“God’s love,
understood as His desire for a relationship with us, is unconditional. In fact,
God commands all men and women everywhere to repent and come to Him (3 Nephi
11:32). He desires to redeem us, to glorify and exalt us equally and
unconditionally. Does God desire to have an eternal relationship with all His
children? Yes, and in this sense God’s love is unconditional. ‘All are invited,
none is excluded.’ But it takes two people to have a relationship.
“A
relationship by definition, requires two points of reference, and only some of
God’s children love Him back and agree to enter into the desired relationship.
He does not initially love them any more than others, but in time the
relationship of love that is possible with them is much, much greater than it
is with those who reject Him. They ‘abide in His love’ (John 15:10)
“Many of
God’s children will not love Him. They will not accept the proposal of the
Bridegroom, though He loves them dearly. They will never experience the joy the
gospel marriage brings. However, that is not because God is unwilling or
because they failed to meet conditions that would have rendered Him willing. It
is because they will not accept His proposal; they will not come to the
wedding. Though He loved them first, they did not love Him back, and by their
choice the relationship will not be as great as it might have been – they refuse
to ‘abide in His love’.” (Stepehen R.
Robinson, Following Christ, 149-150)
A few years
ago I wrote a post on Facebook saying that God the Father loves His Son the
most out of all His children. One reader was enraged. He claimed that God is
perfect and has the ability to love all his children equally. He said he would
be devastated if his children thought he had a favourite. I was, on the other
hand, astounded that he would consider himself on equal grounds in Father’s
esteem with the Saviour of the world and was in his sinful state deserving of
the same love. In my view, the Saviour deserves that and even more.
Through my
study of the scriptures I have come to understand why the Saviour would be
loved the most:
-
He saved all the rest of the Father’s children through
His Atoning sacrifice and paved the way to eternal life for those who accept Him
(D&C 19:16-19).
-
His perfect and complete obedience: During His visit to
the Americas, The Saviour made 15 references of His obedience to the Father (3
Nephi 15: 14-16,18-19, 16:3,10,16; 17:2; 18:14,27; 20:10,14,46), including the reference
to the greatest act of obedience ever, that of being sent by the Father to the
cross (3 Nephi 27:13-14). In the meridian of time, He told his disciples: “I do
always those things that please Him” (John 8:29). How many of us can say this?
-
Nobody loves the Father more than Christ. This He
showed very clearly in pre-earth life when He volunteered to preserve His glory
and opposed Satan who sought to take it away (Moses 4:1-4). I don’t recall any
of us stepping up volunteering for this…….
-
Jesus was not only Father’s spirit child but His ONLY
mortal child hence the Father calls Him ‘The Only Begotten’ and ‘The Beloved
Son’….the references of which are too numerous to list.
-
Christ was and is the most righteous of all Father’s
children and ‘he that is righteous is FAVOURED of God’ (1 Nephi 17:35).
-
And finally…..Mormon called the Son of the Father ‘His
MOST beloved’ (Mormon 5:14).
A female
reader attempted to support the man who challenged my Facebook post and said
that the Father loves ALL His children. I asked her if He loves Satan too considering
that God cannot love evil which Satan has become and through his evil has
destroyed many of Father’s children as opposed to Christ who has saved us all.
She answered ‘yes’. Some of us are deluded beyond recognition…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Father and Son by Danny Hahlbohm)
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