Infinitely Available Love

Some of us have been loved greatly and sacrificially by our parents, but some of us have not. Some of us have had true and loyal life-long friends, but some of us have not. Some of us have had the admiring love of a child, but some of us have not. Some of us have known the passionate and complete love of a spouse, but some of us have not. Though it is rare for one to experience the depth of human love in all its forms I imagine that most people have had the blessing to experience true human love during at least one moment of their lives. But even if we have never been blessed with human love there is available to us True and Divine Love of which human love offers just a taste.

In all of human love, even the best or the truest, there comes a point when that love stops being available. All of us can imagine a betrayal so heinous to a friend or a dishonor so great to our parents that they, even if they were the best of men, would remove their love from us. The same is not true with God. God’s love is always available to us. In fact our sin, our rebellion against God, is more heinous a betrayal, more dishonorable an act than any man could ever do to another. God does not love us because we are good; God loves us in spite of our badness. It was while we were sinners that God performed the greatest act of love imaginable and became a man and died for us. Though there is much we can do to lose the love of our fellow man, there is nothing we can do to lose the love of God. The love of God is infinitely available to us.

I use the phrase ‘always available love’ where many use the term ‘unconditional love.’ This phrasing is intentional. In one sense the love of God is unconditional in that we need not meet certain conditions to merit it (for indeed no man could meet the perfect standards of an infinitely perfect God). Also, as I have mentioned above, nothing we can do can stop God’s love from being available to us. However, all this does not take away from the fact that God’s love takes on different responses to us depending on how we respond to Him.

God is personable and for this reason His response to us, though always loving, changes depending on our response to Him. Imagine being on trial for patricide. You are accused of one of the worst possible crimes. Your reputation is tarnished and sullied in the eyes of the public. The evidence is inconclusive and divides the people into two camps. One group believes in your guilt and thinks of you as a monster. The other believes in your good character and innocence. The trial concludes and you are acquitted of all charges. At this point can your relationship be the same with those who believed in you and those who disbelieved? You may (and should) continue to love both groups, but the way you express your love will differ based on their response and faith in you. If love is completely unresponsive at some point it stops becoming love and instead becomes the mindless response of an automaton.

In the same way modern man has put God on trial. We see a world full of evil and suffering and demand an explanation of Him. Yet in the midst of this accusation some hold firm in their faith of God. After this life is passed all will be laid bear and we will have our explanation. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And every voice will cry out in unison: Holy are you Lord God Almighty and True and Just are your judgments. At that point, how can God respond in love the same way to those who had faith in him ‘while the jury was still out’ (during life) as those who only believed once disbelief became impossible? The expectation of an identical response takes away any personable aspect of God and makes Him into some sort of unthinkable ‘loving machine.’

Is our response set at death? There seem to be some indications of this given in the Bible but I will not speak in ignorance in something I make no pretenses of knowing. What I do know is this: God’s love is available right now to every man, woman, and child on earth. It is a love so great we cannot comprehend it. A love that gives to us eternal happiness and eternal life. A love that allows us to be once again the people we were created to be (at one with God and man alike) and a love that allows us to live out our purpose: to love and be loved.

Today is the day of our salvation. The Lord calls: come. He says, let all who are thirsty, come. Let us drink together of this living water so that we may never thirst again. It is God’s will that all be saved. Come let us join in that Fountain of Life and Love which we were made to joined.