Love of God

The love of God is the benevolent disposition or inclination in God that stirs him to bestow benefits both physical and spiritual upon those created in his image (and is thus in this respect synonymous with grace). We see the love of God most clearly in that he gave himself to us in his Son, through which God gave us the most enthralling, beautiful, and eternally satisfying experience possible, that is, the knowledge and enjoyment of God himself. Although the love of God can be discussed in at least five different ways, this is the love of God in its particular, sovereign, and saving form. This eternal love of God for his people is what secures the adoption of the saints into the family of God, the loving discipline of the Father for his children, and the presence of the Spirit of love in their lives as Christians.