BS2C - UNDERSTANDING THE FATHER'S LOVE
In the last study we saw that the essential moral nature of God is holiness – meaning that God is absolutely pure or free from all defilement. We also saw that this moral nature is the same for the entire Godhead so that it includes Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But God doesn’t just stand apart from all that He created like a Grecian statue to be admired.
We might say that God has an engine, or an operating system that is called LOVE. The Holy God operates and is motivated by love and love is at the heart of everything that He does. Let’s look more closely at what love is since our society has changed the meaning and substituted its own definition.
The Apostle John says twice in these verses who God is. WHO is He?
1 John 4:8, 16
John also tells us the source of any love that we experience here on earth. What is it?
1 John 4:7
If God IS love as John says, then for us to know what real love is means we need to study God.
The most precious of all gemstones is the diamond that is formed under the most intense pressure in the earth. When the diamond is cut it is done so with many angled sides called “facets” so that it brilliantly sparkles as light hits it from any direction.
In the same way love has many “facets” and can best be described by HOW love manifests itself. “Love” isn’t a static “thing”. It’s all pervasive, fluid, ethereal, but very real and practical. There are many things in life we can’t see but we KNOW exist ….. and love is one of those things. So, let’s ask ourselves this question:
How does the love of God manifest itself?
A. When God’s people were traveling through the hot, barren dessert wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, what did God do for them? Make a list based on these verses.
Deuteronomy 32:9-11 / Deuteronomy 33:12 / Isaiah 48:21
God didn’t do this for just anyone. He did it for one special group of people…..
Deuteronomy 33:3
And if we today have consecrated our lives to God, we are also a part of this special group whom God loves and cares for.
B. Like any good parent, God will need to discipline his children. Discipline is the proof that our parents love us. WHO specifically will God discipline?
Hebrews 12:6
Why do we need to submit to God’s love in discipline?
Hebrews 12:7
In fact, we need to be concerned if we are NOT being disciplined by God? Why?
Hebrews 12:8
When God does discipline us what should be our response?
Hebrews 12:9
It might not “feel” like love when we are going through the discipline but according to verse 10 it will always be for our good. What does God’s discipline produce in our lives?
Hebrews 12:10-11
While we are going through God’s discipline, how does God feel?
Isaiah 63:9a
You might remember your father or mother saying to you, “This hurts me more than it hurts you!” Well, this is how God feels when we need discipline. And it’s one of the many facets of love.
C. We all have times in our lives when we feel utterly alone and abandoned. How does God’s love show itself at these times?
Isaiah 49:15
And then, to make His point, what does God do?
Isaiah 49:16
Just picture a tattoo of yourself on the palms of God’s hands. Since God is a spirit and doesn’t have hands, we need to picture ourselves on the palms of Christ’s hands who will never forget us for a moment.
D. Love is manifested most of all in giving so that others can “have”. What did God give that was most precious to Himself?
John 3:16-17
This giving was a double sacrifice. First, God had to give up fellowship with His Son Jesus in Heaven so He could come to earth, and then Jesus had to be willing to lay down his life because it was what the Father needed Jesus to do in order to save us from the evil age we were and are living in.
John 15:13 / Titus 2:14
And one of the clues as to what true love is, is in our being willing to do the same for someone else.
1 John 3:16
E. Scripture tells us that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). God, in giving His Son Jesus to die for our sins, is the reason that God can forgive our sins. Whenever we forgive, we show love to someone. Where does God say that he puts our sins?
Psalm 103:12 / Isaiah 38:17
When we put something at a distance or behind our backs, we put it out of our sight so that we don’t think about it anymore. That’s what God does with our sins.
And WHO is the person that God will abundantly pardon?
Isaiah 55:7
F. God’s love manifests itself in forgiving us and making us alive in Christ. But the real expression of love is shown WHEN God did this.
Ephesians 2:1, 4-5
It’s the opposite of how we men and women treat each other. We expect people to reform and “clean up their acts” before we’ll forgive and ever trust them again. But God implemented the sacrifice of His Son BEFORE we had any thought about trying to change ourselves.
G. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, we have been groveling in our sins and in our misery, and then taken it out on God. We have ignored Him, cursed His name, rejected Him outright, and blamed Him for what we did ourselves. Yet…despite this….ANYONE who comes to God in humility and repentance receives forgiveness and a special promise.
John 6:37
And then God goes a step further in taking us back into His family. WHAT does He call anyone who repents and turns back to God?
1 John 3:1
We could go on and on about how the love of God manifests itself but one final way is …..
H. ……the way God rejoices over His saved people with joy and singing!
Zephaniah 3:17
It’s a picture of God excited to have us back in His family! It’s the meaning of a parable Jesus told about a son going away from home with his inheritance so that he could live the “good life” of wine, women, and song. When that “good life” left him destitute and hungry he came to his senses and went back home to his father. He expected his father to treat him like one of the servants but what did the father do instead?
Luke 15:22-24
The way that God manifests His love to us is exactly the way that Jesus manifested it when He came to earth. I think this one verse sums up the love of Christ for us.
Acts 10:38
The world’s picture of love is based on our feelings going out after someone that looks good and who we think will make us happy and fulfilled. Worldly love sucks the life out of others so that we can have our needs met – or so we think.
But the love of God is based on God having created us in His own image and likeness and therefore our being very precious and valuable to Him. WE are the objects of God’s love and care. He does not need us, but He wants us, and gives our life purpose by planning that everyone should do a special work in the development of His universe which He plans for us ahead of time (Ephesians 2:10). God’s love is always about GIVING to us and NEVER ABOUT GETTING anything for Himself. God in giving us Jesus so that we could see Him, know Him, and relate to Him on a human level is His greatest manifestation of love.
And now let’s look at another aspect of God the Father so that we can understand what Jesus was like and why.
Next Study: BS2D-Understanding the "Father of Mercies"