“God is love.” Never was a more important declaration made than this; never was more meaning crowded into a few words than in this short sentence—God is love. This is a profound statement. God doesn’t just love; He is love. His nature and essence are love. Love permeates His very being and infuses all His other attributes, even His wrath and anger. Because God’s very nature is love, He must demonstrate love, just as He must demonstrate all His attributes because doing so glorifies Him. Glorifying God is the highest, the best, and the most noble of all acts, so, naturally, glorifying Himself is what He must do, because He is the highest and the best, and He deserves all glory.
Since it is God’s essential nature to love, He demonstrates His love by lavishing it on undeserving people who are in rebellion against Him. God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental, romantic feeling. Rather, it is agape love, the love of self-sacrifice. He demonstrates this sacrificial love by sending His Son to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, by drawing us to Himself, by forgiving us of our rebellion against Him, and by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, thereby enabling us to love as He loves. He did this in spite of the fact that we did not deserve it. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.
God’s love is personal. He knows each of us individually and loves us personally. His is a mighty love that has no beginning and no end. It is this experiencing of God’s love that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. Why does God love us? It is because of who He is: “God is love.”
Sin makes us dirty – the Spirit washes us clean. Speaking to Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. By using the word ‘water’, he is not teaching that we become Christians in baptism; rather he is speaking about the cleansing activity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ words are rooted in Old Testament. David prayed, Wash me and I will be whiter than snow … create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Ezekiel tells us God’s promise, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your iniquities … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. … I will put my Spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Some view the Holy Spirit as a mystical force. Others understand the Holy Spirit as the impersonal power God makes available to followers of Christ. What does the Bible say about the identity of the Holy Spirit? Simply put – the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is God. The Bible also tells us that the Holy Spirit is a Person, a Being with a mind, emotions, and a will.
The fact that the Holy Spirit is God is clearly seen in many Scriptures including Acts. Peter confronts Ananias as to why he had lied to the Holy Spirit and tells him that he had “not lied to men but to God.” It is a clear declaration that lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God. We can also know that the Holy Spirit is God because He possesses the attributes or characteristics of God. For example, the fact that the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” Then in Corinthinans, we see the characteristic of omniscience in the Holy Spirit. “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
We can know that the Holy Spirit is indeed a Person because He possesses a mind, emotions, and a will. The Holy Spirit thinks and knows. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. The Spirit intercedes for us. The Holy Spirit makes decisions according to His will. The Holy Spirit is God, the third “Person” of the Trinity. As God, the Holy Spirit can truly function as the Comforter and Counselor that Jesus promised He would be.
Most people understand “hope” as “wishful thinking.” “I hope something will happen.” This is not what the Bible means by the word “hope.” The Biblical definition of “hope” is “confident expectation.” Hope is a firm assurance regarding things that are unclear and unknown. Hope is a fundamental component of the life of the righteous. Without hope, life loses its meaning and in death there is no hope. The righteous who trust or put their hope in God will be helped and they will not be confounded, put to shame, or disappointed. The righteous who have this trustful hope in God have a general confidence in God’s protection and help, and are free from fear and anxiety.
