(Part 1/3 – A summary of the Sunday morning teaching on 26-Jul-15, in AFT Church, English service. From the series The Foundation For Victorious Living)
God is love. For a while now, we had been learning about this truth. Last week, we examined the different facts of God’s love. Today, let’s turn a new page and learn the practical nuances of this love of God.
EVERLASTING LOVE
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.
Jeremiah 31:3
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Psalm 90:1-2
God has been in a love relationship FOREVER!
Astonishing, isn’t it?
The Word of God says that God has been in existence eternally. His love also has existed from a long time ago; before the foundations of the earth was even laid! Now that raises a pertinent question. Who has God been in love with since eternity?
COVENANTS
The answer to that question leads us to an interesting area of covenants. The Word of God lists numerous Covenant periods like Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic. Most important among them was the Covenant of Redemption. Let’s see what this Covenant is all about.
Covenant, as we have seen in the past, requires two parties. If God was one, then who was the other party? God made the Covenant of Redemption with the Trinity. From eternity past, God has existed as the Trinity. Right from the beginning, God knew that man would sin and wouldn’t voluntarily and selflessly love Him back. So, this great loving God made a Covenant in the Trinity where the Father God would be the planner, Jesus the Son would be the executor and the Holy Spirit would help convict and apply the Salvation in people’s lives.
The three Persons of the Trinity work harmoniously in executing this Covenant. We see the loving heart of the Father God is sending His Son as a sacrifice for us in John 3:16 which says ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’. Then, we see the humble and sacrificial heart of Jesus the Son in Philippians 2:5 which says that, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross’. God’s purposes mattered much to Him so that He was willing to die for us. The Holy Spirit tugs at our heartstrings, convicts us of our sins and enables us to appropriate this love. The Covenant in the eternity past enables them to love each other and us sacrificially!
SCRUTINY OF THE LOVE IN THE TRINITY
In order to understand God’s love for us, we need to take a closer look at the love relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity. The Bible is a canvass full of beautiful paintings that reflect the Father and Son’s love.
Let’s take a quick look at some of these paintings.
1) THE SACRIFICED SON
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Genesis 22:1-2
God’s description of Isaac’s position in Abraham’s life indicates that Isaac was very special to his father. But despite that great love for his son, Abraham obeyed God and prepared to sacrifice Isaac. But God intervened and stopped him. God was showing Abraham and the world that in a similar fashion, He would give His own beloved and only Son as a sacrifice on another mountain many centuries later for our sins. God provided Abraham a lamb as an alternate offering but in His own Son’s case, He went all out. There was no dramatic intervention or provision of a substitute. Jesus became the Lamb.
Abraham’s love for his son Isaac was a small pointer of God’s love towards His Son Jesus.
…to be continued…
