The love of God

THE LOVE OF GOD HAS BEEN POURED OUT INTO OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT GIVEN TO US (Romans 5:5)

What should we say about the love of God? That is a subject far beyond our understanding and on which we might be able to stammer a few words. Undoubtedly we need eternity to sing a little of this love of God.

Still, I think there are some things to say about it that are also of great importance for today.

The Context of the Gospel

The letter to the Romans is the first letter in the New Testament to teach about 'the doctrine of the apostles'. It is a kind of biblical "alpha course" explaining basic principles of Christian teaching. It is the Gospel for the believers, not only in Rome, but also for us (see Romans 1:15)

Paul explains the gospel and begins with the fact that the fallen man does not thank and honor his Creator. As a result, man falls under the wrath of God. Every person will be judged by God and no one escapes. There is no man, whether he be Jew or Christian or 'do nothing at all', who satisfies God's righteous requirement. God will have to judge each according to His own right (see chapters 1:18-3:20).

Yet God Himself in grace offers a solution. The man who believes in Jesus Christ is justified by Him. God acquits that man and declares that he is seen in Jesus Christ, who has not committed any transgression of His laws. That man is justified, but also redeemed (3:24) and reconciled (3:25). This is only by grace and on the basis of faith. Man cannot contribute anything to this, so that he cannot say that he himself has done something about it. When it comes to our standing before God, you as humans have nothing to boast about (3:27).

In chapter 4 Paul goes deeper into the essence of believing with Abraham as an example. Believing is trusting God in His Word, which applied to Abraham, but also to us who want to "walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham" (4:12). This gains even more weight when we realize that Abraham came from an environment where people served other gods (Joshua 24:2) and where they were thus focused on experiencing the invisible world. Abraham had to leave that behind. The 'experiencing of the divine' was a thing of the past; now he had to 'simply' believe God at His Word. But this faith alone is accounted for righteousness. . .

“us who believe on Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our transgressions, and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:23-25).

The First Work of the Holy Spirit

Then in chapter 5 (verses 1-11) Paul goes on to explain the consequences of justification. A beautiful part that you have to take the time for to let it sink in deeply.

But we are now concerned with a sentence halfway through this section (verse 5). There Paul suddenly announces that the believer has received the Holy Spirit and that He has poured out the love of God in our hearts.

Much, if not most, of Christendom starts with the book of Acts to know what the "doctrine of the Holy Spirit" is. But the Acts is not a textbook, but more of a history book. Of course you can learn things from it, but to know what and how the Holy Spirit now works in the believer you have to be in the letters.

Paul deals with his "doctrine of the Holy Spirit" in chapter 8 of Romans, but here in 5:5 he already says something very important. Something you can say is the core; the first thing the Holy Spirit does when a person turns to God and believes in Jesus Christ. At the same time he is justified by God, he receives the Holy Spirit (he is born again) and

… the first thing the Holy Spirit does is pour out the love of God in his heart!

When you ask Christians today what is the proof that someone has been born again and received the Holy Spirit, you can get all kinds of answers. Many think it's proof that you can "speak in tongues." But that is not what the Bible teaches. We read here that the Holy Spirit 'pours out the love of God into his heart'. That's where it starts.

But the question is, of course, can you see that? How do you know that someone has the love of God in their heart? Does he suddenly start doing all kinds of loving things for people or something? What are we actually talking about?

We must ask ourselves what 'the love of God' is all about and what it means.

Well, the one who has said the most about 'the love of God' is the Lord Jesus Himself. He has made it clear that the highest love of God go out to Him, the Son, the Lord Jesus! God the Father loves the Son; Christ was the joy and pleasure of God the Father from before the foundation of the world. Just look at the following verses spoken by the Lord Himself.

“I was with Him, His favorite child, I was His source of joy day by day, playing before His face at all times(Proverbs 8:30)
“As the Father has loved Me (…)” (John 15:9)
“(…) as you have loved me” (John 17:23)
“(…) because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24)

But then our text in Romans 5:5 means that God through the Holy Spirit has poured out into our hearts the same love that He Himself had for His Son. That is unbelievably big!

A person who is born again receives through the Holy Spirit the same love for the Lord Jesus in his heart as God the Father has!!

Loving the Lord Jesus

A man who repents to God is aware of his hopelessly lost condition before God, and believes that Christ died for him and suffered God's judgment in his stead.

But then something amazing happens! Then you suddenly notice that you love the Lord Jesus! You love Him who gave Himself up for you. Through Him you are released from your guilt, your sins are forgiven, you are reconciled to God and justified by God. The Lord Jesus has made it right for you for all eternity! You cannot help but love this Person!

And the wonderful thing is that the love you then experience for Him is the same as the love of God for the Lord Jesus. God wanted to share His love for His Son with us!

But it was also the desire of the Lord Jesus Himself, as He expresses it in the well-known prayer to His Father: “(…) that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26)

I think we can hardly comprehend what this means. Below we list a few things that are related to loving the Lord Jesus.

The love of the Lord is based on His work on the cross of Calvary

“By this we came to know the love that He gave His life for us” (1 John 3:16)
“In this the love of God is revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins(1 John 4:9-10)

The Father and the Lord Jesus love us and we get to know the Lord Jesus more

“(…) You have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:23)
“(…) whoever loves Me, him My Father will love; and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.” (John 14:21)
“If anyone loves Me… My Father will love him, and We will come and dwell with him” (John 14:23)
“(…) for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and believed that I proceeded from God” (John 16:27)
“We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

If we love the Lord Jesus, we also love God's Word

“If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15)
“By this we know that we know Him, even if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3)
“Whoever keeps His Word, in him the love of God is truly made perfect. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5)

When we love the Lord Jesus, we also love our brothers and sisters

“No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12)
“Anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whosoever loveth him that begat, loveth also he that is begotten of him” (1 John 5:1)
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2,3)

The work of God's Spirit

To summarize the foregoing, you can say that God has poured out His love into our hearts through His Spirit, resulting in three things:

Community – a relationship of love – with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3)
Love and obedience to the Word of God (1 John 2:5)
Love to all those who are born of God (1 John 4:12)

In a picture, you could illustrate this as follows.

The Church of the Lord Jesus is characterized by these three aspects, which are especially discussed in the letters of John, the surviving apostle.

The Lord Jesus Himself asked the Father to send His Spirit because He knew that the disciples and we ourselves could not love Him and His Word.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” (John 14:15,16)

Where is a God like you,
full of love, full of grace
Which us, sunken in the mire,
overloaded with favors?
The power of sin yielded to Your power.
You gave Your Birth to the rescue of the lost

Where is a God equal to You?
Who can gauge Your love?
Your Son left the kingdom of heaven.
He came to stay with us.
Justice was prepared for us;
redemption, light and life
was given to us in Him.

Where is a God like you,
so worthy of being praised.
That through so many tokens of love
stir us up to fear you?
Your Spirit, O Lord, You sent us down,
through whom we glory in you,
Calling you Abba, Father.
Spiritual Songs No. 4 (2016 edition)