For the Love of God

2 Corinthians 5:14 ~ "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died."

​​Let there be no doubt concerning the love of God--and that He loves you.

​​The challenge most people have when it comes to the idea of "love" is from the subjective nature with which we consider it. Human affection is often based upon some quality of interest that the object of our desire has impressed upon our heart and mind, and so we say we "love" them. When that interest wanes, many will determine that they no longer love the other and they will separate their affection from the object.

It is not so with God.

Look at the condition of our nature when God loved us. Romans 5:8 clearly reveals His love, "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." There was no character within us, no quality of interest that should have attracted God's affections toward us, there was nothing but sin--that is all we had. And, in that condition, God loved us to such an extent that Christ died.

Oh, beloved, does this love hold any interest to you? God did not love you for anything other than that you were needing to be loved by Him. He loved you simply because it is in His nature to love (see 1 John 4:8). We were prisoners in the dungeon, justly waiting our eternal punishment and then the word came to us that the King had taken our place! He died to satisfy our crimes. 

Then, because His life could not be constrained by death, Jesus rose from the grave and now calls anyone who will be His to leave the prison and embrace His love through repentance and loyalty to Him.  Romans 2:4 states, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" 

Let the other prisoners laugh at us, let the remaining inmates who reject the King's offer mock us for our abandonment of this earthly dungeon. I, for one, am eternally grateful for His love that rescued me from His wrath and delivered me from His judgment to receive an eternal inheritance in His family.

The Lord Jesus suffered and died on the cross for you--do you now think that if you receive His love that He will sit in heaven not also longing for you to be with Him? Does not love desire to be in the presence of the object of affection? If you are in Christ, you are the object of His affection and He delights to know you. It is this love that God offers to you, not human subjective love, but the solid, unwavering sacrificial love of Christ. And it should be that love which compels us to Him.

Thus, the love of Christ controls us. Another word for "control" is "constrain." That is, it holds us fast--confines us in this life that we should no longer live for anything other than His love. Consider the follow-up verse, 2 Corinthians 5:15, "And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

What will you do for the love of God? Not, what will you do to earn it--for you cannot earn His love, but you must humbly receive it. What will you do with your life going forward knowing that He has loved you with such sacrificial mercy? Will you do as the Apostle states, and no longer live for yourself but for Him--that is, Jesus--who died for you and was raised to be the King of kings?

Though we still live in this world, believer, we are no longer bound to its condemnation. We are free--delivered by His love, for His love, and to be in His love forever.

In His Grace,
​Pastor Michael

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