God's Love for Creation

There is nothing more amazing than God’s love for His creation, especially for those who are created in His image and likeness. In the beginning God created man from the dust of the earth. He used matter that had no will or ability to refuse His designing hands. But, in these last days, God is making a new creation, not from the dust of the earth but from abused, confused and rejected material. He is using broken and twisted humanity, with all their faults, and is forming them into something beautiful: much more beautiful than His original creation.

God formed Adam from the dust of the ground in one day, but it is now a life long process for those who yield to his handiwork. He works according to our ability to surrender to His hands. God doesn’t want mindless robots that have no choice, but people that will love from a willing heart. He never takes away our choices but will guide us in the right way, and warns of the consequences of wrong choices.

God’s love is best defined by examining His greatest act of love which, I believe, is what He did for us on the cross. John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God freely gave His Son and Jesus freely gave His life. He did not have to die for the sins of humanity but He chose to because of His love. No one took Jesus’ life but He freely gave it up for us. (See John 10 17-18) And, in John 15:13 it says: “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for His friends.” While we were in the midst of our sin, Christ died for the ungodly. By this we see that love is expressed by giving freely from the heart.

Love can not be demanded of another. Many people think that when God says “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” that He is demanding our love, but love that is demanded is not true love: it must be freely given. God’s commands are creative and carry the power, or grace, to change the condition of those who receive them willingly. God delights in asking us to do the impossible but, along with that request, He gives us divine ability. Not one of us could love God because we did not have the capacity to do so. But, because His spoken words have creative power, they have the ability to turn God haters into lovers; all we have to do is believe and receive them with a willing heart. Our will must come into agreement with what He has spoken. We can not let what we think or feel overrule the words of God. His words have the ability to change what we think and feel, if we will just agree with and respond to them.

In the beginning, the earth was in darkness and chaos, but when God said “let there be light”, the light appeared. The elements of earth had no will or ability to refuse God’s command, therefore change occurred suddenly. But, when He speaks to the stubborn will of humanity, change only occurs if there is agreement and a yielding heart.

God is preparing His people for eternity with Him in heaven. He is also preparing a city wherein dwells righteousness. In that city there is no darkness, evil or anything deceptive. All things are openly transparent before Him. (See Revelation chapter 21) Only those who have allowed God to make them over anew, and have become a new creation in Christ, will be prepared to live in the city of God.

God never stops loving people no matter what they do. Judas betrayed and sold Christ into the hands of His enemies, yet Jesus greeted him as friend. I am sure it was in hopes that even at that last moment Judas would change his mind. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance, but obviously not all respond to that goodness. God still loves every one that rejects and blames Him for all their problems. He is so patiently waiting for us to realize we have had a wrong view of who He really is and His intentions for us.

In Hebrews 12:6-8, we read that God loves and chastises every son that He receives. Those who respond to His correction are acknowledging Him as their Father but those who refuse correction are rejecting Him and are showing themselves to be illegitimate sons. Not every one who claims God as Father is actually a son of God. In John 8:39-44, we see Jesus speaking to some who claimed both Abraham and God as their Father, but Jesus said: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would act like Abraham, but you go about looking for an opportunity to kill me.” That proved that they were of their father, the devil, because he was a murderer from the beginning. They were illegitimate sons because they would not recognize and respond to the voice of the heavenly Father or His Son Jesus Christ. At any time they could have turned to God in repentance and acknowledged Him as a good Father but they would not.

In Matthew 3:19, Jesus said that God is able to raise up children unto Abraham from stones. Men’s hearts can become more hardened than stones because of their stubborn will. Those who Jesus was speaking to had hearts that were totally unresponsive to His words. A stone would more likely be transformed into God loving children, like Abraham, than they.

The difference between God’s children and the children of the world is that God’s kids respond to his correction. God’s kids make many mistakes, and often commit horrible acts, but God doesn’t reject them. He is always waiting for them to come back to Him and receive His love and correction. The children of the world continue to reject the love and correction of God and blame Him for the evil consequences of sin. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

We were all children of this world before we received Christ as savior. From that time on, we are being formed and shaped into the image and likeness of Christ. We must allow God to make us into a new creation. It requires only that we yield to His will every day. It is a life long process but has great rewards in this life, plus eternal life in heaven.