God’s Love for Man
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green—all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His
desire to make His children happy.
The word of God reveals His character. He Himself has declared
His infinite love and pity. When Moses prayed, “Show me Thy glory,”
the Lord answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.”
Exodus 33:18, 19
. This is His glory. The Lord passed before Moses,
and proclaimed, “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
Exodus 34:6,
7
. He is “slow to anger, and of great kindness,” “because He delighteth
in mercy.”
Jonah 4:2
;
Micah 7:18
.
God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven
and in earth. Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tender-
est earthly ties that human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal
Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent His love. Though
all these evidences have been given, the enemy of good blinded the
minds of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought
of Him as severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God
[11]
as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice,—one who is a severe
judge, a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being
who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of
men, that He may visit judgments upon them. It was to remove this
dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God, that
Jesus came to live among men.
The Son of God came from heaven to make manifest the Father.
“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”
John 1:18
. “Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the
Son will reveal Him.”
Matthew 11:27
. When one of the disciples made
the request, “Show us the Father,” Jesus answered, “Have I been so
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that
hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us
the Father?”
John 14:8, 9
.
In describing His earthly mission, Jesus said, The Lord “hath
anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to
heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
Luke 4:18
. This was His work. He went about doing good and healing