God loves us – the Love of God causes us to obtain Salvation and become God’s children

The Love of God is God Himself, the very inward essence of God and the heart of God; God’s love is the source of His salvation, the motivation of His predestination, and the accomplishment of His salvation toward us.

How we thank and praise the Lord for His love toward us, His great love toward us!

The Lord Jesus loved us so much that He gave Himself up for us.

The Father loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us and reconcile us to Himself so that we may have His life. What kind of love is this!

In John 13, after the Lord Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, showing them that He loved them to the uttermost, He charged them to do the same.

Then, He gave them a new commandment, “that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).

The Lord loved us to the uttermost, to the extent that He humbled Himself to wash our feet, and He does it gladly and willingly. We need to learn from Him to love one another.

When the Lord gives us such a commandment, which is the unique commandment in the New Testament, to love the Lord and to love one another, we need to realize that His speaking is not merely an injunction but should be spirit and life.

We need to take God’s word by means of all prayer and opening to Him so that His commandment would shine with new light, infuse us with new energy, and supply us inwardly to the extent that we will fulfil His commandment because of Him who lives in us.

We believers in Christ do not have a set of rules and regulations that we should keep; we are not letter-keepers like the Jewish people in the Old Testament – we are Christ-lovers and God-seekers who come to His word to enjoy Him.

Yes, God does command us to do certain things, but we take His word as our food, our supply, and our nourishment.

We eat His word. We allow His word to shine with new light and infuse us with the element of God Himself.

We can love God and His children with the divine love that is conveyed to us through the words of the Lord.

May we resist the temptation of the enemy to try to do what God told us to do; may we bring God’s word to God in prayer, open to Him, allow Him to supply us, and live because of the One whom we have enjoyed and experienced.

When we eat the Lord in His word, when we take His word as our food, and when we say Amen to His speaking, something wonderful happens: the divine life in us grows, spreads in our inner being, and we can fulfil God’s word spontaneously and organically.

We can have real love, even God as love, by our enjoyment of the processed Triune God in the divine dispensing.

As we enjoy the Lord and are open to His divine dispensing, we are infused and saturated with Him; as He infuses us and saturates us day by day, our very being becomes love – love toward God and toward man.

The Love of God is God Himself; God’s Love is the Source of His Salvation and the Motivation of His predestination of us

What is love? What is the love of God? Is it merely something that He does so that He may show us how much He loves us?

The love of God is God Himself, for love is the inward essence of God, even the heart of God (1 John 4:8, 16).

The very essence of God is love. In His nature, God is holy, righteous, and glorious; however, His heart is full of love, even love itself. Yes, God is righteous and holy in His nature, but His heart is love.

God’s love is the source of His salvation. If God had no love, it would not be possible for us to be saved.

God must do things according to His righteous procedure and in agreement with His holy nature, but at the same time, His heart is full of love toward us.

According to His righteousness, we as sinners deserve only to be judged, for we can’t match it.

According to God’s holiness, we as filthy sinners are fit only to fall dead before Him and be burned, for He is holy.

His righteousness condemns us and His holiness rejects us, but God’s heart loves us.

Because of His great love toward us, He not only loved us but also “so loved us” – God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to come and die for us (John 3:16).

The love of God is the source of salvation (John 3:16; Eph. 2:4-5; Titus 3:4-5).

Man’s condition speaks and cries out that he needs salvation; every man needs to be saved.

But if there is no love, there cannot be any salvation.

Hallelujah, God so loved the world in His uttermost love, that He came and fulfilled the very righteous requirement that He had, and He met all the requirements of His holiness, so that He may save us and impart His love toward us.

Though His holy nature rejects us and His righteous requirements condemn us, His heart is full of love toward us, so He came to save us.

God’s predestination of us unto the divine sonship was motivated by the divine love (Eph. 1:4-5).

He foreknew us, He chose us, and He predestinated us in love.

Love is the motivation for all that God does for us and in us, and nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

We may have not chosen ourselves or predestinated us, knowing who we are and what we have done, but God loved us anyways, and He chose us before Him to be holy and without blemish.

God’s love is the source of His salvation and the motivation for His predestination.

Because of His love toward us, He came to be a man, and He died on the cross to redeem us back to God, reconcile us with God, and be able to impart His divine life into us.

What kind of love is this! God loved us so much that He did not spare His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ; He sent Him to accomplish salvation for us and to bring us out of the enemy’s hands and usurpation into His kingdom of love.

Because of God’s great love toward us, He came to save us. We were dead in sins and offenses, but He came to save us and bring us into an organic union with Himself (Eph. 2:4).

When we see the love of God toward us, when we realize that His salvation has its source in His love and His predestination of us is motivated by His love, we cannot but love Him back.

We can only tell Him in love,

Thank You, God, for Your great love toward us. Thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your only begotten Son to come and save us so that we may have life and be Your many sons. Thank You for coming in the Son to meet all the requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory so that we may be brought back to God. What kind of love is this! Oh, we just open to Your love. Thank You for predestinating us, Father God, in Your love, that we may be holy and without blemish before You in love. We can only respond to Your love by loving You. We love You, God and Father! We open to receive You and be infused with You. May Your love be infused into us and grow in us so that we may love God and love the brothers and the sisters.

The Love of God Accomplished Salvation for us and Caused us to Obtain Salvation and Become His Children

The love of God accomplished salvation for us, for it was this love that motivated Him to send Christ, His only begotten Son, to save us.

God’s giving of His only begotten Son to us so that we may be saved from perdition judicially through His death and have eternal life organically in His resurrection was motivated by the divine love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10).

The love of God is not only the source of our salvation and the motivation for His predestination of us; His love caused Him to take action and send His Son. This was done in love.

How deep and how amazing is God’s love toward man, that He sent His only begotten Son!

In the love of God, the Son of God saves us not only from our sins by His blood but also from our death by His life (Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5; Rom. 5:10).

On one hand, He came as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) to take away the sin of the world; He shed His blood for our sins.

On the other hand, He came as the Son of God so that we would have eternal life through faith into Him. This is all done in love.

God loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins in His judicial redemption with the intention that we may have His life and live through Him in His organic salvation (see 1 John 2:1; 4:9-10; John 6:57; 14:19; Gal. 2:20).

He came to die for us not only so that we may be saved judicially from sin but also organically in His life.

God’s excelling love is seen in His propitiatory sacrifice for our sins and the propitiation place for us to meet with God (Rom. 3:24-25).

He became both the propitiatory sacrifice for us God to be appeased with us and the very place of propitiation for us to meet with God.

Now God as love meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating, redeeming, and shining Christ so that we can be infused with Him as love, mercy, and grace for His effulgent and radiant glory (Heb. 4:16; Exo. 25:17, 22).

God meets us in Christ and with Christ; He is the very place in which we meet with God, and this is in love.

The love of God caused us to obtain salvation (2 Cor. 5:18-20; Matt. 22:3; Acts 5:32; 2 Tim. 3:15) and become His children (1 John 3:1).

In His love, God prepared salvation, and made arrangements for salvation, accomplished salvation and also brought us into the enjoyment of His salvation.

His salvation is a feast: He invites us to a great feast for us to enjoy all that He is.

He sends His slaves far and wide to all kinds of places to find those who are hungry and thirsty for salvation, and He prepares everything for us: we simply need to come to the feast.

We had a problem in our relationship with God, so He sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins; as a result, our relationship with Him was restored.

He came and dealt with sin thoroughly, and by faith in His name, our sins are washed and forgiven.

If it would be up to us, we could never have saved ourselves, and neither did we even want to.

But God’s love caused Him to send His Son to accomplish salvation and to bring us into such a rich salvation of God.

After God accomplished salvation for us in His love, He entreats us to be reconciled to Him.

We were far off, rejecting Him and opposing Him, and being His enemies; but He comes and entreats us to be reconciled to Him.

He comes and reconciles us to Himself, based on His great love toward us, and He imparts His life into us to make us His children.

He not only accomplished salvation but also gave us a way to obtain His salvation.

He literally does everything for us out of His love toward us; we simply need to see this and receive His salvation.

When we see how much He loves us and we realize all that He has done for us in His love, we can only love Him back.

We can only thank and praise Him, telling Him,

Thank You, Lord, for loving us with such great love. Thank You for accomplishing salvation for us out of Your love toward us. Oh, what kind of love is this, for the Immortal to come and die for us, the mortal! What love is this, for Him to prepare salvation, provide a way to be saved, and entreat us to be saved and reconciled to God! We respond to Your love toward us by simply saying, Lord, we love You! Thank You for taking care of all the problems between us and God. Thank You for coming to us in our low situation and condition. Thank You for reconciling us to God. Lord, we just love You! We receive Your salvation!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted W. in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1932-1949, vol. 3, “Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Volume 1,” p. 94-96, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 6, entitled, The Lord’s New Commandment Given to Us – that we Love One Another.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – What love Thou hast bestowed on us, / We thank Thee from our heart; / Our Father, we would worship Thee / And praise for all Thou art…Thou gavest Thy beloved Son / In love to come and die, / That we may be Thy many sons, / As heirs with Him, made nigh. (Hymns #30 stanzas 1 and 3)
  – What was it, blessed God, / Led Thee to give Thy Son, / To yield Thy Well-beloved / For us by sin undone? / ’Twas love unbounded led Thee thus, / ’Twas love unbounded led Thee thus, / To give Thy Well-beloved for us. / What led Thy Son, O God, / To leave Thy throne on high, / To shed His precious blood, / To suffer and to die? / ’Twas love—unbounded love to us, / ’Twas love—unbounded love to us / Led Him to die and suffer thus. (Hymns #29 stanzas 1-2)
  – Love Divine, all love excelling, / Joy of heav’n, to earth come down; / Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, / All Thy faithful mercies crown. / Jesus, Thou art all compassion; / Pure, unbounded love Thou art; / Visit us with Thy salvation, / Enter every trembling heart. (Hymns #358 stanza 1)