God’s Love is Perfect
You may wonder why God made Adam and Eve, even though he knew they would sin? Why would he let humanity chase sin and curse his good name? Why does God pay the price of our sin, even if we deserve the punishment? It all has to do with God’s Love.
Nehemiah 9:17 ESV says, “But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”
In our culture, we use the word love so much in so many different ways we have a hard time knowing the word’s worth. So, a question arises, what is love? Instead, let’s ask a better question: what type of love? There are many types of love, such as friendship, family, or romantic love. The Greeks, unlike us, had multiple words for “love”. I find that this makes the most sense; each word for love had a different meaning.
Just as love has different characteristics, God’s love is the same way. The love we will focus on, in this post, is agape. Agape love is unending, unconditional love. The love, I think that best explains God’s perfect love.
With our first example, let’s start at the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, “God created the heavens and the earth.” After he created all animals and plants, he made humans. Male and female, God made us special. After forming Adam from the ground, God breathed the breath of life into Adam and later Eve. He made us the crown jewels of all his perfect creation, and Adam and Eve ruled with God over the world. However, Adam and Eve ate the apple, and that sin changed everything. As a result, mankind became separated from God and filled with darkness.
When God made humans special and different from all plants and animals, he gave us free will. Because our Heavenly Father wanted us to love him, he did not want mindless pawns. While the plants and animals glorified him, he wanted us to love him. To have free will,
God gave humans a choice to love and obey him or to reject him and follow their ways. Tricked by Satan, Adam and Eve decided to go on their own path. Satan told them that they did not need God, but they could become like God. (This is the same trick he uses today). Because the first two humans choose to fight against God, God’s perfect creation has fallen.
Hosea 2:23 NIV states, “I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.'”
Another part of the Bible that shows God’s love is the book of Hosea. The prophet Hosea, whom the book is for, is called by God to marry a prostitute. Each time Hosea’s wife, Gomer, runs away to sin against her husband, God tells Hosea to go after her. Instead of divorcing Gomer, which he can rightfully do, Hosea buys his wife back, day after day.
In this way, Hosea acts the same way God does for us. Just as Hosea’s wife turns away from her husband, we turn away from our loving Creator. Even though Gomer sinned against her husband and had children with other men, Hosea still went after her. Even though we sin and follow our desires, the Lord will still come after us to show us His Perfect Love.
If God comes after us, how does he pay for our sins? Since God is perfect, we, broken unloving imperfect, beings cannot be near him. We are like darkness, and he is the light. The greater the light, the darker the shadow; since God is the brightest light, our darkness shows more deeply. Likewise, since darkness is the absence of light, we are unable to be with God. So instead of giving us the eternal separation that we deserve, he paid for our sins. God gave his son as the payment for all. Jesus Christ’s death takes our darkness onto himself, and his resurrection gives us his light and life.
God’s love is the perfect example of agape love.
As one last example, I give you Romans 5:8 NIV. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God’s love is the only perfect love. His love is outside the boundaries of time. His love is not only for the righteous but for the unrighteous. The unconditional love of God is the only perfect love. Ask him for his love–He will give it to you today!
For more faith inspiration, follow us on Pinterest.
Check out our story about how God still answers prayers.