The iridescent colors of God’s love are displayed as they pass through the prism of our broken humanity. Our God desires that we know and experience the greatness of His love both in its magnitude and complexity. As the white light of God’s love shines in and through us it is both refracted (broken into its various colors) and reflected.
Down through history Theologians have use a variety of terms to describe this complexity e.g. benevolent, beneficent,and complacent love of God. Keep in mind that this complexity does not sacrifice the unity any more than the four New Testament Gospel accounts destroy the unity of the gospel. In this blog I want to highlight four expressions of God’s love and will refer to them as His:
- Creative Sustaining love
- Individual Redemptive love
- Covenant Family love
- Relational Intimate love
His creative sustaining love (sometimes referred to as his providential love) is evidenced through all that He has created. Creation itself is an expression of who God is and thereby reveals His nature to everyone, everywhere, all the time. In the book “Privileged Planet” the authors identify the amazing uniqueness of our celestial spaceship earth and note its critical position in our galaxy, making it possible to observe the vast cosmos around us. So why should our planet be in this unique place? Could it be that God wants us to observe the universe because it tells us something about His creative sustaining love?
The love of God that created the cosmos and now holds it together is expressed to all mankind even to those who reject Him. Jesus said,”…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). But failure to acknowledge or give God thanks for this creative love has severe consequences as Paul explains:
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities…have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, …For even though they knew God,they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, … and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man” (Romans 1:20-23).
The cosmos provides an expression of God’s creative sustaining love and it also provides the platform to understand the next expression: His redemptive love. Because it is so important, we should not be surprised at Satan’s strategy to separate God from creation in the worldview of most people.
His individual redemptive love is expressed in the gospel, specifically by the death of Christ on the cross. Calvary made atonement possible for all mankind given without merit – not, however without conditions. This is the love expression of John 3:16.
A biblical illustration of this love is found in the events of the Hebrew Passover. God graciously redeemed a chosen people from slavery in Egypt. Although this expression of God’s love was offered without merit, it was not without conditions. The Hebrews would experience this redemptive love only if they placed the blood of a lamb over the door of their home and followed Moses out of Egypt.
Redemptive love is an amazing color made even more brilliant as the foundation of the next expression: His covenant family love.
This love is seen in our new identity and position in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17). Introduced in passages like John 1:12 and 1 John 3:1-3, it includes love gifts such as adoption, citizenship, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. On the basis of God’s family love we have a new position and identity. This love is expressed in all the rights and privileges found in Christ (Eph. 1:3-11) including our future inheritance as heirs with Christ.
A biblical example of covenant family love is God’s relationship the people of Israel. God calls them His family, His people, and His vineyard. The Old Testament tells the story of this family and their difficult journey to discover and live in God’s covenant love. Within this love Israel was to learn to obey and follow God. Their struggle to respond to this expression of God’s love over successive generations, is an instructive but sad story that is a warning for us now living under the new covenant of God’s family love.
We see this expression in the life of Jesus with His 12 disciples. Once they responded to His call to follow, they experienced an increasing intimacy with Him. The crowds experienced the benefit of His miracles, but the disciples experienced the relational love of His continued presence. Peter, James, and John were given the privilege of an even deeper intimacy as He allowed them to see both the glory of His transfiguration and the agony of His prayer in the Garden.
A fourth expression of God’s iridescent love is His relational intimate love. This expression exposes us to the very heart of God and is the most intimate of all the expressions. It is a relational love that is modeled in the Trinity. (TADB 45)
The eleven disciples also experienced this relational love in the upper room just before the trial and crucifixion. In those final hours they heard and saw first-hand the passion of Christ to fulfill the plan and purpose of the Father. They were also allowed to listen in on the intimate conversation between Jesus and the Father as recorded in John 17.
The relational intimate love shown to the disciples was not a random act. It was the result of their growing allegiance to and alignment with His person and mission.
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow…. You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in His slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me” (Joh15:9-15).
Few people in Scripture are ever referred to by God as His friend and no one ever took the title for themselves. Yet this amazing relational intimate love of God is now possible on the resurrection side of the cross.
We have been discussing the various expressions of God’s love for us as they take us deeper into the relational heart of God. Next we will look at our response to God’s love and how it is connected to experiencing those expression of love
For reflection:
1. How do you see these expressions of God’s love connected to each other?
2. God’s love in all its expressions is always unmerited, but is it always unconditional? Explain.
3. What do you think of the statement, “We are as close to God, not as we wish to be, but as we choose to be”?