“. . . and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23)

What was the iniquity found in Satan (Ezekiel 28:15)? While theologians often discuss original sin in relation to mankind, is not Satan’s iniquity the actual original sin? What was his iniquity?

Some commonly suggested ideas include pride and self-exaltation, a desire for power and control, vanity over his wisdom and beauty, and acts of violence and rebellion. These are all true of Satan, but are they not merely the natural consequences of a deeper, more foundational sin—faithlessness (Romans 14:23)? Satan did not believe in or have faith in how much God loved him.

Satan’s Unbelief

Satan’s lack of trust in God’s love led to all the iniquity that followed:

Pride and Self-Exaltation: If Satan had trusted in God’s deep love and believed God had his best interests at heart, would he have felt the need to lift himself above his Creator? His belief that God was not properly recognizing his perceived superiority came from a lack of trust in God’s love. Trusting that love would have brought him humility and gratitude for his place, preventing the pride that led to his self-exaltation.

Desire for Power and Control: If Satan had fully trusted in God’s love and authority, he would not have tried to gain power and control for himself. His desire for power shows he rejected God’s plan and was not willing to trust that God’s rule was ultimately for his good.

Vanity Due to His Wisdom and Beauty: If Satan had truly believed that his wisdom and beauty were gifts from God, given freely out of love, he would not have used them for his own glory. Trusting in God’s love would have made him grateful for these gifts and protected him from the vanity and self-obsession that caused his downfall.

Violence and Rebellion: Violence and rebellion often come from anger and resentment. If Satan had trusted in God’s love and goodness, he would not have turned to such harmful actions. Genuine belief in God’s love would have brought him peace and obedience, preventing the anger and resentment that led to his defiance.

Notice that Satan revealed the core beliefs that motivated him in the Garden of Eden. He first planted doubt about God’s love and suggested that His Word could not be trusted.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

John Ritenbaugh comments on this passage in his sermon from September 19, 1992: “So by making the challenge the way Satan did, he at first made them mildly skeptical about God’s love. Does God really love you?” In a later article, “In the Grip of Distrust,” from the October 1995 Forerunner, he adds:

Through distrust, Satan seduced Adam and Eve away from submitting to the most wonderful, lovable, giving, concerned, sensitive, and helpful Personality in all creation—God. It is almost unbelievable! The Devil convinced them that God could not be trusted!

From Satan’s sad example, we can see how damaging it is to doubt the depth of God’s love.

Do We Believe?

That raises a question: Do we understand and believe how much God loves us? God calls all believers personally, a privilege that sets us apart. But are we aware that God loves no one in the universe more than us—no one, including Jesus Christ? By what authority is that claim made?

How about by Jesus Christ Himself? In His last prayer before His arrest, our Savior prays for “those who will believe in Me through their [the disciples’] word” (John 17:20). His statement includes each of those who believe in Christ because of the words His disciples wrote in the Bible.

Consider for a moment how much God must love Jesus Christ. After all, They have worked together side-by-side for countless years—all eternity—in perfect harmony.

Few couples are blessed to have a successful marriage that lasts fifty years or more. After so much time, their relationship often becomes deep and close. If that can happen between two people in fifty years, imagine how close it could be after billions of years! It would be more than our severely limited minds could ever imagine. That is how deep God’s love for Christ is—beyond what we can ever fully grasp.

Now notice John 17:23, especially the last two requests made by Christ in the last half of the verse: “. . . and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” Jesus asks God to reveal two things to the world: 1) that God sent Him and 2) that God loves us as much as He loves Jesus Christ.

Understanding the full meaning of this verse depends on the little, two-letter word: “as.” One meaning of as is “to the same extent or degree; equally.” Equally means “no more and no less.” This definition makes Jesus’ request staggering in its implications! It means we can honestly say that God loves no being in the universe—including Jesus Christ—more than us. Every person God has called can say the same thing. God loves each of us at the same incredible, beyond-our-understanding level.

His statement also shows Christ’s unbelievable love for us. He has been with God forever, yet the Son feels no resentment that our Father loves us just as much. This lack of jealousy contrasts with the umbrage of the elder brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. What is more, Christ is asking God to make this known to the world! While Christ is preeminent in position and responsibility, He is not so in the Father’s love. As the perfect Parent, God does not love any one child more than the others.

To underscore this equality of love, notice how other Bible translations handle the word “as.” They use words like “even as,” “just as,” “in the same way,” “with the same love as,” “as much as,” and “just as much as.” All point to the equality of the Father’s love.

On the authority of Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who has been with God forever, we can believe with certainty that the Father loves us as much as He loves Jesus—no more, no less. Consider how much God must love Christ after spending billions of years working together in perfect harmony. That is exactly how much God loves us. The actual depth of that love is definitely beyond our comprehension. It takes faith to believe this simple truth: God loves us as much as He loves Jesus Christ.

“Will He Really Find Faith?”

The Bible shows that trusting God’s love and believing how special we are to Him will be crucial for enduring to the end and attaining salvation. In Luke 18:8, pay special attention to the timeframe: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

This scripture is sobering. It speaks directly to those who will be alive when Christ returns. He looked down through the millennia, saw us—assessed our hearts—and asked, “Where is the faith?”

What kind of faith is Jesus referring to? It cannot be just belief in His existence—because even demons believe that (James 2:19). Demons also recognize God’s power and sovereignty (Mark 1:23-24). But, as Satan’s example shows, they do not trust in God’s love or all that springs from it. How could Satan have rebelled if he truly believed in God’s love for him? His lack of faith in that love led to pride, vanity, and rebellion.

At Christ’s return, His most serious concern will be whether His followers believe how much God loves them and will trust Him, no matter what the physical evidence looks like. This faith and its depth are what Christ is asking about in verse 8. The question is a grave concern for Christ, given His example of how many of the virgins in Matthew 25 were foolish and unprepared for His coming. Christ repeatedly warned that many of His followers would be unprepared when He returns. This underscores how much this issue concerns Him and how big a problem it will be for those living at His second coming.

In the verses preceding Luke 18:7-8, Jesus contrasts the unjust judge, who could not care less, to the true God, who could not care or love more. The parable’s principal subject is God’s faithfulness and love. Jesus told this parable to strengthen our faith in the Father’s love.

Returning to verse 8, Christ says, “I tell you that [the Father] will avenge [the elect] speedily¹,” followed immediately by, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” The word “nevertheless” means “in spite of that.” When it is the right time, God will act quickly and suddenly in His love for us, yet in spite of that, people in the end time, while awaiting the answer, will struggle to believe in the depth of His love and fail to endure.

Hope inspires endurance. “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thessalonians 1:3, New International Version). To have the proper hope, we must believe in God’s love, as Lamentations 3:21-23 (Revised Standard Version) reminds us:

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.

Our hope, endurance, and salvation depend on believing how special we are to God—how much He loves us. In Luke 18:1, Jesus says, “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” Along with prayer, this parable teaches us to endure and not give up. Knowing how much God loves us can provide us the courage and hope to face what lies ahead.

Enduring to the End

The Bible shows the damage caused when God’s people forget how special we are to Him. Jesus says in Matthew 24:12, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” How can we keep our love from growing cold? We must return to the source to replenish it. Where is that source? Where does true love come from? I John 4:19 answers: “We love Him because He first loved us.” To keep our love strong, we need to remember and hold on to how much God loves us.

Those of us who were once members of the Worldwide Church of God saw leaders and members who no longer believed how special we are to God and how much He loves those He has called. They wanted to become like the other churches. When lacking that kind of faith, we cut ourselves off from the only true Source of love. The result is automatic: We cannot replenish our love without faith in its Source, so the love grows cold.

As members watched the church crumble, they began walking by sight, no longer believing in the elect’s special relationship with God. What happened to them? Most disappeared. They did not endure to the end; they did not believe in how much God loved them. This fruit shows how important it is to believe in the depth of God’s love.

The next verse, Matthew 24:13, supports this idea: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Jesus discusses two groups. In verse 12, He describes people who lose faith in God’s love and grow cold. In verse 13, “but” suggests that, in contrast, those who hold on to their faith in His love will endure and be saved.

What happened in the Worldwide Church of God is small compared to what lies ahead for some of us. The time of Jacob’s Trouble will be terrible. Many will face famine, disease, and persecution. Friends and family may betray us. Church members will die. There may be no physical sign of God’s love during those times. How will we endure? We will only endure if we firmly believe in how special we are to God and how much He loves us. That is the faith we need to face any trial.

Why Our Trials?

With God’s love for us as a backdrop, notice I John 4:8: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

God’s every thought, word, and action expresses His love. God is sovereign and may do as He wills. This control would be tyranny if not for one fact: Everything God does, even if it seems arbitrary (Isaiah 55:8-9), is motivated by love. Even our trials are supreme acts of love, as seen in Hebrews 12:5-11 and in Job’s experience.

Herbert W. Armstrong once said in a radio broadcast about Job: “Job was one of the hardest men for God to ever bring down to repentance that has ever lived on the face of this earth.” As terrible as the trial was, Job needed it for salvation. Psalm 84:11 says that God will withhold no good thing from us. To withhold that trial from Job would have been withholding a good thing, making God guilty of hating Job (Proverbs 13:24).

Only God is wise enough to allow us to go through a desperately needed trial while simultaneously using it to accomplish His other purposes. In the worsening times ahead, God will not use us as mere tools to achieve His ends, though He has the right to do so—He made us, and Christ fully owns us, having bought us with the ultimate price of His blood (I Corinthians 6:20). But because of His love for us, He allows us to face trials to perfect us for salvation. As Romans 8:28 assures us, “[A]ll things work together for good” for those who are the called.

Trusting God’s Love in Trials

How will we spiritually survive if we are among those persecuted, tortured, or even killed as many in the past were (Hebrews 11:30-40)? It will be because we believe our God loves no one else more than us. We will trust that what we endure is for our good and His greater purpose for mankind.

As children, our parents disciplined us. As it happened, how often did we thank them for the love they showed? As parents, we have disciplined our children. How many times have they ever said, “Thank you”? Most likely, the answer to both questions is “Never!”

Do we discipline our children out of love or hate? Love, of course. Then why do they not say, “Thank you”? At the moment it is happening, they cannot see—they do not believe—how much we love them. It is a hallmark of youth and immaturity to be blind to the big picture, only seeing what is directly in front of them. Hopefully, in times of trial, we are not children spiritually.

The apostle John describes love in I John 4:10 (Contemporary English Version): “Real love is not our love for God, but [H]is love for us. God sent [H]is Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven.”

In verse 16, John writes: “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” John reinforces how much God loves us and encourages us to trust in this love God has for us. Verse 16 repeats “God is love” from verse 8. This repetition emphasizes that God’s love for us is reliable, enduring, and constant. The verse ends by showing the fruit of this kind of love—unity.

This truth leads directly into I John 4:17 (GOD’s WORD Translation):

God’s love has reached its goal in us. So we look ahead with confidence to the day of judgment. While we are in this world, we are exactly like [H]im with regard to love.

When we have this faith in God’s love for us, mentioned in verse 16, its purpose is to give us the confidence, courage, and hope we need as we face our trials in our day of judgment, which is happening now (I Peter 4:17). By living out this faith in God’s love for us, we will be exactly like Christ.

Christ had absolute faith in God’s love for Him, and He used that faith to triumph in His trials and endure. We must use the same faith to follow the example of endurance He set for us.

Do we know and believe how much God loves each of us? In Part Two, we will explore the question of belief and its evidence.

Endnote:

¹ In Luke 18:8, “speedily” cannot mean God will act right away because verse 7 says He may “bear long,” that is, wait a long time. Instead, it is about how fast God will act once the time is right, not when He will act. “Speedily” describes how quickly God moves when it is time, not how soon He starts. Even though God might allow people to cry out and go through tough times (verse 7), when He decides it is the right time to step in, He will act without delay. These verses show God can be both patient and quick to act when the right time comes. Numerous translations use the word “quickly” instead of “speedily.” Isaiah 60:22 (Easy English Bible) gives an example of the sense of Luke 18:8: “When the right time comes, I will make it happen quickly!”