LOVE LIMITLESS # 1 AM
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork.
The firmament or the sky declares the glory or the bigness of God, since He created all things, and there is not anything that is made that he has not created. So how big is the universe? This is just one site that tries to estimate the vastness of the universe. http://www.space.com/25303-how-many-galaxies-are-in-the-universe.html
200 Billion Galaxies in the observable universe and what lies beyond that? A galaxy such as the one we are in, called the Milky Way, is big. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter which contains 100–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets as well. Get the picture!
The size of the universe is so vast and beyond our comprehension and this verse says the universe declares the glory or the bigness, wonder, power of God. God is big, and since the bible declares that God is love, then obviously love is limitless; infinite. As God’s love is limitless, so also is His holiness and His justice. So let’s begin at the beginning.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1) God created man in His own image, after His likeness (Gen 1:26) God the Father desired offspring, to have sons and daughters with whom He could have fellowship. As God created the first man Adam, He created him with the capacity to know and understand and communicate with Him. Adam walked with God in the cool of the garden. (Gen 3:8)
To deepen the fellowship and have true love from His offspring, He made man with free will. This was a two edged sword giving man the capacity to walk away from God or come to Him and choose to love Him for who He is. To make room for the bigness of this decision God made a way for redemption and salvation for man should He choose to walk away and then need to return. God in His infinite wisdom choose His only begotten son to give his life as a sacrifice and ransom to pay for the wrongs of the whole of mankind that would come. (Rev 13:8)
In ages past some of the angels, created beings had also chosen to walk away from obedience and had fallen, there was no way back for them since they already possessed their eternal state. This creation of man in mortal attire provides his opportunity on earth to know God, and choose to serve Him before the final judgement that sets his eternity.
And so God created man and in his choices, he chose to disobey God and he was cast out of the garden and he tilled the ground for food and his wife bore children in the pain of childbirth. (Gen 3:16-23) One son murdered another and lawlessness grew, until the time of Noah when God said: Gen 6: 5-7
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.
6 And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart.
7 So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground—not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air—for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them.(AMP)
God is holy. Perfectly Holy, without any sin or blemish. God is righteous, and He is unable to accept wrong doing, sin, and overlook it. If righteous men, as judges, must punish lawless men found guilty; and we expect them not to let off a criminal for his misdeeds, how much more would we expect a Holy and righteous God to punish every wrong man commits? Not only is God just and righteous, He is the judge of all and He sets the standard of what is right and wrong. (Remember how big He is) It is God’s holiness that requires He be just and execute judgement on all wrong doing.
As Noah’s offspring populate the earth again, God promises to never judge the earth in the same manner again – that is, with a flood. He desires to have men choose to follow Him because He is good. Yet again and again man chooses his own way. (Is 53:6) As Moses leads the chosen nation of Israel into a promised land, God is incensed at their rebellion; In Ex 32:9 God chooses judgement;
9 And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;
10 Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.(AMP)
And again later after the nation of Israel refused to believe the two faith filled spies who told of the Promised Land, God chooses to destroy all of Israel. Num 14:11-12.
11 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke (spurn, despise) Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me [trusting in, relying on, clinging to Me], for all the signs which I have performed among them?
12 I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they. (AMP)
Again and again God warns Israel; Walk in My ways and obey me and you will be my people; and again and again they rebel.
At this time let me remind you of how the human heart and mind work. How easy it is for us to measure ourselves against one another and for each and every person to come to the conclusion quite wrongly that I am a good person. That God should accept and receive me as I am. The strong deception of pride rules the hearts of men.
Prov 21 :2-4 2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs and tries the hearts.
3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
4 Haughtiness of eyes and a proud heart, even the tillage of the wicked or the lamp [of joy] to them [whatever it may be], are sin [in the eyes of God].
Again and again Israel promise to walk with God only to fall into disobedience again. God warns them continuously,
1 Kings 17:13-14. 13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all the prophets and all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the Law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.
14 Yet they would not hear, but hardened their necks as did their fathers who did not believe (trust in, rely on, and remain steadfast to) the Lord their God.
Again and again God promises to forgive and restore them if they would only return to Him with all their hearts.
Zechariah 10:6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph [Ephraim]. I will bring them back and cause them to dwell securely, for I have mercy, loving-kindness, and compassion for them. They shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them. (AMP)
Why is it that man cannot see the holiness of God, and cannot comprehend His passion for righteousness and holiness and His unending thirst for justice? We stand before Him naked and ashamed with no defence for our many sins. We are fodder for the wrath of God and He will execute His judgment upon all who have disobeyed Him.
2 Thess 1:8-9
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (KJV)
Can you see that, as with all of God’s attributes, His Holiness is infinite? If His thirst for righteousness and justice are infinite, then where do we stand? Just as His holiness and righteousness are infinite, so is His love and mercy. So great was His desire for His offspring to be restored and set free from the power of sin, He sent forth His only begotten Son to take the entire and complete punishment for all our sins. All His wrath against sin was released against Jesus Christ. The wrath of God against sin was born by Jesus Christ as our atoning sacrifice.
Romans 5:8-10
8 But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.
9 Therefore, since we are now justified ([f]acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [[g]resurrection] life.
How vast our God is, His ways are past finding out. How great are His judgements. He is righteous altogether. His holiness is complete to perfection and all His ways are just. When He executes judgement, who can stand before Him? Yet as vast as His justice is; and His desire for all wrongs to be punished, He is full of mercy and loving kindness to all who bow their knee and their hearts to Him. His love limitless compels Him to place our judgment upon Jesus, and to let us go free if we repent and bow our hearts to the living God.
Ps 103:11
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.(AMP)
His love is limitless. His love needed to be limitless to meet the challenge of His perfect justice and wrath against all sin. To the extent of His holiness, is the extent of His great love.
Our Key verse for the month – Ephes 3:17-19.
17 May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,
18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];
19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, [e]through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses [f]mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] [g]unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and[h]become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR URBAN CONNECT GROUPS
1. How can we describe God’s holiness?
2. If God is perfectly just and He knows all things, then what will be His reaction to any sins or wrongful deeds?
3. Do you think some people, perhaps even Christians, take a casual approach to sin?
4. Knowing all God’s wrath against your sin was endured by Jesus – how do you feel?
5. This justice – limitless; this holiness – limitless; this mercy – limitless; Our thankfulness – ????
craigmanderson 