God has Revealed His Character – He is Motivated by Love
It was about three thousand five hundred years ago that God delivered the Israelites out of their Egyptian bondage, and brought them to Mount Sinai. When they came to Mount Sinai, God spoke to them from heaven and gave them his law. This was a law that the Israelites were to live by, both on a personal level and on a religious and national level.
When God spoke directly to the people they were very frightened and delegated Moses to ascend Mount Sinai and speak with God (Exod.20:18-19) to receive the greater detail of the laws and ways of God. Moses was away in the mount for forty days, and during that time the Israelites lapsed into Idolatry with the ‘Golden Calf’. God was angry with the people, yet as a result of Moses’ pleading with God for reassurance that He would remain with them, God agreed to reveal himself to Moses. What was revealed is of great significance, as it teaches us much about who God really is, and what His values are.
Exodus.34:5-7. Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him (i.e. Moses) there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
This was a wonderful revelation given the background. God himself proclaims or declares His Name, which we can take from the context speaks of His character and the way He deals with mankind. From the words, it is quite evident that God both shows mercy and kindness, yet also brings judgement and justice upon those who practice and persist in evil.
When we come to the NT, we find elements of God’s declaration on Mount Sinai shown in the words and works of Jesus. Just as God declared his name and characteristics, so Jesus also manifested these in his words and deeds.
John.1:18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Matt.5:44-45, 48. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. … Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (in the original language, perfect means mature, or of full age)
It is, therefore, by the kindness of God that we exist and experience the blessings of life. God is motivated to these things by His love, which is one of His primary characteristics. This is really what the great proclamation in Exod.34:5-7 is about.
As we ponder these concepts we need to see them as an essential element of God’s motivation as well as understand how they also relate to His declared purpose. For although it is only by God’s love and kindness that we exist, this manifestation of God is ultimately for a particular reason or purpose that He has declared. In like manner, salvation is certainly a very important and essential outcome of God’s revelation and His work, but it is not His principal objective. Rather it too is an integral part of His revealed purpose by which we can both benefit and also share in this purpose. It is important that we grasp this subtle difference. Unfortunately many miss this point and end up with an inverted set of values, where man and his goals and objectives become the focus of life, rather than the will and purpose of God taking the prime position. When we view life this way we may end up questioning the morality and justice of God, because our thinking is back to front.
We will more fully address the Purpose of God later, but for now, we can clearly see it in the words already referred to in Matt.5:44-45, 48. That is, that we are called upon to do things that emulate God’s thinking and ways, so that we can be like the Father Who is in heaven.
The following references emphasize God’s love shown toward man, and of God’s desire that mankind respond to His love.
John.3:16-17. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Rom.5:8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
It was about three thousand five hundred years ago that God delivered the Israelites out of their Egyptian bondage, and brought them to Mount Sinai. When they came to Mount Sinai, God spoke to them from heaven and gave them his law. This was a law that the Israelites were to live by, both on a personal level and on a religious and national level.
When God spoke directly to the people they were very frightened and delegated Moses to ascend Mount Sinai and speak with God (Exod.20:18-19) to receive the greater detail of the laws and ways of God. Moses was away in the mount for forty days, and during that time the Israelites lapsed into Idolatry with the ‘Golden Calf’. God was angry with the people, yet as a result of Moses’ pleading with God for reassurance that He would remain with them, God agreed to reveal himself to Moses. What was revealed is of great significance, as it teaches us much about who God really is, and what His values are.
Exodus.34:5-7. Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him (i.e. Moses) there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
This was a wonderful revelation given the background. God himself proclaims or declares His Name, which we can take from the context speaks of His character and the way He deals with mankind. From the words, it is quite evident that God both shows mercy and kindness, yet also brings judgement and justice upon those who practice and persist in evil.
When we come to the NT, we find elements of God’s declaration on Mount Sinai shown in the words and works of Jesus. Just as God declared his name and characteristics, so Jesus also manifested these in his words and deeds.
John.1:18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Matt.5:44-45, 48. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. … Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (in the original language, perfect means mature, or of full age)
It is, therefore, by the kindness of God that we exist and experience the blessings of life. God is motivated to these things by His love, which is one of His primary characteristics. This is really what the great proclamation in Exod.34:5-7 is about.
As we ponder these concepts we need to see them as an essential element of God’s motivation as well as understand how they also relate to His declared purpose. For although it is only by God’s love and kindness that we exist, this manifestation of God is ultimately for a particular reason or purpose that He has declared. In like manner, salvation is certainly a very important and essential outcome of God’s revelation and His work, but it is not His principal objective. Rather it too is an integral part of His revealed purpose by which we can both benefit and also share in this purpose. It is important that we grasp this subtle difference. Unfortunately many miss this point and end up with an inverted set of values, where man and his goals and objectives become the focus of life, rather than the will and purpose of God taking the prime position. When we view life this way we may end up questioning the morality and justice of God, because our thinking is back to front.
We will more fully address the Purpose of God later, but for now, we can clearly see it in the words already referred to in Matt.5:44-45, 48. That is, that we are called upon to do things that emulate God’s thinking and ways, so that we can be like the Father Who is in heaven.
The following references emphasize God’s love shown toward man, and of God’s desire that mankind respond to His love.
John.3:16-17. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Rom.5:8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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