Scripture informs us that "God is love" - 1 John 4:8. But what exactly does the love of God look like? Where can we go to observe His love or which portrait may we gaze upon to perceive His loving nature fully displayed? Surely the answer to such questions cannot be compared with in terms of the heart-felt need to know and to be known by the love of one's own Creator. And yet those questions have been answered by God in a more profound and concrete way than any other truth known in human history. The absolute description of God's love is found in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. No where do we find a more complete and perfect depiction of the manifestation of God's love than in the person, words, and works of Jesus of Nazareth. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus was not merely a messenger of God's love, but that He was in fact the Incarnation of God's love in human flesh. Concerning the character of Jesus being the character and nature of God Himself, Hebrews 1:3 testifies that "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." The greatest testament to Jesus being the true embodiment of God in every way is from Jesus Himself. In John 14:8-9 Philip says to Jesus "Lord show us the Father" to which Jesus responds "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." In Jesus Christ we have the very love of and face of God unveiled in the flesh for all to see.
There were many acts of Jesus which portray to us the nature and type of love God has for us, but the pinnacle of God's love is openly and unabashedly demonstrated in Jesus on the Cross. It was on Calvary that the full length, breadth, and depth of God's love were revealed to the whole world. Jesus, as God, dying on the Cross presents to us the incomprehensible and sacrificial love that was poured out to ensure a living and eternal relationship between us and our Creator. It ensures that our relationship with God is to be alive because Jesus died in our place of condemnation, and is now our interceding and forever-living Mediator. This truth concerning the purpose of Jesus' Incarnation should move us to indulge in the fact that God loves us not in word only, but literally went through intense pain to show us the fullest extent of how He loves us in physical reality.
Love, Love
Reveal thyself to me
I wish to know thy nature so
To dwell in thine company
Love, Love
Pour onto me thy tender grace
As I look upon the Cross you hung on
And there I behold Love's face
So let us take both comfort and confidence in knowing that Jesus coming into the world, clothed in human flesh, was actually God's love coming into the world and clothed in Jesus Christ. Jesus being born was the Incarnation of God's love, and Jesus dying on the Cross was the embodiment of that love towards us, as the 17th century Puritan Richard Baxter concludes, "It hinders the soul's approach to God, when the infinite distance makes us think that God will not regard or take notice of such contemptible worms as we: we are ready to think that He is too high for our converse or delight. In this case the soul hath no such remedy, as to look to Christ, and see how the Father hath regarded us, and set His heart upon us, and sent His Son to seek and save us. Oh wonderful astonishing condescension of eternal love! Believe that God assumed flesh to make Himself familiar with man; and you can never question whether He regards us, or will hold communion with us."
"God is love." - 1 John 4:8
"The Word was God... and the Word became flesh." - John 1:1,14
