Evangelistic Bible Study
Study 3. The Love of God
“What kind of God do you believe in that allows
babies and children to starve to death in hot climates? If He is as powerful as
you say He is why doesn’t He stop all the fighting and wars? Why is there
famine, and earthquakes? How can you try to tell me about the love of such a
God?!” … A very valid and often-asked question. Yet, I believe, it starts
off on the wrong footing. Let’s examine the love of God.
In most cases this question is asked by people
who have no understanding of the Supreme Being. They want to blame some one – or
some thing – for which they themselves are ultimately responsible. Such a
question comes from a ‘pass-the-blame’ mentality. After all, do we ever think of
writing to the Prime Minister or the E.U. to demand that they stop dumping good
food out to sea and to send it to the starving masses of the third world? I
wonder how many of the lottery winners share their millions with people in need!
All the fighting and wars are the consequence of an inherent greed within
humanity to master his fellow human beings no matter what the cost! Despite all
this, when God does speak, would the person who asked you the question in the
first place listen?!
In the face of man’s rebellion and unbelief I
find it amazing that there is such a thing as the love of God! We have
considered the subject of the uniqueness and holiness of God which encompasses
His whole Being. He is satisfied with nothing less than perfection. He makes and
allows no excuses for sin, - even ‘small’ sins. His character which is
absolutely pure settles for nothing less than complete and flawless excellence.
Why then should He be expected to automatically forgive our sins without our
asking? He is not a God that ‘jumps’ when we ‘click our fingers’; He is the King
of kings, the Lord of lords, and the only one, true, living God.
On the other hand, look at yourself. You were
brought into the world a sinner, - the first breath you breathed was as a person
in opposition to God. You didn’t have to learn how to sin, - it came naturally.
God was someOne outside of your realm, and in order for you to come to
understand Him you have had to make tremendous steps that - really – are in
opposition to how you truly are. The Bible tells us that we were born in sin,
the consequence of which is that we were heading in a direction away from God
and facing towards the eternal fires of everlasting punishment in hell. Did it
worry you? No, I don’t believe it did, … because its seriousness never really
dawned on you. You could find a way of closing it out of your mind, … or merely
disbelieving it. You had absolutely nothing in common, - nor hankering after, -
the holiness of God.
And then there came a day when God was born into
the world as a little Baby. He could have come out of the clouds with great
noise and ceremony, and no doubt many would have welcomed openly the same way
and with the same attitude as they would welcome any worldly conqueror. God
chose not to use that agenda. He grew up before His people, - the Jews, - and
His life before His neighbours and friends in Nazareth would have been a perfect
life, but yet they rejected Who He really was, Mt. 13: 55 Is not this
the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and
Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us?
Whence then hath this man all these things? 57 And they were offended in him.
In fact, their offence grew so much that
a few years later these people nailed Him to a cross between two common thieves.
Rather than accusing God of having an ‘empty
love’ for humanity, - unwilling or unable to do anything about the plight that
you blamed Him for in the opening paragraph, - is it not the greatest of wonders
that He had anything to do with us at all?! We curse Him (i.e. use His Name in
vain). We openly and unapologisingly treat Him as dirt. We charge Him with all
kinds of accusations that, if we looked closer and more honestly, they ought to
be ‘laid at our door’. But here is the big question we really should be
asking: how is it that this holy, perfect, sinless God should ever have had
anything to do with us at all?! It is absolutely incomprehensible that such
a Person should so graciously have any dealings with us other than we should be
the objects of His anger! We are sinners in the sight of an all-holy God. He
owes us nothing, … but in His love, – out of all the numbers on their way to a
lost eternity, - He reached down and He lifted David Greenaway out. I deserved
no better than anyone else, but He looked on me even when I didn’t pay Him any
attention, and He lifted me out and unto Himself, … I love Him because he first
loved me (I John 4:19). Is that not real love!
He saw me in my sin, He sent His Son to die for
me, and He saved me on to Himself. I know personally the love of God, … and
no-one can argue me out of it! He is not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9),
– but the vast majority of humanity are so bound by sin that they continue to
reject the message He has had preached for the past 2,000 years. In every corner
of the world the Gospel of Saving Grace has been and is being preached. Many are
being saved, but many multitudes continue to reject God’s offer of Redeeming
Love. Is it not a miracle that He still continues to love and to bring people
unto Himself! Is it not a marvel that He does not permit the stars and
constellations to come hurtling down upon the earth? Is it not a wonder that
many millions more of a sexually-permissive society have not contacted AIDS or
worse? Many of the agencies helping to feed in famine areas are born-again
believers, … showing God’s love. The love of God is all around us and nothing
else stops a sinful world from recognising it … but their inherent hatred and
hostility to any notion that He exists. On the cross of Calvary they mocked and
spat on Him, they pulled the hairs from His face, - such was their venom, - …
and if He was to do the whole thing all over again the world would do to Him now
what they did to Him then. Nothing has changed, … but neither has God’s love. He
continues to save, He keeps, and He will bring home safely those who are His
into the Glory of His most Holy presence and the love affair between the
Bridegroom and His Bride will be the eternal focus of Heaven.
