Seeking to Understand His LOVE and FEAR

(excerpt from Magnify the Lord: Ten Reasons to Discover, Declare, and Defend Why Christ Came, ISBN 9781602669314)

GOD LOVES HIS ENEMIES
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life” (John 3:16). John 3:16 does not reveal to us the
full story of what it means that He gave His only begotten Son.
Nicodemus didn’t know at the time this meant the cross. We know
because we can see from the rest of the counsel of God that Jesus
died upon a cruel Roman cross. Nicodemus eventually came to
know what Jesus meant, but not that night when he came to Him by
the cover of darkness. We also know by the rest of the counsel of
God’s Word that the love God has for the world is rooted in Christ
Jesus. God can love a sin-sick people because of a sinless and spotless
Lamb. In Christ Jesus, our Lord, is where God’s redemptive
love is centered. It is also what caused His Son to come and establish
this eternal truth to us. We can also look at the rest of God’s counsel
and understand that the world referred to in John 3:16 includes Jews
and Gentiles. God’s Word speaks of these people as being dead in
their trespasses and as children of wrath. He describes them as being
hostile enemies and rebellious toward His ways. Yet in other places
we see them spoken of as sheep, saints, elect, and the church of God.
Nicodemus didn’t know what Jesus fully meant that night, but the
Son of God knew and that was why He shared these things with His
disciples.

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life
for the sheep.John 10:11

I am the good shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known
of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the
Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep
I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and
they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and
one shepherd. Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I
lay down My life, that I might take it again. John 10:14-17

Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the
works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of
Me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as
I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s
hand. I and My Father are one.” John 10:25-30

When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the
holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of
His glory: And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and
He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on
His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King
say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world… Matthew 25:31-34

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me. Matthew 25:40

IT LEADS TO FEAR
These and all the precious promises of God that are given to
us in Christ bring great comfort to our souls. When we are established
in the fact that God loves us no matter what we do, it will
produce a healthy type of fear in our life. It is the fear of God that
has been placed in our hearts to keep us from departing from the
Lord. There is a difference between fearing God and having the
fear of God. Fearing God means that we stand in utter awe of what
has been made known to us about God by His grace. When we fear
God, we give Him the proper place, priority and purpose in life.
The response of our lives giving place to Him will be that we live
to praise and glorify His name. This type of fear leads to the fear
of God resulting in a supernatural ability to know and understand
certain things the way God does. When we have the fear of God, we
also have the gateway of wisdom and discernment open to us. “The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of
the Holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). Our passage didn’t say
“fear in” or “knowledge in,” but the “wisdom of the Lord” and the
“knowledge of the Holy One.”

GOD FEARS
Did you know there are things that God fears?

I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the
remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not
that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries
should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should
say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this.
Deuteronomy 32:26-27

God gave place to or feared the wrath of the enemies of Israel,
knowing they would have claimed victory over His people.

It’s not that God fears any enemy in and of themselves,
but He considers the reality that the enemy will take credit for something
God did and distort His name and how He works before the
world. I recall when God told Moses He was going to destroy the
people of Israel and start over with just him. Moses pleaded
with the Lord not to do this for fear of the enemy. What was he
afraid of? The enemy would have great occasion to blaspheme or
vilify the character of God by saying He was not able to deliver
His people. Did Moses come up with this thought on his own? No!
Remember, Moses was described as being a humble and meek man
who talked face to face with God. The character of God and what
He feared was being manifested in Moses. He spoke what God had
placed in His heart. God had placed His fear in the heart of Moses,
and Moses knew what to do next in that situation—he said what
God had already planned to do. Just the opposite is true with king
David. He took God lightly, and it resulted in actions that gave the
enemies of God occasion to speak perversely about His character.
When we have the fear of God, we will also have the wisdom to
guard His name!

NO SHAME
I have known all my life that my Mom and Dad loved me. I
knew their love for me was based on who I was and never on what
I could do. I did fear my Dad’s wrath because I knew he meant
business when he said he was going to do something. I was never
afraid of my Dad because I had a healthy respect for who he was.
I stayed away from certain people and particular situations as a kid
not because I feared getting caught, but because I feared the reality
of bringing shame on my father’s name. I also didn’t want to hurt
my mom and dad. I knew they would love me even if I did hurt
them or embarrassed them by doing something I knew I shouldn’t
be doing. Knowing they would love me no matter what didn’t give
me permission to do wrong, but it actually prevented me from doing
a lot of it. My Dad told me up front what he did and didn’t like for
me to do, yet I clearly understood the difference between “love” and
“like.” I received a many a whooping as a child because I did what
my Dad didn’t like. He told me ahead of time the consequences of
doing things he didn’t like because he loved me.

I BELIEVE IT
I know God loves me no matter what. I’m not afraid of my heavenly
Father, but I do fear I could do something that would vilify His
character and He would take His hand of favor off my life. He has
settled it before me and I know God loves me no matter what. I just
want to bless His name. I have done things my heavenly Father does
not like, but because He loves me He will and has chasten me for it.

GOD MUST DO IT
What’s the point of these illustrations? God has sent His Son to
settle it in our hearts that He loves us. He sent Him to establish this
truth and to teach us how to love. We do need the touch of God’s
heart and His hand to love Him and others. “And the Lord thy God
will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the
Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou
mayest live” (Deuteronomy 30:6). He teaches us how to choose to
love. Love is a choice that should be made from within a person,
not from without. We must be born again (circumcised in heart by
God) to love the way He’s shown us to love sacrificially. “This is
my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends” (John 15:12-13). God is love; therefore, He does not
need anyone to teach Him how to be loved in order to love. We, on
the hand, are not love; therefore, we have to be taught by God how
to be loved so we can love Him and others the way He does.