God's Love

“Jehovah has appeared to me from afar, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

This is a continuation of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the latter days or the end times as we know it. The words from afar have been translated to “in the past,” “of old,” “long ago,” “from afar,” “ages ago,” “some time ago,” “from far away,” “in a far-off land” and “from a distance” in the various translations so it’s difficult to know exactly what the Lord was saying. Most likely it from “ages ago” because from the beginning the Lord has said in many different ways that He loves Israel. There are at least thirty verses from Deuteronomy to Jeremiah about God’s love for Israel. He has told them, and they have known His love through His merciful acts for them.

The Lord has not only loved Israel, but He has loved and continues to love us who are not of Israel, but are the church grafted into Israel. There are forty-seven verses in the New Testament about God’s love for us. And we have the greatest demonstration of His love in Jesus.

Many don’t see God as a loving God because they have heard of His hatred for sin and His punishment for sin. The Lord’s hatred for sin is because it is death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) It’s the devil’s way of destroying His creation. It’s of the devil. So yes, it’s the antithesis of what is from God. And in the Old Testament there was no provision for sin. Punishment was quick and severe in many cases. Nations invaded as a punishment for sin, evil came upon one for sin and even death was the sentence for sin. There was provision in the Law for sin, but not for overt, continual and intentional disobedience and evil.

It's different after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus took on man’s sin and suffered the punishment, pain and death for all of man’s sin, past, present and future so that we are not only free from the punishment but freed from the death of sin. We have to believe in Jesus, in the work of the cross and accept it for us, each person individually and personally. “Because if you confess the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame."” (Romans 10:9-11) This is a different covenant God has with man. It’s not the covenant of the Old Testament where one had to perform to receive the promise. In the New Covenant of Jesus, it’s believing and accepting the performance, the righteousness and completion of the Law by Jesus that counts for us. While many refute this because they say that it leads to more sin, they don’t understand that when we do believe and accept this great gift, we will not sin more because we are changed. “So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) That new creation is a new person, who has been reborn of the Spirit of God, not with man’s natural nature, but with the nature of God. And above that, the Spirit of the Living God has come to abide in that new creature. How would one know if one is a new creation? “Therefore by their fruits you shall know them.” (Matthew 7:20) There will be a change in beliefs, thoughts, words and actions. They are not the same person as they were before when they had the nature of sin and darkness.

Regardless of whether Jeremiah prophesied about when the Lord appeared to him “in the past,” “of old,” “long ago,” “from afar,” “ages ago,” “some time ago,” “from far away,” “in a far-off land” or “from a distance,” God has expressed His love for Israel and the church in His Word, in His Mercy and in His provision time and time again in order to reclaim mankind to Himself.