Everything about love, you thought you knew, is wrong.
Love is not what we give. Love is not even from us. Love is for us, by God. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10). The love that we experience and share is not a chemical, not a manifestation of our will, in fact if it is anything, it is strange to us do to our proclivity for evil, hate and harm. The only way to reconcile our 'dual nature', the old man, is that Christ would come to the world, by the Father's will, through the Spirit (all working equally together) to make us co-heirs of the Father's love and riches of mercy and grace.
The three together give us the co-regency of the three-ness of God. God is manifold to us through the work of each of the persons of the trinity. Not in different guises or modes; but each one fully Him.
To begin this discussion, the look we will take is surveying the Genesis and the book of John. John's rich christ-centric theology is the front runner to much of the reformed or calvinistic tradition. The original synthesis of Old and New Covenant Theology, spouting from the Christ. The love of God, an active state, not a potential for motion, energy, emotion etc. but a supremely active state of being, was the catalyst for God's creation. His own glory, I would say, so overwhelmed the cosmos that creation came from his lips as a song or poem like none of us would ever come up with. In Genesis 1 the act is began in a suspense, a pause or dramatic silence "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." The purposefulness of the image shows God's nearness and magnitude (after the void there must have been a considerable amount of water for the spirit to be hovering). We he spoke, there was no hesitation.
"And God said, “Let there be light,' and there was light". The cause and effect nature of creation cannot be painted in a more beautiful picture. From the mouth of our God came creation. His speech caused everything in reality to become what it was.
This love, prayed by Christ in his High priestly prayer, recorded by the apostle John, shows of the intimacy and cosmical scope of God's heart. " 'I made known to them your name, I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them'" (John 17:26)
The love of Christ is the love of God, because God is in Jesus and Jesus God, both having the same spirit. It is by this love and this grace that men are saved. Faith in this real love is only to 'measure' up to anything. Faith in this real love is submitting the self to the standard of the perfect man-God Jesus Christ in all his glory and terrifying awesomeness. In Christ Alone, by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, as revealed in Scripture Alone, to Glory of God Alone.
Love is not what we give. Love is not even from us. Love is for us, by God. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10). The love that we experience and share is not a chemical, not a manifestation of our will, in fact if it is anything, it is strange to us do to our proclivity for evil, hate and harm. The only way to reconcile our 'dual nature', the old man, is that Christ would come to the world, by the Father's will, through the Spirit (all working equally together) to make us co-heirs of the Father's love and riches of mercy and grace.
The three together give us the co-regency of the three-ness of God. God is manifold to us through the work of each of the persons of the trinity. Not in different guises or modes; but each one fully Him.
To begin this discussion, the look we will take is surveying the Genesis and the book of John. John's rich christ-centric theology is the front runner to much of the reformed or calvinistic tradition. The original synthesis of Old and New Covenant Theology, spouting from the Christ. The love of God, an active state, not a potential for motion, energy, emotion etc. but a supremely active state of being, was the catalyst for God's creation. His own glory, I would say, so overwhelmed the cosmos that creation came from his lips as a song or poem like none of us would ever come up with. In Genesis 1 the act is began in a suspense, a pause or dramatic silence "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." The purposefulness of the image shows God's nearness and magnitude (after the void there must have been a considerable amount of water for the spirit to be hovering). We he spoke, there was no hesitation.
"And God said, “Let there be light,' and there was light". The cause and effect nature of creation cannot be painted in a more beautiful picture. From the mouth of our God came creation. His speech caused everything in reality to become what it was.
This love, prayed by Christ in his High priestly prayer, recorded by the apostle John, shows of the intimacy and cosmical scope of God's heart. " 'I made known to them your name, I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them'" (John 17:26)
The love of Christ is the love of God, because God is in Jesus and Jesus God, both having the same spirit. It is by this love and this grace that men are saved. Faith in this real love is only to 'measure' up to anything. Faith in this real love is submitting the self to the standard of the perfect man-God Jesus Christ in all his glory and terrifying awesomeness. In Christ Alone, by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, as revealed in Scripture Alone, to Glory of God Alone.
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