Volume 1, Issue 2

"Preparing Servants for the Nations"

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God's Love in a Mystery

Rev. Lawrence "Buddy" Martin
Senior Pastor
Christian Challenge

The song says, 'I’m redeemed, by love divine. Oh glory, glory, Christ is mine. My all to Him, I have resigned. I have been. I have been redeemed.’

The greatest mystery in the Bible is the mystery of God’s love. Yet according to the apostle, this mystery is beyond our comprehension. It is a mystery that can warm our hearts, but not a mystery that we can understand.

The love of the Lord is the underlying message of the Bible. It wraps itself around God's Messiah. It wraps itself around God's people. It wraps itself around the love that God’s people have for God and His Messiah.

The apostle Paul said, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-7)

Paul said that God loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions. This can only mean one thing! No one is ever been saved because of their innate goodness. We had no innate goodness. We are saved on one factor alone. We are saved by love divine.

But when did God first love us? Did He first love us when we responded to the pull of the gospel? No. According to the Scriptures, God loved us before time began. We were in His heart from the beginning.

The Bible tells us that creation itself is about God's love. God said, "Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, and you shall commit to Me the work of My hands. It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands and I ordained all their host." (Isaiah 45:11,12)

Did you catch it? God says His work of creation is about sons. ("Sons" is a generic term inclusive of daughters.)

The apostle gives a summation; "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)

Jesus embraced the cross because in His heart He carried a picture of every one who would come to believe in Him. We were His joy. It says, "Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:2)

The Bible is filled with the language of love. Sometimes this love is compared to a Father and his children. At other times it is compared to a groom and his bride. There is a prophetic text where God puts both illustrations together. God says, "For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you." (Isaiah 62:5)

Proverbs gives us a picture of God's Messiah in the beginning. It says, "Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of men." (Prov 8:30-31)

Let’s transpose this to the gospels. When certain of the disciples were excited about casting out demons, the Lord tells them not to let this be the source of their joy. They should rejoice because their names were recorded in heaven.

It then says, "He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, 'I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in Your sight.'" (Luke 10:21) Just like in the book of Proverbs, Jesus is expressing His joy over the children.

As I said earlier, God's love in a mystery has more than one side to it. When we were brought to Jesus, a strange phenomenon took place. Our hearts began to warm with a love for God and for His Messiah. Our fears disappeared.

What then is the number one sign that a person is born again? Is it the ability to speak in other languages? Is it the power to cast out demons? Is it being able to prophesy or cast mountains into the sea? Let me give you a hint. Jesus said to some of the Pharisees, "If God were your father, you would love Me." (John 8:42)

Did you catch it again? The one true sign that a person is born again is the love sign. The very love that Jesus loves us with is the very same love that we love Him with.

Peter said, "And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." (1Peter 1:8)

Let me add one more facet to God's love in a mystery. The apostle said that nothing could separate us from God's love that is found in Jesus Christ. (Cf. Rom8:35-39) It’s as if God were saying, ‘I can’t stop loving you.’ But the same message is in our hearts; ‘Lord, we can’t stop loving You.’

As for the separation factor, Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." (John 10:27-29)

John sums it up by saying, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1John 4:10)

There you have it. Let your heart be warmed.

Bro. Buddy and his wife Betty founded Christian Challenge in 1976 after having pastored and evangelized for several years. He serves as Senior Pastor and General Overseer. Bro. Buddy and Sister Betty have 3 children and 8 grandchildren, all of whom worship at Christian Challenge.