Deeper understanding about God

God is love. Therefore, to understand God, we must understand love. Love is a spirit. It is the spirit of God. This spirit is unconditional, pure, holy, sacrificial, eternal and all forgiving. Love therefore, is the spirit of total, unconditional, self-giving service to others. Love always forgives and never seeks revenge. It forgives by showing mercy and by making sacrifices in the process of helping their offenders.

Love sacrifices self so that others may have life. Love is therefore, creative. Love is sanctifying, because, love generates goodness in others. Love brings hope, peace and joy to the broken hearted. Love is therefore, redeeming. The fullness of love is God. In His love, God who is infinite made us who are finite, in His own divine image. Since God is love, we as his image are made to live His life of love. In doing this He invites us to a life of love with Him for all eternity. When we sinned by choosing selfishness, we rejected love (who is God). In doing this we brought eternal death upon ourselves, because, without love (which is eternal) there is no eternal life. God, however, did not give up on us or condemn us. Instead, to save us from death and bring us back into his family, he came into our human family in the person of Jesus and taught us the truth about true love. He taught us to forgive others unceasingly, love our enemies and be helpful to them (Matt 5:43-48), never to judge or condemn others (Luke 6: 37-42), offer our life completely to the service of others (Matt. 22:33-40) and never to divorce our spouse (Matt.19: 4-9). The world rejected his teachings; hated him because of what he taught; and because of their hatred for his teachings, killed Him. Although he had power to prevent his death, he lovingly accepted it. He did this in order to completely empty self on our behalf. He could do this on our behalf, because, his infinite love for us makes him one with us. Furthermore, in order to nourish our souls with his life, he gave us His sacrificial body and blood as real food (bread and wine). His passion and death were acts of infinite love; because, an infinite God gave up His own life, so that those who had rejected Him might have his life. Because love is eternal, His life in our soul (which is love) makes our soul immortal. In other words, because of his death, we do not have to bear the eternal consequences of sins, which is death of our soul. Although we have to face the earthly consequences of sin (which is suffering and death in our present form of life), He (love) helps us to use our sufferings to purify our spirit and gives us hope and peace in the midst of our suffering.

Jesus’ love and mercy for us is infinite. During his horrific passion, he was concerned about the pain and suffering we would have to bear (because of our sins) (Luke 23:26-28), and not about his own pain and suffering. His pain and suffering were infinitely greater than what were visible to the onlookers, because, they were pain and suffering inflicted on an infinite, holy and sinless God. Furthermore, in order to save us from eternal suffering, He took the suffering of every human being upon Himself. Though he is infinitely more powerful than all the rulers of the world combined, he did not offer resistance when he was mocked, spat upon, humiliated and brutally scourged. He did this to completely empty himself of self on our behalf, so that we may be free of sin, and thereby find peace and joy. This is what love is. It is not to just forget what our offenders have done to us, but to go all out, even to the extent of loosing our own life, in order to help them to recover from their destructive way of life. When one human being lays down his life for another, it is a great love; but when God who is infinite lays down His life for human beings (who are so insignificant compared to him), its magnitude is infinite. Love therefore, has no limit. Because love is unconditional, if we hold back anything in the process of helping others, it is not true love. Because God is love, Jesus who is God, is “love incarnate”. He expresses divine love, which is infinite, in human form. It is impossible for finite beings like us to understand the infinite love of God. However, when we see divine nature in his human form, we get a faint glimpse of the magnitude of his love. In other words, when we realize that in order to save us, an infinite God took a human form; and not just a human form, but also a human form that was rejected, battered, humiliated and killed (by a method reserved for the worst criminal); we faintly realize the magnitude of His love. In His battered, beaten and crucified body, we therefore, see the glory of God.