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R.A. Torrey Collection: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God): 09 -The Love of God

I. GOD IS LOVE.

1Jn_4:8; 1Jn_4:16 — -"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

Proposition: God is love. Not merely God loves, but God is love. Love is the very essence of His moral nature. He is the source of all love.

1Jn_4:7 — "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God."

QUESTION: What is love?

ANSWER:

1Jn_3:16-17 RV — "Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso has this world's goods and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?"

Mat_5:44-45 — "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Love is a desire for and delight in the welfare of the one loved.

II. WHO DOES GOD LOVE?

Mat_3:17 — "And lo a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Mat_17:5 — "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud

overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."

Luk_20:13 — "Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved Son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him."

First Proposition: God loves His Son. God's Son is the original and eternal object of HIS love.

Joh_17:24 "Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." Because of a necessity in the Divine Being Himself, if God is eternal love, that love must have an eternal object. There must, then, be multiple persons in the Godhead. The eternal object of the divine love is the Eternal Son.

Joh_16:27 — "For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God."

Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23 — "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

Second Proposition: God loves those who are united to the Son by faith and love.

God loves, as we shall see, all men, but He has an altogether peculiar love for those who are in Christ.

Joh_17:23 — "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." God has precisely the same love to those who are in Christ that He has to Christ Himself. Of course there is a love from God to those who are now in Christ which precedes their love to Christ. ( 1Jn_4:19 — "We love Him, because He first loved us.")

Joh_3:16 — "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

1Ti_2:4 "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

2Pe_3:9 — "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Third Proposition: God loves the world — the whole human race and each individual in it.

Rom_5:6-8 — "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Eph_2:4-5 — "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)."

Eze_33:11 — "Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"

Fourth Proposition: God loves the sinner, the ungodly, those dead in sin.

God's love for the unregenerate sinner differs from the love He has for the one in Christ ( Joh_14:21; Joh_14:23Jn_17:23; Rom_8:30-39).

But God has a peculiar interest in lost ones. ( Luk_15:7-10 — "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.") This can be understood by a father's love for a true son and a wayward son.

III. HOW DOES THE LOVE OF GOD MANIFEST ITSELF?.

Isa_48:14; Isa_48:20-21 — "All ye assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out."

Deu_32:9-12 — "For the Lord's portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her next, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him."

Deu_33:3; Deu_33:12 — "Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. And of Benjamin he said, the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders."

First Proposition: God's love manifests itself in ministering to the need and joy of those He loves and protecting them from evil.

Heb_12:6-11 — "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastening, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

Second Proposition: God's love manifests itself in chastening and scourging His loved ones for their profit, that out of this chastening the peaceable fruit of righteousness may come.

Isa_63:9 — "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Third Proposition: God's love manifests itself in His being Himself afflicted when His loved ones are afflicted, even when that affliction comes from His own hand.

Isa_49:15-16 — "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

Fourth Proposition: God's love is manifested in His never forgetting those He loves. He may seem to forget, but He never does.

1Jn_4:9-10 — "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

Joh_3:16 — "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Fifth Proposition: God's love has manifest itself in His making the greatest sacrifice He could for those He loves — the sacrifice of His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Sacrifice is the measure of love. The sacrifice of Christ is the measure of God's love. (Compare to Gen_22:12 — "And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.")

Isa_38:17 — "Behold, for peace I have great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back."

Isa_55:7 — "Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Sixth Proposition: God's love manifests itself by Him forgiving sins.

Eph_2:4 RV — "But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

Seventh Proposition: God's love manifests itself (I) by Him imparting life to those dead in trespasses and sins, (2) by Him raising them up with Christ, (3) by Him making them sit with Christ in the heavenly places, (4) by Him showing to us in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. God has only begun to do for us. The fullness of His love is not yet manifested. It is just beginning to unfold itself: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1Jn_3:2).

1Jn_3:1 RV — "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."

Eighth Proposition: God's love manifests itself by Him allowing us to be called "children of God."

Zep_3:17 — "The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

Ninth Proposition: God's love manifests itself by Him rejoicing over His saved people with joy and singing.

Compare to Luk_15:23-24 "And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry. For this, my son, was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."