'For God so loved the world' is a phrase that has transfixed the church since its inception, and taking it at face value, coupled with the sin of the race, has long made God's love all but incomprehensible. Theologians tell us it is an irrational love and without motive, and therefore we retreat to the idea that God is love - that He must love, simply because it is His nature.But those ideas tell us little about the character of God, and we are left to find His character in the metaphors of scripture; as in the love of a father for his prodigal son, and in Christ's sacrificial love for His bride - which is to say, we find a love just like our own, only raised to a higher power.Those metaphors are necessarily directed toward the race's own need and interest, while the purpose and interest of God, if they are there at all, have receded into the background. And there is nothing wrong with that, so long as we realise it is only one side of the story, seen from our perspective.This book is an attempt to understand God's love from His perspective. In so doing, it reveals a purpose and intent behind God's love for the world, that reaches beyond the interest and need of the race, to reveal His interest, and more, a love that serves that interest.
'For God so loved the world' is a phrase that has transfixed the church since its inception, and taking it at face value, coupled with the sin of the race, has long made God's love all but incomprehensible. Theologians tell us it is an irrational love and without motive, and therefore we retreat to the idea that God is love - that He must love, simply because it is His nature.But those ideas tell us little about the character of God, and we are left to find His character in the metaphors of scripture; as in the love of a father for his prodigal son, and in Christ's sacrificial love for His bride - which is to say, we find a love just like our own, only raised to a higher power.Those metaphors are necessarily directed toward the race's own need and interest, while the purpose and interest of God, if they are there at all, have receded into the background. And there is nothing wrong with that, so long as we realise it is only one side of the story, seen from our perspective.This book is an attempt to understand God's love from His perspective. In so doing, it reveals a purpose and intent behind God's love for the world, that reaches beyond the interest and need of the race, to reveal His interest, and more, a love that serves that interest.
