“God is Love,” is one of our very first Bible Study lessons
as a child. Why would that be? It was one of our first Bible Study
lessons because “God is love” is the foundation of all our love for Him and for
any others we are privileged to love. Leo Tolstoy said, “Where love is,
God is.” We begin to understand God’s love when we realize that His love
precedes all of our love. 1 John 4:7-8, “Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is
born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God
is love.” Therefore, if we truly love, God has provided that love.
We enrich our understanding of “God is love” by surveying the landscape of
God’s Word. This endeavor gives us an overview of the nature of His divine
love. Today we will focus on the transforming truth that God’s love is
unmerited.
God’s Love is Unmerited
There is nothing inherent in those who are the objects of God’s love, that demands that love, or prompts that love, or deserves that love. When a husband loves his wife there are many qualities that first prompted that love. Then, as their marital relationship grows, there are many other qualities and actions that prompt him to love her even more dearly and intimately. The love of God is different from human love because His love is uncaused, unmerited, and completely free. We often hear someone humbly and correctly ask, “Why would God choose to love me? Of all people, why would God love me?” The answer is both simple and profound, because that is the way God is. God explains this wonderful aspect of His love in redemptive, historical language in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” God’s love is free and uncaused.
God loves His children, the believer, of His own will.
God’s unmerited love is truly an act of God alone. Ephesians 2:4-9, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of
His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up together, and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in
the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not
of works, lest anyone should boast.” This unmerited love has
come to His children before any of them ever had a thought of, or any
inclination toward, loving Him. The Apostle John states it very clearly
in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him
because He first loved us.” What have I done to deserve His love; what
have you done to deserve His love; what can I do to deserve His love; what can
you do to deserve His love? The resounding answer of scripture is NOTHING!
God’s Love is Unmerited.