God’s Love In Creation

 “God is love.” (1 John 4:16)

God is love Himself, not simply loving. Love pervades the whole of His infinite nature. Because He is the ultimate foundation of existence (this is also implied in the name, “I AM”) His love is the foundation of our existence.

Think upon it if you will: God does not need creation. If He needed anything, He would not be God. God does not need His creation to be happy, for He dwells in perfect, everlasting bliss. He does not need His creation to be at peace, for He is peace (Luke 10:6), and His Son is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). So why did He create anything by His Son, the Word? 

The answer is love. Love is generous: it seeks to give. Creation flows out of the love of God. Our whole reason for living is to be loved by God. This is why He made us in His image. This is why He saved us by His grace. This is how He glorifies Himself. 

Creation is the expression of God’s love. Everything that happens in your love or mine, is part of that expression. 

Since God is love, the expression of His love is the revelation of Himself. That is, of His many attributes, the various aspects of Himself.

Everything that happens in our lives demonstrates some attribute of God. Everything in creation was put there by God for this very reason, to show us more of our creator.

As for evil, or wickedness, scripture makes it clear that this exists in the negative. It is the lack of love, or the lack of the law. Sin, scripture famously says, is lawlessness. The greatest commandments of the law are to love, which Christ said summed up the whole law and the prophets.

Evil is frequently depicted by darkness in scripture, which is not a thing in itself but is the lack of light. Yet God is said to work all things together for good, including evil.

If you think about it, this explains all the sin and suffering of the world, for it is by these that so many aspects of God’s love are revealed to us: His patience, His longsuffering, His goodness to unworthy sinners, His grace in salvation, His righteous judgement of the wicked.

God has made a world in which there is positive and negative, light and darkness. God’s love is shown on both sides of the spectrum, in what He delights in and what He abhours and overcomes; both show God’s love, but in different ways. 

Evil shows the depth of God’s love when it is overcome by it. Goodness shows the marvellous splendour of God’s love in fullness. So the heavens are for hight and the earth for depth, but God’s heart of love is unsearchable (Proverbs 25:3).