Chapter 3

Chapter 2
Chapter 1
The Journey of Love, God's Way
By Roxy J Nolin

          1
The Unconditinal Love of God

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3


          For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38, 39

          One day as I pondered these scriptures, I was envious of the Apostle Paul's statement that he was persuaded beyond doubt that nothing would be able to separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
          I thought, what was it that made Paul persuaded beyond doubt of God's Love?
          What was it that he experienced or saw that made him so sure of this love?
          Yes thought I knew God so loved the world that he gave His Son, but there was something I was missing!
          Although I was blessed to be raised in a family full of earthly love and acceptance I was fascinated at this concept of love that seemed so unreal, and foreign in a world filled with hate and war.
          I desired to know and proceeded to ask God if He could reveal this truth to my heart. I understood that we are all different in how we perceive things. So I asked with a heart prayer that Paul wrote in, Philippians 1:9.
          "I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment],"
          I desired the fullest development of this knowledge, a greater depth of acquaintance and comprehension. But did I really know what I was asking for?
Was I really ready for what God was about to show me?
          Little did I know that with this prayer, the journey that my Heavenly Father was about to take me.
          A journey that would move the depths of my soul in such a way that my life would never be the same again.
          I asked the Holy Spirit's help with desperation; for fear that I would be led way ward. But with confidence I knew I could rely on the great teacher and comforter.
          I knew He would come along side me in my search for this great treasure of knowledge and revelation of the Father's love.
The Journey begins
          My first question was simple, Where do I begin?
          So I found a couple books on love, I read them and was sort of blessed but mostly under condemnation at the fact that I could not walk this love.
          Each book simple pointed out how we as humans are to love God, our brothers, and our wives, our children and humanity. This all sounded good but again I felt more defeated then motivated.
          I quickly realized that if I was going to get on this train I was going to have to go to the source of this journey, that being God and the Word.
          As I began to study the word love, it did not take long for my spirit to start jumping in anticipation, I was getting excited yet still did not know where to begin.
          Then the first thing happened, and it was this, that in order to start I had to study with the view as a Son of God. In other word I could only grasp this love knowing that I had right standing as a son before God.
          I had to approach this subject with a righteous conscious mentality.
Simply I knew that I first must know God's love towards me. By this I was led to a scripture in Ephesians 3: 17, 18, 19
          "May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts!
          May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love.
That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it].
          [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]."
          Paul said, "rooted deep in love and founded securely on love." I felt that being found securely on love was a key to understanding this love of God.
          Paul went on to say, "That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]."
          Depth of it meaning, God's love.
          Again this was an incredible statement and I knew that I needed the power and to be strong to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth of this love.
          He then said, "[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge."
          Wow, That surpasses mere knowledge!
          This struck me like a hammer. I could see that this was not something to be grasped by human terms or carnal thinking. I knew that this was a thing to only be grasped by the spirit.
          As I search for more scriptures there was one word coming up in my spirit, Unconditional!
          "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life." John 3:16,
          For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38, 39.
          Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us? Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?" Romans 8: 34, 35.
          "In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins." 1 John 4:10
          As I pondered these scriptures and more, I realized that this love was not based on me.
          It had nothing to do with my conduct or behavior.
          Nothing to do with my accomplishments or stature.
          Not that we loved God, but that He loved us, rung throughout my members.
          I realized that I simply could not influence this love.
          It was given to all creation without condition.
          I also came to the quick understanding that most people do not know this unconditional love and only know conditional love.
          A conditional love that says we must earn the right to be loved.
No wonder the body of Christ is knee deep in a works or legalistic gospel!
          We have taught the church that God's love is conditional and in this it can be taken back at any time if He is not pleased with us. This horrible message has only given the church an insecure complex.
          I had no problem seeing that I was not worthy of this love, but it made no difference what I felt, God decided to love anyway. I could not earn it!
          I pondered more; God is Love! And perceived that there is absolutely no way that I could get god to love me anymore then he already does.
          Then the spirit took me to a familiar scripture, the love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, verses 4 to 8
          "Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
          It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails"
          Know that if God is love then if I substitute Love for God then what does it say?
          "God endures long and is patient and kind; God never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, God is not boastful or vainglorious, He does not display himself haughtily. God is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); He is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. God does not insist on His own rights or His own way, for He is not self-seeking; not touchy or fretful or resentful; He takes no account of the evil done to Him.
          God does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but He rejoices when right and truth prevail. God bears up under anything and everything that comes, He is ever ready to believe the best of every person, His hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and He endures everything [without weakening]. God never fails"
          Wow! I could see my father in a different light. So simple yet profound! His love poured out at me in these scriptures. I realized that most teachers were teaching us the love chapter from a do instead of seeing the true God, a God and father of love.
          By seeing this truth all condemnation quickly goes because this is who god is, love!
          He is patient and endures long with me!
          He is not rude to me!
          He is not touchy, fretful or resentful to me!
          He takes no account of the evil I do to him that means sin!
          He never fails me, and on and on!
          How could I not get secure with this awesome Father?
          How could I not want to be around Him or in his presents?
          By seeing this truth I could see that there was nothing that could be added to the perfect love of God and now I could understand the scriptures in 1 John 4:18. "There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love."
Wow, perfect love casts out fear. I did not have to be afraid of my Father.
          I knew that there was nothing I could add or take away from this love. It was a complete love that would not change and would be the same yesterday, today and forever.
          It was an unchanging and unmovable love that would never cease, change or end.
          I could see there was no way to exhaust it or for it to ever run dry. A consuming love of a Father to me as a son!
          I was over taken with love and appreciation for my God!
          I could now understand the scripture in Hebrews 4:16 that said, "Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]."
          I mean, the only way anyone could come fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace is only by being secured in God's love.
God has always desired intimacy with us. He longs for us to trust Him, to talk to him. But because of a slanted view of God and His love we have made Him, a God out there somewhere!
          We have, without realizing, shunned God for fear that he will not accept us. Yet He longs to help us, guide us and to be a Father who could smother His unconditional love upon us.
          Many in the world ignore Him. Don't spend any time with him. Don't study His word to find out who He is and what he is like. Why? Because many have given a false image of who He really is. Yet he is the God who has done everything possible in this universe, through His son, to show humanity His intense love.
          "But God--so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us," Ephesians 2.
          "But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us." Romans 5.
          "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." 2 Timothy 1.
          I now understood 1 John 4; "We love Him, because He first loved us."
          I was also was starting to understand Paul when he said; "For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God."
          God's love is personal. It reaches across traditions, color, borders and Mans philosophies. He is in the business of saving us no matter our condition.
          "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life." John 3:16.
          His love is there and always will be there now and into eternity. He waiting patiently for humanity to look to Him and so he can lavish on more of His awesome love through the work of the cross.
          We simply do not know why God has so loved us, or why He desires to save us. We do know we are created in his image and in His likeness but why does he still love us when we are sinners, when we disobey Him, shun Him and fail Him.
          Yet this fact remains, He is love, and we will never be able to stop Him from loving us, no matter how hard we try.
          My friend it surpasses understanding or comprehension. The human mind is at a stop to reason the magnitude of this incredible loving person.
          He does not have favorites He simple loves all the same but what He desires is an intimate father and child relationship. One where a human being can actually draw from all that He is and has as part of His household.
          In the end I do not know if this is an easy doctrine to bring to the church or to grasp as an individual. To think that no mater how good or how bad I am. No mater what anyone thinks of me I am comforted to know this truth of unconditional love?
          Hebrews 13:5 says, Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not,  [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]."
          And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of my hand." John 10:28.
          Believe me, I can now say beyond doubt that nothing in all creation will separate me from the love of God.
Copyright Roxy J Nolin
About the Author
Roxy J Nolin has been a Pastor-Teacher since 1986. He has a gift to minister God's Word with vibrant and uncompromising effects and is dedicated to ministering the word of grace to all the nations. He has ministered across US, Canada and Asia. As well as pioneering several churches, he is Senior Pastor of Solid Rock Church of Calgary and is Director of Association of Gospel Ministries International. He has a Business Management and Marketing background, a Degree in Biblical Studies and has authored several books. He and his wife Jan have four children, two grandsons, and reside in the City of Calgary Alberta Canada.