Fierce Love of Jesus Christ

Nothing can be understood scripturally or by experience concerning Jesus Christ unless there is an understanding that the love of Jesus Christ is so complete and thorough, that it has been rarely comprehended and responded to by natural Israel and those professing a faith in Christ.

If you've ever read the prophets of the Old Testament, you'll find that in the end, the reason for the wrath and judgement of God Israel was because they rejected the love relationship God initiated with them. Throughout God expresses His disappointment and righteous anger over the casting aside of their love for Him for other gods.

That is extended in the New Testament with the numerous warnings of the apostles concerning those saying they believe in Jesus Christ as well.

We must see and understand that the reason for creation in the first place came from the inability of God to keep His amazing love, which was expressed between the Godhead, but because of what that love was and is, couldn't be kept to itself, so creation had to be enacted so that man could be created in the image of God for the purpose of deep love and fellowship with God Himself, as well as with one another; based upon the character and person of God Himself, which was revealed ultimately and fully in Jesus Christ.

Since we use the terms of the Bible concerning love so loosely at times, because of repetition and familiarity, we are apt to not come close to understanding, experiencing and having a revelation of how deep this love of God is.

He is love personified, and so it is impossible not to be who He is. That love consequently pours forth upon His creation, even as it largely rejects Him; as even do the majority who claim His name and the salvation connected to and with it.

What is desperately needed by those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to "comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:18,19)

This love is so great that Paul adds that he is "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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38,39)

We could go on and on with scriptures like these to reinforce the fact that God is love, and that love is something we may never fully grasp as to its nature, but can participate in and receive that love, and together learn the width and length and depth and height of it.

The only way that can be done is by dying to self and allowing the Spirit of God within us to live that love out towards one another, and from their to the dying, lost world we live in.

This has zero to do with what most would call "the ministry," or finding some so-called purpose to fulfill. What this is is call to the raw love of God that has nothing to do with anything official, but a practical involvement with the people of God on a daily basis, which is the only way we can learn how the love of Christ is meant to be given, shared and understood.

Anybody can do stuff, very few people can truly love with the aching that God loves us with and reaches out and yearns for us because of it.

When talking of God's love, forget that sentimental slush that passes for what many believe is the love of God. It isn't. The love of God is real and is demanding because every bit of who God is is expressed in it towards us. That's why a real relationship with God includes the fellowship of His sufferings, as true love will hurt, and even in the best of circumstances and mountainous heights reached, there will always be this great burden of love that falls upon our hearts when that love is initiated from God.

Think of some people you may deeply love but don't get to see very often. I remember many years ago when I was only able to see someone about once every couple of years. When they came the friendship and interaction was exquisite. Even the anticipation of their coming caused a response within that was not only positive, but painful in having to wait to interact with the mutual love for one another.

Some of that is reflective of the amazing love that is the only God of the universe and His Christ that was given for us in the ultimate act of love, which was by His own words, the greatest of all in that He laid down His life for us. Love can't be expressed at any higher level than that practically, and someone moved by the love of God can never be without a nagging anguish and pain in the suffering and pain He shares with those He opens His heart up to.

Anyone can be such a person, but the walk of this type of love isn't easy, and when you bear some of that extraordinary love of God, which is beyond understanding, you receive a closeness with the living God that is unmeasurable, and by extension, will begin to see and feel how He focuses that on those created in His very own image.

What does all of this mean? The love of God is pain. The pain of a being that is love in Himself. A love so selfless that it is truly fierce in its nature, and in reaching out with that love towards His children, first allows those willing to embrace that love by faith to be placed under His potter's hand and to be shaped into His very image.

That's what Paul saw and attempted to communicate by saying together we need to embrace and pursue this magnificent love this is God. We won't reach the end of the eternal purpose of God if we don't fellowship with Christ directly and with one another from that love, as it's only there that we will be filled with all the fullness of God, and He becomes all in all.