The Trinity 2 - A Love Story Series

THE TRINITY II

A Love Story

09/30/12

One of the things that I have taken notice of with our culture is that so often people confuse desire with love. I believe, in fact that desire and love are very different. But because we confuse these two emotions, we tend to use the term “love” in the place of desire. Or we think we love something, when we just desire it.

For example, when I say I love cheeseburgers, it is obvious that what I am really saying is that I desire cheeseburgers. I don’t have some sort of affection for cheeseburgers. People I find often use the term “love” when what they really mean is desire. Desire is in essence to just want something, to long for something. It falls well short of what love is.

This is not to say that desire is not part of love, it certainly is. I love my wife, part of that love is I desire her. I do not mean that in a strictly physical sense. I desire to spent time with her, I desire to make her happy, desire to bring her joy.

The same is true with God, I love God. But I also desire God. I desire to please God, I desire a close fellowship with God. Part of my love for God is that I desire Him.

As I said, Love is more than desire. Love is about not just wanting, but the willingness to put whatever it is you love above yourself. Love is like a mixture of affection, self-sacrifice, humility, and desire. When I say I love Darleen, I have an affection for her and I must be willing to put her needs above my own. I must be willing to make sacrifices for her. In my desire for her, I must humble myself and placer her desires over my own. There must be a willingness to serve her.

So it is when we speak of the love of God. God desires us, He desires to have fellowship with us. But love as I have said is more than desire, thus God in His love, showed affection by sacrificing Himself. By humbling Himself, in that He send the Son, the second person of the Trinity, to become one of us, to die for us. As John 3:16 tells us, ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And as we are told in Eph. 5:2; “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

But what I want us to understand is that if love is about affection, self-sacrifice, humility, and desire, than for God to simply sent another creature into the world for us, that would not be a demonstration of love, For it would not be an act of self-sacrifice and humility.

Think about this for a moment, if Christ is a created being, would it not be possible for God to make million of the same kind as Christ. He has made billions of people, billions of atoms, could He not have made a million Christ’s if He chose to.

You see if Christ is indeed a created being, and it doesn’t matter if you say, well He is the first created being, he is still a created being, the possibility is still there for there to be a million others.

So if Christ is a created being, I cannot begin to understand how that is a true demonstration of God’s love. When you get down to it, how was Christ’s sacrifice different than the other created beings that were sacrifices in the OT. The bulls, the lambs, the doves, etc. All created beings. If Christ is a created being how can that be an act of love that includes humility and self-sacrifice on God’s part. It was Christ who made the sacrifice, not God, it was Christ who it is said humbled himself, not God.

If Christ is a created being I cannot see how His death is a demonstration of love on God’s part. It does not make sense to me. It matters not which number He was in the created order, in the end He is still a creature, a creation of God.

But my friends, if you believe the Word of God that Christ is indeed the second person of the Trinity, believe the Biblical testimony that Jesus Christ is God, the whole thing changes, and the Love of God come bursting forth.

We are told in Phil. 2:6-8 that is was Christ “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”