Attributes of God: The Love of God Pt. 3 - The Depth of God's Love Pt. 3

Now, the answer to the question that you have all been waiting for. How can God "agape" us and still remain just? In review, we have taken a glimpse of the importance of God's justice in condemning sin in relation to His love, and in Part 1, if you remember all the way back, we discussed the first part of what is love, which was taken from 1 John 4:9-10. God loved us first, rather than us loving God. In Part 3, I will partly answer the question above, and in Part 4, yes, there will be a Part 4; I will answer the rest of the question with the final half of the exposition on the passage 1 John 4:9-10.

So, how can God "agape" us and still remain just? To be able to answer that question, we need a correct view of the nature of God's attributes. All of them. His love, faithfulness, sovereignty, holiness, justice, mercy, grace, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, sufficiency, etc. Then, we need to split up God's attributes appropriately. God's attributes are split up into two categories: his incommunicable attributes and his communicable attributes. God's incommunicable attributes are reserved for Him alone, while His communicable attributes are those attributes that humans possess to a degree. What are His communicable/incommunicable attributes? How does this relate to the posed question above?

I will get to those questions. However, at this moment, we will begin deciphering His incommunicable attributes. A glimpse of the answer is found in his omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. What is the meaning of the prefix omni? All! right. He is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful. Does this prefix relate to any of his other incommunicable attributes? He is all-holy, all-sufficient, all-sovereign. Yes, of course. God, the creator of the universe, holds ALL things together (Col. 1:17) in His perfect, absolute sovereignty. He is the complete, sovereign ruler over the entire universe. We see in Isaiah 6 that the train of His robe filled the temple with glory. In this awesome display of the glory and majesty of God, the complete, perfect, penetrating Holiness of God is put on display when Isaiah's response to His Lord is, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, AND MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE KING, the Lord of hosts!" He is, no doubt, all-holy, all sovereign, and all-sufficient.

What about His communicable attributes? Can the Lord's communicable attributes correlate with the prefix omni? This is where the debate reigns. Some Christian's attribute God with not being all-just, but all-love, as I described in Part 2 of this series. Those Christian's water down his justice as being nearly nonexistent. While some on the other hand, focus purely on God's justice, and scorn His love as if His love is completely absent. As Bible-believing Christians, we need to stand up to this and argue against the fallacies in these particular arguments. My argument against these fallacies is that God is 100% Love, 100% Just, 100% Gracious, 100% Sovereign, 100% Merciful, 100% Joyful, 100% Kind, 100% Omnipresent, 100% so on, 24/7! THAT IS FINAL!!!

I will explain why. Why is God 100% in all His attributes 24/7? Think of it this way. If God was only 50% just, how could He judge the world in complete justice, and yet be God? If God was only 50% love, why would He sacrifice His Son on a cross for those who hate Him, despise His very nature? If God was only 50% faithful, how could we trust Him to come through for us in our most troublesome time of need? These rhetorical questions are definitively true if you truly think about them with an open mind. So, why is God 100% in all His attributes 24/7? So that, HE MAY BE ULTIMATELY GLORIFIED. HIM ALONE!!!!! He does not share His glory with another (Isaiah 48:11). He is glorified when He justly condemns a person to Hell, He is glorified when he comes through in a magnificent way for some person, He is glorified when He sacrificially lays down his life to redeem hopeless mankind back to Himself, HE IS GLORIFIED!!!!! No matter what. End of story.

Now, I answered the question, "How can God "agape" us and still remain just?", partially. God loves us and is just 24/7, so that He may ultimately get the glory for what he has purposed to accomplish before the beginning of time. By default, He is all-love and all-just at the same time, but how does that happen? Wait tomorrow.

Sola Deo Gloria!!!!!!