God is love and love that stoops is called grace. The gospel of grace is really the gospel of his love. Grace is what God’s love looks like from our side. Grace is love come down.
An illustration may help. I love my kids with all my heart but I live in a different world to them. The things I enjoy are above their understanding. So if they are to know my love, one of two things must happen: either they must come up, or I must go down. Since I am their father, I take the initiative. I go down. I choose to engage with them at their level: to get on the floor and wrestle with them; to read them stories I would never read myself; to play and tickle and push their trikes until I’m spent. This is love in action and every parent knows it.
This is exactly how God loves us. He does not love us like a king but a father. This is the supreme revelation of Jesus who is grace personified. God came down that we might go up. Jesus became like us so that we might become like him—whole, healthy, blessed, and completely secure in his Father’s love.
In the greatest parable ever told, Jesus revealed that God is like a father watching for your return, who runs when he sees you coming, and who falls on you with hugs and kisses. You may come with your prepared speech, your good intentions, and a desire to serve but he’s not interested in any of that. He just wants you.
Paul Ellis, The Gospel in Ten Words
An illustration may help. I love my kids with all my heart but I live in a different world to them. The things I enjoy are above their understanding. So if they are to know my love, one of two things must happen: either they must come up, or I must go down. Since I am their father, I take the initiative. I go down. I choose to engage with them at their level: to get on the floor and wrestle with them; to read them stories I would never read myself; to play and tickle and push their trikes until I’m spent. This is love in action and every parent knows it.
This is exactly how God loves us. He does not love us like a king but a father. This is the supreme revelation of Jesus who is grace personified. God came down that we might go up. Jesus became like us so that we might become like him—whole, healthy, blessed, and completely secure in his Father’s love.
In the greatest parable ever told, Jesus revealed that God is like a father watching for your return, who runs when he sees you coming, and who falls on you with hugs and kisses. You may come with your prepared speech, your good intentions, and a desire to serve but he’s not interested in any of that. He just wants you.
Paul Ellis, The Gospel in Ten Words
