A Love Like This
God is love (1 Jn 4:8). His love is not the love expressed by the world, which is mingled with sin. Whereas the love from the world is self-serving, God’s love is other-focused and exclusive. God sets His love on whom He chooses. It is His sovereign prerogative to do so. Love does not have to be universal (head-for-head), and it is not. When Yahweh says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jer 31:3b-c), He is speaking of Israel, the chosen people of God, ultimately drawn from every nation, tribe, and tongue (Rev 5:9; 7:9). Toward Christ, the true Israel of God (Is 49), and His church, Yahweh’s love endures forever (Ps 136).
The love of God is intra-Trinitarian. The eternal love of God, between the three Persons of the Godhead — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — demonstrates the unselfish nature of divine, agape love. If love does no wrong to a neighbor (Rom 13:10), then, certainly the perfect love of the Father for the Son and for the Spirit is perfectly reciprocal. Each One’s love for the others never fails (1 Cor 13:8). In fact, everything the Bible says about agape love is true for the Godhead and to whomever it is communicated.
When the communicable attributes of God’s love are directed toward the Israel of God, we discover the void of love from man toward God. God must love His own people, first (1 Jn 4:19), those predestined, in love, to adoption as sons before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:5). Love gives, and God the Father gave His elect children to God the Son (Jn 17:2, 6, 24; 18:9), writing each of their names in the Lamb’s book of life before the world was (Rev 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). This is God’s electing love.
When Adam, as the federal head of humanity, sinned against God (Gen 3), the whole of humanity fell out of the communion of God’s love. Still, nothing can thwart the predetermined and foreknowledge (fore-love for a people) of God (Acts 2:23), which He eternally decreed and which will surely come to pass in perfect providence (God working His eternal decree in everything, in time).
Providence certainly includes the reprobate, but there is another term employed when the Bible speaks of God causing all things to work together for good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). The Word is “grace” and by God’s infinite wisdom and almighty power (1 Cor 1:24), His elect are redeemed. In other words, we are saved by God’s grace, through the gift of faith (Eph 2:8–9).
Redemption is a purchase, a buy back, even a ransom paid to secure that which was lost and enslaved (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23). In this redemption by the precious blood of Jesus (Eph 1:7; Heb 9:12; 1 Pet 1:19), shed on the cross of Calvary, another display of divine love was put forth. God demonstrates His own love toward us, His chosen people, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). Jesus Himself taught His disciples “Greater love has no man than this, that He lays down his life for His friends” (Jn 15:13).
So far, we have seen God the Father’s love for His elect, given to God the Son, who loved that exact same group of people on the cross (1 Pet 2:24), but there is yet another display of divine love communicated to us by application. This is the love of God poured out in our (the elect, redeemed people) hearts.
When God the Father and God the Son send God the Holy Spirit to baptize one of the elect, redeemed (Jn 14:26; 15:26), it is a pouring out of the Spirit, a pouring out of love, the love of God (Rom 5:5). God is love and the Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity, who indwells the souls (heart, mind, will) of those He makes alive, spiritually (Rom 8:9, 11; Eph 2:5; Col 2:13), causing them to be born again of God (1 Pet 1:3). The Holy Spirit is the gift of God’s love, a token or pledge of marriage from Christ to His church (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14).
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Christ’s church, the Israel of God, is the beloved betrothed (Gal 6:16). This relationship is made sure by an oath and covenant. It cannot be broken because the covenant partners are God the Father and God the Son. Both are faithful to keep the terms of the eternal covenant.
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit assures the regenerate believer that he or she has been incorporated into the family of God. He is the Spirit of adoption, by which every child of God cries out to Yahweh, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15, 23), and He has given those who have received the Spirit of Christ the right to be called, “children of God” (Jn 1:12–13). The Apostle John wrote, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children and such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 Jn 3:1).
The obligation to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves was put upon us by Jesus (Lk 10:27), who promised this yoke would not be burdensome (Mt 11:30). In fact, it is the best thing in the world because by it we are brought into conformity to Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:29). With love occupying us, we discover love controlling, constraining us (2 Cor 5:14). Thus, the Christian is to walk in love (Eph 5:1–2), in walking by the Spirit (Gal 5:16, 25).
The world knows us by our love for one another (Jn 13:35). If we say we have the love of God in our hearts, then we must lay down our lives for the brethren, as Christ did for us (1 Jn 3:16–17). In sacrificing money, material possessions, power and position in the world, we love in practical ways to bring equality to the body of Christ (2 Cor 8:11, 15). We go the extra mile. We give away the extra coat. We store up treasure in heaven by taking the mammon of unrighteousness, to make friends for eternal habitations (Lk 16:9). Our investments are eschatological.
My dear reader, the greatest and everlasting gift of grace is the love of God found exclusively in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us meditate upon this attribute of God that comes to us in knowledge and wisdom and power, which is Christ Himself, living and working in us. The life we now live, as Christians, is one of faith in Him (Gal 2:20). We trust that His work of love begun in us, will be perfected because He is ever willing and doing His good pleasure in us for His glory (Phil 1:6; 2:12–13).
Let us, therefore, boast in Him and His love because apart from Him, who is love, we can do nothing (Jn 15:5; Rom 15:17; 1 Cor 1:31; Gal 6:14). Love can do all things, but without a love like this, man is just a clanging cymbal of pride and self-promotion. Therefore, as God the Spirit leads and guides us, may we die to self and live for Christ with this love that cannot fail us.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
July 7, 2026
