Out-of-this-world LOVE

To describe something extremely impressive, excellent, beautiful, or unusual, we use the idiom, “out-of-this-world!” with matching gasps.

So when I heard our guest pastor describe God’s love in his message (on our church’s 51st anniversary worship service), I gasped.

Suddenly, in my head, the idiom was not only figurative. It. Is. Literal.

God’s love cannot be found on earth in the hearts of men. No one can come close to duplicating God’s love on earth or in the universe. As demonstrated through the life and death of Jesus, and as shown clearly through key scriptures in the Bible, God’s love is unconditional and unending.

Then our guest preacher read Romans 8:30, "And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

In layman’s terms, he explained that this is the golden chain of redemption--God's plan for believers from beginning to end. The verbs are explicit: 

• Predestined: God chose ahead of time to make His people like His Son, Jesus.
• Called: God invites people and draws them to Himself through the Holy Spirit.
• Justified: God forgives a person's sins because of Jesus, declaring him right and innocent.
• Glorified: Believers will share in the glory of Christ in heaven. 

He stressed that the verse uses the past tense even for "glorified" even though it has not happened yet.  Meaning, God's plan is completely certain and absolute.

Where else can we find this kind of love? He came as a Man to show love in our world. Yet this mortal place we call Earth mirrors the ways shown us way back in the Old Testament—on a larger scale now because of population growth. We are all witnesses today of massive:  

• Exploitation and Corruption
• Idolatry
• Decline of Moral Values 
• Violence and War       

No matter. Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present 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 in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

Out-of-this-world LOVE. What else can it be?