What a Tranquilizer!

“How little real love there is for God,” says theologian Arthur W. Pink. He suggests that the low level of spirituality in today’s church is caused by our hearts being so little occupied with thoughts of the divine love. “The better we are acquainted with His love—its character, its fullness, its blessedness,” he says, “the more will our hearts be drawn out in love to Him.”

We focus now on the fact that God’s love is eternal.

God being eternal, it follows that His love also is eternal. This means that God loved us before earth and heaven were called into existence, that He has set His heart upon us from all eternity. This is the truth set forth in Ephesians 1:4-5, where we are told that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. What a tranquilizer this is for our hearts! If God’s love for us had no beginning, then it has no ending either. It is from “everlasting to everlasting.”

Another thing we need to know about the love of God is that it is a holy love. This means that His love is not regulated by whim or caprice or sentiment, but by principle. Just as His grace reigns not at the expense of righteousness but “through” it (Rm 5:21), so His love never conflicts with His holiness. This is why John says that God is “light” before he says God is “love.” And this is why, too, the Almighty never lets us get away with anything. He loves us too much for that. His love is pure, holy, and unmixed with excessive sentimentality. God will not wink at sin, not even in His own people.

Further Study

Rm 8:18-39; 1Pt 1:17-21

What was Paul convinced of?

How does Peter portray the eternal perspective?