Love is God’s nature, a fundamental characterization of his Trinitarian being (1 John 4:8, 16; Ex. 34:6-7). It binds the Father and the Son to one another; the Father loves the Son (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; John 3:36; 5:20; 10:17; 17:24, 26; Col. 1:13); the Son loves the Father (John 14:31). The love between the persons of the Trinity is eternal. And since God does not exist without his three persons, the love among those persons is necessary to his nature.
So God’s love is first of all directed toward himself, but even his self-love is self-giving. In divine self-love, each person of the Trinity embraces the others and glorifies the others.
God’s love for creatures, on the other hand, is free. He is not constrained to create the world in order to have someone to love. His love has fully interpersonal relationships apart from creation. In creating the world, therefore, he freely chose to direct his love outside his own triune being. He loves the creation voluntarily.
Scripture defines God’s love, therefore, by the relationships among the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, not by his relationships with the world. Trinitarianism, therefore, guards God’s aseity, his independence from the world. God does not need the world in order to love. He is not relative to the world. Thus, his love is fully sovereign. He loves us as the Lord.”
- John M. Frame, “The Doctrine of God: A Theology of Lordship”
(HT: Symphony of Scripture)
Filed under: Attributes of God, Evangelical, God the Father, God's Glory, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Reformed, Sovereignty of God, The Bible, The glory of Christ, The word of God, Worship
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