Agapé 6

Everlasting Love 2

God loves us with an everlasting love. Not only does it have no end, but it has no beginning too. God is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. And He is love. And so, love is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Love is the starting point of the Christian life, and its end goal.

John 17:23-24 NKJV
I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

These are the words of Jesus in prayer to His Father. He is praying for His disciples, and all who would believe in Him through their word (and that includes you and me). He prayed that the world may know that God has loved us as God has loved Him. The implication is that God loves us as much as He loves Jesus! That is amazing!

God loves us with the exact same quality and quantity of love as He loves His only begotten Son, Jesus, with. God feels about us the same that He feels about Jesus. He sees us in Christ. We have been included. We are one with Jesus. As such, we get the exact same love flowing from the Father to us as Jesus gets flowing to Him. The Father says the same things over us as He says over Jesus. He called Jesus His Beloved Son, in Whom He is well pleased. The Father now calls us His beloved children, in whom He is well pleased.

But it doesn’t end there. When Jesus said that His Father has loved us as He has loved Him, the Greek word translated as does not just mean as much as, according to or how. It also means when. God has loved us from the exact moment He started loving Jesus. And when did God start loving Jesus? In His prayer, Jesus went on to say that God loved Him before the foundation of the world.

The Greek word translated foundation there also means conception. The Father loved Jesus before He ever conceived the world in His heart and mind. Before He ever gave a single thought to the creation of this world, and everything in it, God loved His Son with an everlasting love. And we were included in that! God has loved us before the foundation of the world.

Okay, now, wait just a minute! I can understand how God loved Jesus before the foundation of the world. He was there in the beginning. He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. He is the Word that was with God in the beginning. He is the Eternal Word. He has always been. But how did God also love me before the foundation of the world? I am only 25 years old…

Ephesians 1:3-4 NKJV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

The Father chose us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. We were there. We were in Him from the beginning. We were part of Him. Amazing! And so, that is how God has loved us from before the foundation of the world. Actually, the reason that God chose us in Christ was so that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. We were chosen to be in love from the very beginning! Before the creation of this whole world ever entered the heart of God. The world was created with us in mind, having been loved by Him and chosen in love already.

This is the best in love that there is! God having been in love with you from before the foundation of the world…

Peter

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