite of love (I give).
Love
is directly connected to the doctrine
of the Trinity. If there is
only one God (as monotheism teaches),
and He is a self-proclaimed God of
love, the first law of love is a
contradiction in terms. How can a
person love the Lord with all of his
heart, mind, and soul when this
behavior is demanded? If God
demands love, how is He different
from Hitler, Stalin, and other
dictators? Dictators, kings,
queens, and war lords operate on the
premise that any attempt to depose,
dethrone, or restrict their sovereign
power is treason, and all traitors
deserve death because traitors want
to tear down the authority of THE
authority. Therefore, if we
wrongly attempt to apply the first
law of love within the context of
monotheism, we have a situation where
Goddemands love.
Lucifer used this logic to taunt the
angels that were loyal to the Father
saying, “Go ahead, break the
first law of love and the penalty for
sin (sudden death) will be
yours.”
The
Christian version of monotheism, that
is, one God manifesting Himself in
three persons, does not change the
first law of love, because there is
still one God demanding love.
This demand would be contrary to the
nature of love because love is
something that a free-will person
mustchoose to
give. Love canonly be
given, it cannot be coerced,
demanded, or extracted. If God
commands everyone to make Him first
and foremost, because He has the
highest throne, He is just a
dictator.
A
Covenant of Love
Previously,
we considered how in the distant
past, three Gods eternally gave up a
portion of their rights and
prerogatives to the others.
Their union would eliminate any
competition between them and it would
keep “highly intelligent
beings” from developing a
loyalty for one particular God.
Three Gods functioning as a union is
why the Bible declares, “God is
love” instead of “Gods are
love.”
They
based their commitment to each other
on two laws of love. The first
law stipulated that each God would
love the other two with all of his
heart, mind and soul. The
second covenant stipulated that each
God would love “their”
children (their neighbors) as they
loved themselves. In this
agreement, The Holy Spirit would see
and hear everything occurring in the
universe and He would report His
observations to the other Gods each
minute. The Holy Spirit would
also serve as a divine conduit
through which the Father and Jesus
could communicate with their
children. The attributes of the
Godhead (love, joy, peace, happiness,
purpose, and the fullness of life)
are conveyed to angels and humans
through the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. The Father would sit on
the throne as the sovereignmost
high God in charge of the
universe. He alone would have
the powers of foreknowledge and
infinite wisdom. Jesus would
speak for all three Gods. He would be
called the “Word” and serve
as the Creator. He would create
each being that the Father wanted to
experience life. When the time
came and the Father wanted to save
Adam and Eve, Jesus learned the
Father had chosen Him to be their
Redeemer.
If
you can accept the idea that it takes
three Gods to function as one God,
guess what, the Trinity becomes a
daily demonstration for eternity
showing what love is. Each God
loves and worships the other two with
all of His heart, mind, and soul and
all three love their neighbors as
themselves! This means that
each of the three God’s would
have died to save sinners, and this
shows why the two highest laws in the
universe are laws of love! Three
Gods live together in perfect peace
and harmony with each other and this
is only possible through humble
submission to one another.
No union in the universe is stronger
and more fulfilling than that
experienced by the Trinity.
They wanttheir daily
experience to be the daily
experience oftheir children!
This is why the angels and Adam and
Eve were created in their image,
after their likeness. Jesus
gave Adam and Eve a powerful
propensity for righteousness and
natures that were totally
selfless. They lived in an
environment where love excelled until
they sinned!
If
we understand the Trinity consists of
three Gods serving the universe as
one God, the first law of love is no
longer a selfish, self-seeking
law. Instead, it represents a
covenant that the Trinity lives by
and people who wish to enter into
their relationship of love can only
do so if they abide by the same
covenant. Incidentally, the Ten
Commandments are called a covenant (Exodus 34:28)
and they are stored in the Ark of the
Covenant. (Revelation 11:19)
The first four commandments define
love for God and the remaining six
commandments define love for
others. The Ten Commandments
are a covenant because God has
promised to write these laws in the
hearts and minds of non-defiant
sinners (Hebrew 8:10) so thatwe
can live within them and they can
live within us!
Love
kept the Father from dying for
us. When I now read the phrase,
“God is love,” I understand
the phrase to describe how the
Trinity lives. The Godhead is a
party of three and what a party it
is! Love is the only way that
three omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent, and coeternal Gods can
submit to each other and serve the
universe as one God; and love is the
only way that God’s children can
live in harmony with them and with
one another. Each God is
selfless and His humble submission
(worship) to the other two makes the
Trinity possible. The Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit have made a
covenant with each other to live in
perfect harmony for all eternity and
they invite each of us to enter into
their joy. This is why Jesus
commanded, baptize my followers
“in the name of the Father, the
Son and Holy Spirit!” (Matthew 28:19)
If we are willing to become a part of
their infinite love, eternal life
will be joy-full.
