Holy Love

A trend in the church today is to highlight the love of God and ministries center around that message of the love, grace, and mercy that God offers. This is a refreshing thing for people to attempt to see through the lens of God - seeing people the way that God sees them. It is very true that God loves people, that He loves the lost, the drugdealer, the prostitute, the sinner. I believe that it would be accepted to say that the anthem verse of Christianity today is John 3:16, and the banner that the church today is carrying is the message that 'God is love.'

But one potential flaw with this seemingly singular focus is that we are using selective vision when looking through the lens of God, and missing the complete picture. It may be good to take a step back and have a look at the way we see God. For a healthy perspective of God can lead us into deeper truth and life with Him, but if flawed, or incomplete, can draw us away into worshiping and touting a god of our own making. A.W. Tozer said that "the most important thing is what one thinks about when one thinks about God."

Obviously the best source for a right perspective is His Word. A theme that seems to rise above all others is that of the Holiness of God. Holiness is defined as being set apart. The Bible reveals that God is perfectly set apart from us, that He is not man, but an Almighty, Holy Creator. God's Holiness is directly connected with every aspect of His character: His Righteousness, His Justice, His Wrath, and His Love.

Even when looking through the Bible, it can be easy to see things one dimensionally. Take for example the story of Noah. It can be easy to focus so much on the sparing of mankind and the rainbow as symbol of God's goodness and promises, that we can almost skip by the humbling truth that God was so disgusted by the sin of mankind that He "determined to make an end of all flesh." (Genesis 6:13)

First and foremost, God is Holy. And He loves us with a Holy Love. The most complete picture of that is the cross where the Holiness of God demanded punishment for our sins, and in His love He gave His only Son (John 3:16) to take our place on the cross. There Jesus received the full wrath of the Holy Father, so that we may be made right with God through faith and repentance. When the Holiness of God is more understood, it makes the love of God so much more powerful, penetrating, and humbling.

How then should we share the Gospel (Good News)? As said by many evangelists, there is no Good News without bad news. While it may be common and easy to just speak on God's love and His desire for relationship, it takes boldness to get into the gritty truths that at the moment, without the atonement of Christ's work on the cross on your behalf, you are considered by God to be an enemy of Him. And you are under His coming wrath, because of your sin, which is a vile offense to the Holy God. As Jonathan Edwards said, you are like a spider held over the fire. Just as that spider faces sure destruction if he is not rescued, a sinner faces sure and certain judgment and punishment if he is not redeemed. But the Good News is this: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God." (Romans 5:8,9)

That is love - Holy Love.