Love
God is...
When we consider that God is Holy and that we are sinners, and we combine this with our own inability to take away one sin, it leaves us in a fearful place; a place of perishing and without hope. That would not be good news at all. But there is good news - "God our Saviour... will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1Tim 2v 3&4). This is what God wants for all men because He is Love. It is not only that He loves, but He in Himself is love. Love is the very essence of God's character; "God is Love" (1John 4 v 16).
God wants to resolve this problem of our sin and His holiness and justice. Despite us being sinners, God loves us! "He first loved us" (1 John 4 v19). He does NOT want us to perish, in fact he wants us to be in His home in heaven with Him, and to adopt us into His family with all the blessings that come with such an eternal privilege. "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." (John 3 v16).
God in sending His Son into the world ("God manifest in flesh" (1 Timothy 3 v 16) was to save us from our sins - "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God" (Galatians 1 v 4) "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin." (1 John 4 v 10).
Let's step back for a moment and consider the fact of God sending His Son. God was sending Him on a rescue mission; a mission where death and immeasurable suffering were not only certain, but also necessary for our rescue from sin and all of its consequences. When God looked down He saw the multiplicity of sins committed (some falsely in His name) and a people that had no respect for Him, commonly using His name as a swear word. God knew He was sending His Son to a place where He would be despised and rejected, spit on, mocked, mistreated, and so violently treated that He was scarce recognisable as a human being (see Isaiah 53 , Psalm 22). He knew they would give Him an unjust trial and sentence the sinless, holy and just One to death because of envy and emenity. Indeed, in His own Word, written hundreds of years before, He foretold that it would be so.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Why did he do it? Why did He send His Son? It was because HE LOVES YOU, because he knows what it will mean for you to perish. That was too terrible to contemplate, and so the Lord Jesus willingly came into the world, as He Himself said, the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. (Luke 19 v 10). Was it for the good ones He came? No, it was for the world of sinners: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 9 v 13 ). And as all have sinned (Romans 3 v23), it includes all. Indeed, the 'chief of sinners' was saved on the Damascus road - This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief (1 Timothy 3 v15).
He loved sinners; He loved you and me! We must examine our response to this wonderful fact. God invites us to put our trust in His son. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3 v36) It is no wonder the question is asked, 'How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' (Hebrews 2 v 3). If we do not trust His Son, if we despise such a costly provision of salvation, there is no possible alternative! There is no escape if we refuse God's Son. We will be choosing to face the consequence of sin, a life that is empty and destiny that is terrible – the everlasting burnings of hell – it’s your choice!
Truly God is love, but all this has God done in a way that is just and righteous. He has not compromised His holy character; He is just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3 v 26). We could have no security and confidence if this salvation was not righteous. We are thankful that God is Just.