As created, and therefore, finite people, we are significantly limited in
our capacity to comprehend the infinite and eternal Nature of God. Our
ability to approach these characteristics is further hindered by sin. To
some extent, when contemplating these absolute and eternal dimensions of
God, we can only describe them by means of negative or opposite concepts.
For example, God is infinite. “Infinite” is the negative or opposite of
“finite.” Hence, God is “not finite.” This word actually does not describe
what God is, as much as is describes what He is not. Obviously one can not
exhaust the infinite and eternal Nature of God with any words, no matter how
complete. As created beings, we are severely restricted by the diminutive
expanse of our finite, yet far reaching, thoughts.
Another example of describing a characteristic of God with a negative term
is His love. God’s love is “unconditional” toward the believer. Which, as
you can see, is saying that God’s love has “no conditions.” Once again, when
trying to describe one of God’s characteristics, we are somewhat forced to
the opposite end of an ‘eternal’ spectrum.
Although Paul may not be able to understand Christ’s love to its fullness in this life, he was certain of many aspects of it. One of Paul’s most passionate attempts at describing this unconditional and eternal
love is found in Romans 8:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Simply put, God’s love is unconditional and eternal. It will never fail.
God’s love can not fail because God Himself can not fail, and God is love.
As humans, we can only long for such a love. In fact, we were created with
this very need. Notice again that Paul looks at love from what can not
happen, since any attempts to define God’s love must make use of a language
ill-equipped to explain the very Nature of God.
Created in the image of God, all individuals were also created with an
ultimate need for unconditional and eternal love. We intuitively know that
life has no ultimate meaning or purpose apart from being the recipient of
this kind of love. And no human is capable of attaining or demonstrating
such. We can only be the beneficiaries of it.
And it is this love of God to which I would like to turn our attention. Each
of the New Testament writers recognizes that God’s love is beyond full
description. And each writer has his way of describing it, to the extent he
can. In fact, on the Cross, we got a glimpse of the love of God, but only a
distant and distorted glimpse, far from a grasp of it.
And it is this inability to grasp the love of God fully that creates within
us wonderment and mystery. All attempts to define God’s love will fall
short. For now, though Scripture describes God’s love in various ways, we can only imagine and speculate on its eternality.
Each writer of the New Testament expresses profound joy and anticipation of
this love that we will one day experience face to face with the Lord,
indeed, in His very presence. But until then, we too must wait with great
anticipation.
As only an individual writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit could
do, the Apostle Paul records these words on the love of Christ. The paradox
is apparent. Although we understand, to a limited degree, His love for us,
we also must acknowledge its infinite reach.
“so that, by being rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that
you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.”
To whatever extent we understand and experience the love of Christ, this we
know: ultimately, Christ’s love surpasses that. If we make a lifetime
pursuit of understanding His love from every dimension, the result will
still be the same: His love will surpass our highest expectations.
I like a response I heard on the radio some years ago on the question, “So
what does God’s love have in store for us?” Although God has revealed much
to us regarding our eternal destiny, we must still await our final
glorification before we can begin to grasp it. The answer I heard is
actually, a quote from the Apostle Paul:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Not have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Words are not capable of communicating what God has prepared for us. In
fact, our human minds are equally incapable of taking it in. Notice the many
uses of “not.” One gets the impression that the love of God can only be
partially understood, and even then, by the use of negative concepts.
However, the Apostle John may have recorded one of the most unusual
descriptions of God’s love. It is on this description that I would like to
focus. Here is the passage found in 1 John 3:1:
“See WHAT SORT OF love the Father has given to us: that we should be called
God’s children— and indeed we are!”
Under consideration here is the phrase “what sort of.” This phrase seems at
best vague. Once again, God’s love seems to defy explanation. To understand
this description John uses, we can actually look at Matthew’s gospel where
the same word is found, but in a different context.
Here is the famous passage of Matthew that uses the word:
“As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And a great storm
developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was
asleep. So, they came and got him up saying, “Lord, save us! We are going to
die!” But he said to them, “Why are you cowardly, you people of little
faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became
perfectly calm. And the men were amazed and said, “WHAT SORT OF person is
this that even the winds and the sea obey him?””
The phrase (What sort of) is actually one word in the Greek. It is the same
word used by John when reflecting on God’s love.
Here, Matthew records for us the confusion that the disciples experienced
when they saw the winds and sea obey Christ’s command. Surely no mere mortal
could actually command the elements of nature so that they would immediately
respond.
Matthew uses this word to capture the disciples’ question of Christ’s
earthly origin. In essence, the disciples were wondering if Christ was some
kind of “alien,” for no human could do the things He did. Remember, it took
a long time for the disciples to realize that Christ was indeed none other
than God.
This word seemed to have the idea of “foreigner” when used to distinguish
one nationality from another. It could be used in this fashion: WHAT SORT
OF, WHAT KIND OF nationality are you?
But when used in a context like here, there is no comparison being made to
other men, but to another kind of being. To the disciples, Christ was like
an “alien.” Certainly, He was not from this planet. To some extent, this is
using the word in a negative sense again. In other words, Christ was clearly
“not human.”
Here is another use of this word found in Luke 1:
“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee
called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a
descendant of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came to her
and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was
greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind WHAT SORT OF
greeting this could be.”
The angel Gabriel caused “great trouble” for Mary. Undoubtedly, she
understood that this was no human making this divine announcement. Luke uses
this word to capture this encounter with an angelic being. Apparently to
Mary, Gabriel resembled, as it were, an “alien” of some kind, or at least no
mortal that she had ever seen. By “resemble,” I do not mean in physical
appearance, but simply that Gabriel had a presence and disposition unlike
any human. In other words, Mary understood this to be an angelic being, sent
from the very presence of God.
In the passage of 1 John 3:1 we can now see a somewhat unusual description
of God’s love. To John, God’s love has no human counterpart. No human love
parallels God’s love. So, God’s love is, to some extent, alien or foreign to
us.
We can certainly get glimpses of His love throughout Scripture. But a love
that is eternal and unconditional will always remain elusive to us while in
this life. How could it not?
How elusive is this love? To John, God’s love is foreign to us. And one day,
we will rest in His presence as beneficiaries of this indescribable and
eternal love, a love that has no correspondence to any love we have ever
experienced in this life or among our loved ones. To put it another way, we
have no idea (negative concept) just how fantastic it will be in heaven.
Whatever our hopes, God’s love will surpass (positive concept) them.
our capacity to comprehend the infinite and eternal Nature of God. Our
ability to approach these characteristics is further hindered by sin. To
some extent, when contemplating these absolute and eternal dimensions of
God, we can only describe them by means of negative or opposite concepts.
For example, God is infinite. “Infinite” is the negative or opposite of
“finite.” Hence, God is “not finite.” This word actually does not describe
what God is, as much as is describes what He is not. Obviously one can not
exhaust the infinite and eternal Nature of God with any words, no matter how
complete. As created beings, we are severely restricted by the diminutive
expanse of our finite, yet far reaching, thoughts.
Another example of describing a characteristic of God with a negative term
is His love. God’s love is “unconditional” toward the believer. Which, as
you can see, is saying that God’s love has “no conditions.” Once again, when
trying to describe one of God’s characteristics, we are somewhat forced to
the opposite end of an ‘eternal’ spectrum.
Although Paul may not be able to understand Christ’s love to its fullness in this life, he was certain of many aspects of it. One of Paul’s most passionate attempts at describing this unconditional and eternal
love is found in Romans 8:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Simply put, God’s love is unconditional and eternal. It will never fail.
God’s love can not fail because God Himself can not fail, and God is love.
As humans, we can only long for such a love. In fact, we were created with
this very need. Notice again that Paul looks at love from what can not
happen, since any attempts to define God’s love must make use of a language
ill-equipped to explain the very Nature of God.
Created in the image of God, all individuals were also created with an
ultimate need for unconditional and eternal love. We intuitively know that
life has no ultimate meaning or purpose apart from being the recipient of
this kind of love. And no human is capable of attaining or demonstrating
such. We can only be the beneficiaries of it.
And it is this love of God to which I would like to turn our attention. Each
of the New Testament writers recognizes that God’s love is beyond full
description. And each writer has his way of describing it, to the extent he
can. In fact, on the Cross, we got a glimpse of the love of God, but only a
distant and distorted glimpse, far from a grasp of it.
And it is this inability to grasp the love of God fully that creates within
us wonderment and mystery. All attempts to define God’s love will fall
short. For now, though Scripture describes God’s love in various ways, we can only imagine and speculate on its eternality.
Each writer of the New Testament expresses profound joy and anticipation of
this love that we will one day experience face to face with the Lord,
indeed, in His very presence. But until then, we too must wait with great
anticipation.
As only an individual writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit could
do, the Apostle Paul records these words on the love of Christ. The paradox
is apparent. Although we understand, to a limited degree, His love for us,
we also must acknowledge its infinite reach.
“so that, by being rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that
you may be filled up with all the fullness of God.”
To whatever extent we understand and experience the love of Christ, this we
know: ultimately, Christ’s love surpasses that. If we make a lifetime
pursuit of understanding His love from every dimension, the result will
still be the same: His love will surpass our highest expectations.
I like a response I heard on the radio some years ago on the question, “So
what does God’s love have in store for us?” Although God has revealed much
to us regarding our eternal destiny, we must still await our final
glorification before we can begin to grasp it. The answer I heard is
actually, a quote from the Apostle Paul:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Not have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Words are not capable of communicating what God has prepared for us. In
fact, our human minds are equally incapable of taking it in. Notice the many
uses of “not.” One gets the impression that the love of God can only be
partially understood, and even then, by the use of negative concepts.
However, the Apostle John may have recorded one of the most unusual
descriptions of God’s love. It is on this description that I would like to
focus. Here is the passage found in 1 John 3:1:
“See WHAT SORT OF love the Father has given to us: that we should be called
God’s children— and indeed we are!”
Under consideration here is the phrase “what sort of.” This phrase seems at
best vague. Once again, God’s love seems to defy explanation. To understand
this description John uses, we can actually look at Matthew’s gospel where
the same word is found, but in a different context.
Here is the famous passage of Matthew that uses the word:
“As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And a great storm
developed on the sea so that the waves began to swamp the boat. But he was
asleep. So, they came and got him up saying, “Lord, save us! We are going to
die!” But he said to them, “Why are you cowardly, you people of little
faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became
perfectly calm. And the men were amazed and said, “WHAT SORT OF person is
this that even the winds and the sea obey him?””
The phrase (What sort of) is actually one word in the Greek. It is the same
word used by John when reflecting on God’s love.
Here, Matthew records for us the confusion that the disciples experienced
when they saw the winds and sea obey Christ’s command. Surely no mere mortal
could actually command the elements of nature so that they would immediately
respond.
Matthew uses this word to capture the disciples’ question of Christ’s
earthly origin. In essence, the disciples were wondering if Christ was some
kind of “alien,” for no human could do the things He did. Remember, it took
a long time for the disciples to realize that Christ was indeed none other
than God.
This word seemed to have the idea of “foreigner” when used to distinguish
one nationality from another. It could be used in this fashion: WHAT SORT
OF, WHAT KIND OF nationality are you?
But when used in a context like here, there is no comparison being made to
other men, but to another kind of being. To the disciples, Christ was like
an “alien.” Certainly, He was not from this planet. To some extent, this is
using the word in a negative sense again. In other words, Christ was clearly
“not human.”
Here is another use of this word found in Luke 1:
“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee
called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a
descendant of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came to her
and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was
greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind WHAT SORT OF
greeting this could be.”
The angel Gabriel caused “great trouble” for Mary. Undoubtedly, she
understood that this was no human making this divine announcement. Luke uses
this word to capture this encounter with an angelic being. Apparently to
Mary, Gabriel resembled, as it were, an “alien” of some kind, or at least no
mortal that she had ever seen. By “resemble,” I do not mean in physical
appearance, but simply that Gabriel had a presence and disposition unlike
any human. In other words, Mary understood this to be an angelic being, sent
from the very presence of God.
In the passage of 1 John 3:1 we can now see a somewhat unusual description
of God’s love. To John, God’s love has no human counterpart. No human love
parallels God’s love. So, God’s love is, to some extent, alien or foreign to
us.
We can certainly get glimpses of His love throughout Scripture. But a love
that is eternal and unconditional will always remain elusive to us while in
this life. How could it not?
How elusive is this love? To John, God’s love is foreign to us. And one day,
we will rest in His presence as beneficiaries of this indescribable and
eternal love, a love that has no correspondence to any love we have ever
experienced in this life or among our loved ones. To put it another way, we
have no idea (negative concept) just how fantastic it will be in heaven.
Whatever our hopes, God’s love will surpass (positive concept) them.
