God is Perfect Love

I was reading a book on grace that I had stopped reading over a year ago. The book was not what I was looking for so I put it back on the shelf. Well, I picked it up again the other day and while I was reading the book I came to the realization that their are very fundamental differences in understanding the "Heart of God."

The difference that I'm concerned about is so fundamental that it sets an impervious boundary between us and God. If we do not believe this one fact, we will miss the "Heart of God" and we will never be the people God wants us to be. What is so important, it is this, that God is love.

I'm not saying that it is one of His chief characteristics, I'm saying that it is His characteristic. Everything, and I mean everything, that God does is rooted in love. Love defines God. He is pure, self aware, all consuming, omnipotent love. He is love, and He dwells outside the boundary of space and time. He created everything in the box of space and time, including the box. Every judgment of God is because His love is perfect and He cannot accept that which does not come from love. Every mercy and every grace of God is because of His perfect love and His love wants us to know Him and be with Him. God's righteousness is because of the purity and authority of His love.

So why is this important? It is important because if we are to trust and follow God we need to believe His intentions. From the definition of God that I have given above, it becomes much easier to follow God's intent for man. It describes why sin is a problem (eternity), why Hell exists (free will), why He loves us despite our failures (made to know Him), why Christ died (He is Love), and His command to us is to love(Matthew 22:35-40, John 15:12) . It is all because of His perfect love.

The judgment of men, women, and angels is because God has to something with eternal free-will creatures not willing to choose the God of Love. To quote a book, love is a choice. God cannot make us love Him, otherwise it is not love. Love would not be love if it was instinctual. Godly love requires choice. Perfect Love has done and is passionately doing everything He can to rescue us from choosing to enter eternity without Him.

This is the context of how I see God, I see His great love doing all it can to help men come to know Him and love Him. Free will is a boundary He will not cross until we ask Him in. Because of sin, Christ is the only (eternal) door He can cross. Christ is the way (the door), the truth, and the life (of life), and God so passionately loved us that He gave us Christ. We must believe and accept His perfect love for each of us, and when we do we will trust him and begin to understand Him.