Our Perspective & God’s Perspective

Sept. 19, 2013

I had a dream of a small, handicapped lady being cared for by two women. The conversation had something to do with people mistreating and disrespecting the weak lady. After this conversation played out—all the while the two women worked to move the sick woman and make her comfortable—the handicapped lady finally sat up, stood up, and transformed to her true state of full health, as though she was testing human character through her disability. Even though she had suffered rejection and mistreatment, she was gracious and humble, not indignant or angry. Although I merely played the role of observer, somehow I understood her kindness and meekness of heart. In the dream, I was overwhelmed with compassion and cried with a great sense of love that warmed me through, an indescribable love I had never felt before.

This dream made no sense to me, but when I woke, it occurred to me that we don’t fully grasp God’s concept of love, both the characteristics of it and the magnitude of the feeling. How different things would be if we didn’t filter them through the flesh! Paul wrote, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12). How magnificent, how warm and brilliant and overwhelming pure love must be!

What if we contrast our view of love and righteousness with that of God’s? Our view is relative; we compare our experiences with what we see and hear around us. We measure and justify ourselves by what we see and feel.

Our love is limited, conditional, and self-serving, even at its best. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12). I believe our deepest human love is cold compared to God’s love.

God’s love goes the full extent to not only save the ungodly, but also to make them God’s children, joint-heirs with His only begotten Son! It moves outside itself to care for others. It says, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). It gives everything for others, not counting the cost to itself.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ humbly took on our sin and gave us His righteousness, with no protest about His rights or what we deserve. He did it simply because He loves His Father and His Father asked Him to. “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). 

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:21–23).
 

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

We read so many Scriptures addressing love, but I believe we don’t really comprehend what love means, what it truly looks like in its purest and most potent form! Are we so far removed from Christ that we can’t be moved or transformed by seeing God’s love in His life? Can we let our carnal hearts be warmed and softened as we read the Word and try to imagine how He gave, cared, sacrificed, and even shared His Father and His glory with us when we were still so unlovely and unlovable from the perspective of a holy, righteous God?

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:6–11).
 

We measure our righteousness according to the rest of the world, according to what feels right or what society in general or a religion considers acceptable. Our flesh tolerates sin. We reason “a little sin isn’t so bad” or “this is reality.” We entertain ourselves with sin, subtle or overt, in whatever flavor Hollywood and the media choose to dish out. It makes us feel better about our own sin.

But God’s righteousness is absolute, concrete, not comparative or relative. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line” (Isa. 28:17). His righteousness is the antithesis of sin, and He cannot, will not, tolerate sin. “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright” (Psalms 11:5–7). But His grace gives us God’s righteousness through Christ (Rom. 3:21–26).

Our vision, our perspective is clouded by flesh. We don’t comprehend pure love or pure righteousness. Our best experiences are poor simulations of what we will know when we grow in “the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). We will fully experience God’s love and righteousness. “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power” (Eph. 1:18–19).

Though our love and righteousness fall extremely short of God’s, we know we rely on His grace to cover the gap. We live only by His grace which grants us his love (“And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them,” John 17:26), as well as His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,” 1 Cor. 1:30).

By contrasting our perspective to God’s, we get a greater sense of God’s amazing patience and grace in dealing with us to draw us to Him, re-birth us into His family, and train us as we mature into the stature of His dear Son, who is the one who pleases Him. Knowing this, let us persevere to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Let us not rely on our love, but shine Christ’s magnificent love. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15).

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,…that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:14, 16–19). Amen.

© Copyrighted by Teresa M. Ferraro, Rockwall, Texas, 2013.