Love in the biblical sense is a longing and an intention towards another person. So God’s agape creates a longing and an intention in us towards Himself. His love draws us to Him. When you get touched by the love of God, you have to love Him. It’s like you have no choice. It’s just the way that passion rises up in you for Jesus, you have to bestow upon Him love. Why? Because you have received love. So He loves the initiation of love. He loves to initiate it. He is the creator. He is always making the first move.
Do you know what the beautiful thing is about the love of God? The love of God is not put off by failure because God is not ashamed to call us brethren. He is not embarrassed by us. Truth to tell, I believe that the Lord adores us. His love absorbs failure and keeps on loving regardless. God loves my failures because he loves me. He loves who I am.
God is not obsessed with sin. When He looks at you, who are put in Christ, He does not see sin. He sees Jesus. God is not cross-eyed! He doesn’t look at you with two different perspectives. He only has one perspective about you, and He put you into Christ. God is not obsessed with sin, He has dealt with sin once and for all.
Where were you when Jesus died? Stupid question, you weren’t even born yet. So when He was hanging on the Cross, all your sins were in the future. Do you believe that right there, in that one sacrifice, that all your sins were covered by the love of God? Then your sin—past, present, and future—has been dealt with once and for all. Jesus is not going to die again. Once was required, once was enough, once is all you get.
So when God looks at you, He does not see what is wrong. He sees what is missing out of your experience of Jesus. He has dealt with sin. He is not bothered about sin anymore in you. He will be concerned about sin in the world, but when you have come to Christ and confessed Him as Lord and Savior, He puts you into Jesus at that point, and the Father looks at you through the Son.
Isn’t that a great thought that God is looking at you right now and He knows what is missing from your current experience of Jesus, and He intends to be that for you. So God is always looking to be something for you. He is looking to come to you in a particular way and say, “I know what’s missing from your experience, and I have this.”
In the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, when the Holy Spirit puts His finger on a part of our life, He may bring us under conviction, “This is inappropriate,” but when the Holy Spirit convicts us of something, He always has a gift right there. God will always come to you with a gift. Why? Because He is a giver. When God comes to you, He has something to give you. Why? From Him, through Him, to Him; it’s an endless cycle of relationship. God is always contributing. Why? Because He is a giver. He is the lover of your soul. He has something to bestow upon you that you need to get, and you need to get that you are loved magnificently.
You need to get it that you are loved outrageously, and you need to get away from condemnation because there isn’t any.
The article above is an excerpt from Graham's incredible teaching, Uncommon Love. Uncommon Love was designed to teach us the difference between the common love that exists in the world and the perfect, overwhelming love of God. We are to be loved in a way that is healing, releasing and uplifting. He sees the best in us. He loves our potential. He has a plan for our freedom and our welfare that is wrapped in His goodness and kindness. Through the end of February this teaching is available at Brilliant Book House at a discounted price, be sure not to miss it!
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