God's love is infinite
The Lord God has chosen to reveal himself fully through His Son, Jesus Christ. He has done it in such a way that a finite mind can understand the essential truth of God's infinite being (Rom 1: 19-20).
"No one has ever seen God, the only begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (John 1:18). We have come to know God's love "because he laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16). "In this the love of God was shown to us, in that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live by him" (1 John 4: 9, 10). "More God shows his love for us, in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5: 8).
God declares His love on the cross of Jesus Christ, and it is necessary never to question this, never again. Jesus Christ "loved me and gave himself for me." We perceive and understand the love of God because Jesus laid down his life for us.
In eternity we will have "the incessant revelation of that incomprehensible expression of infinite love," says Lewis Chafer. "Because God so loved the world, he has given." The last image of God's love is the cross of Jesus.
Why this demonstration of love? "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19). Every righteous judgment of God against sin was taken away by Christ.
Sin is not a fleeting thing, or a small problem with God. It has eternal repercussions and was treated on Calvary by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The only means of dealing with sin is the all sufficient Substitute that was in the sinner's place until all the reasons for our condemnation were dealt with in the past, present and future.
Jesus Christ died for me, and as a result, I will never have to carry what He has on the cross in my name. Christ "died for me", therefore I could not die. "The wages of sin is death." Christ died my death for sin. The love of God provides a substitute for me which reaches to infinity. This is His constant attribute to the sinner.
Jesus is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth." The love of God has not diminished. God has perfectly demonstrated His love to sinful man. The cross is the perfection of God and the definitive revelation of His love.
God manifests this great love while we are still sinners (Rom 5: 6, 8). Sin created the greatest problem for God, and in the cross of Jesus, God provided the only possible solution for Him. Every sinner is in enmity towards God. The cross of Jesus reveals the desperate wickedness of our sins.
Only God achieves the reconciliation of the sinful man rebellious to Him. He achieved it by the death of Jesus on the cross. "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned in his way, and the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all" (Isaiah 53: 6). "Whom God hath set forth as a propitiation by faith in his blood, to make manifest his righteousness, because he has passed by, in his patience, past sins" (Rom 3:25). "To him that knew no sin, he made us sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor 5:21).
God achieves our reconciliation with Him through the death of Christ. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." Jesus said, "This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life to take it again." No one takes it from me, but I put it on myself, I have the power to put it on, and I have the power to take it again. I received a commandment from my Father "(John 10: 17-18). Jesus was in control of His own death. "Father, in your hands I entrust my spirit." On the other hand, God the Father was involved in the death of Jesus (Acts 2:23).
The infinite love was revealed on the cross in the act of God's salvation in the death of Christ. "God was in Christ." In that death, "whom God has placed as propitiation through faith in his blood, to manifest his righteousness ... so that he may be just, and he who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus" (Rom. 3: 25-26).
