The Pastor's Pen - God's Agape Love
Writer Author Reverend Monita Dukhia
Christian Column
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God's Love
- Fiction No
God’s Agape Love
When someone whom you love deliberately hurts you, do you wipe the incident from your memory completely and continue loving them in the same way, irrespective of their beastly treatment of you? Or do you find that the more the object of your affection deceives, betrays, and hurts you for no good reason that you find yourself withholding your love from them so as to protect your heart? As humans this is how we often react because we are imperfect and cannot love others with Agape Love. But although we deliberately do things that are hurtful and displeasing to Christ, He still loves us, because He loves us with an agape love or “self-sacrificing love” Agape Love is love which is and of from God. Our Heavenly Father does not merely love us; He embodies the very essence of love! Everything God does flows from His love for us which is inherent to His nature and is the expression of His being. We are the objects of affection of a loving Father who bathes us with His love whether we deserve it or not. Christ loved us even more than His own life so He laid down His life for us. He became the surety for our sins and willing gave His life for us as shown by the following scripture:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
The excellency of Christ’s agape love is far above any other type of love. He has not only equalled, but exceeded, the most illustrious lovers. Even though others may have laid down their lives for their friends; Christ laid down His life for us even when we were lost in our sins and were enemies to the cross. Christ laid aside His majesty, as the Prince of heaven and the Son of God. Although Christ was innocent of any sin He became our surety and substitute, and stood in our legal place and stead, took our transgressions upon Himself, and bore the curse of the law, appeased His Father's wrath, and all the punishment due to our sins; and suffered death on the cross for our sakes.
The agape love of God for us is constant and everlasting as He declares in the following scripture:
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:15-16
God has a tender affection for us and sometimes when we are despondent and surrounded by afflictions or are stuck in the sinking pit of perdition; in haste we sometimes declare that God has forgotten us. But; in the same manner as a woman cannot forget the fruit of her womb, our God cannot forget us. Even though a mother may forget her child; our Heavenly Father WILL NEVER forget us! God's constant eternal love for us infinitely exceeds those of the tenderest parents towards their children. Our Heavenly Father has engraved us upon the palms of His hands so that He is constantly reminded of us. This is shown by the wounds of Christ bore in His hands when He was crucified; each time Christ looks upon the nail marks that were driven in His hands He will remember us as those that He loved more than His life so He died for them! By setting a seal for us in the middle of His hands; denotes that Christ has set us as a seal upon His heart so that He is ever mindful of our interests.
The Apostle Paul was persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God as shown in the following scripture:
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
Paul declares in the above scripture that neither the terrors of death or the comforts and pleasures of life can separate us from God’s love. Christ’s love is pure and unadulterated; it is constant and secure. It can quell our greatest fears and instil in us the peace, hope, and grace of God. During our lives Christ will be our Guide and in death He will carry us home! Neither angels nor principalities can drive a wedge between us and God’s love. Neither things present nor things to come can cause us to become separated from God’s love, because even time will not separate us our Father’s love and grace.
Neither the height of prosperity and preferment, nor the depth of adversity and disgrace; nothing from heaven above; or nothing on earth below; rocks, seas, dungeons can separate us from the agape love of God. There is nothing in heaven or earth which can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Dearly Beloved nothing can cut off or impair our love to God. The agape eternal love that exists between God and true believers is mediated by and through Christ for Christ is the Mediator of our love to God the Father: It is in and through Christ that God the Father loves us. God beholds us through Christ with an eye of love and through Christ we can behold God the Father through grace. Even though we may be faced with our worst fears, despised and reviled by everyone we trust and depend on or are persecuted with the most heinous persecutions, we must not flinch or be distressed for we ought to remember that Christ’s love for us is eternal, everlasting and completely pure and it is the same yesterday, today and for ever more! So be encouraged and blessed. Peace be with you.
Faithfully in Christ
Reverend Monita Dukhia
Editor's Comment:
About the Writer Author
State:
California
Country:
United States
Email:
dukhimo@comcast.net
Website:
www.lojministry.org
Profile:
Click here!
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