Know And Believe The Love Of God (Part 2)

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32.)

In Part 1, we learn that God is also loving others in a very special way. The intensity or degree of His love is greater for His children – the believers – than for the children of the devil (1 John 3:1), if ever He loved them. He provided His own children with “bread,” not just with crumbs (Matt. 15:26-27).

God’s love for the believers is not only “little,” but so much (Luke 7:47) – not because He owed them something. Rather, because of His grace, His love for them “surpasses knowledge.” Jesus Christ described His great and astounding love for them in these words, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (John 15:9)!

Aside from the rain, sunlight and air, then, what other special favors He gave to those He loved much? Many “things”! Not just physical things.

We read in Prov. 3:11-12, “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” God gave them discipline (Kindly see also Heb. 12:7-8 & Rev. 3:19).

In Ps. 108:4-6, we read, “For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth. Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. “ He gave them help and deliverance.

Ps. 107:19-20: “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.” And in Ps 86:13, “For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.” He saved them from pain and difficulty or danger.

Let us read Ps 31:21-22: “Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm I said, ‘I am cut off from your sight!’ Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.” Also Ps 86:5-7, “You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me. “ He gave them His attention and responded to their cry.

Eph 2:4-5 tells us, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” He gave them spiritual life – thus, it was possible for them to respond to God’s call.

Now, let’s go to 2 Thess. 2:16-17, “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” Notice that God gave the believers “eternal encouragement and good hope” and could strengthen them “in every good deed and word.”

Consider also Ps. 31:16, “Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. “ It reminds me of 2 Cor 4:4-6, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. .. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” While the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, the God of all ages made “His light shine” in the believers – to “see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

Read now 1 John 3:1, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” God “gave (the believers) the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Others, the Bible called them as “children of the devil” (1 John 3:10).

Jesus’ prayer in John 17:26, “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." Jesus gave the believers the great privilege to become familiar with God the Father.