Love is not something the mind manufactures. It does not come from logic or analysis. It arises freely from the soul when it encounters what it loves. God is not merely loving — God is love made visible. And God’s perfect love toward humanity is meant to awaken a corresponding love for God in the human heart. The mirror that reflects this love may be cracked and uneven. Human souls, even at their best on earth and even under grace, are fractured by weakness and enduring flaws. Still, a person’s love for God can surge forward with the full strength of their being.
The story of God’s dealings with humanity is, at its core, a story of love. It is the only history that will survive everything else — outlasting the world itself and escaping the final fire that consumes all earthly works. This story will be our eternal textbook. There is no theme more noble or more elevating. The brilliance of the physical universe fades beside the splendor of God’s character — the central fire that ignites the souls of angels in heaven and softens the hearts of sinners on earth. In this way, the study of God’s heart rises far above the study of God’s power.
In fact, the greatest wonders of the gospel are not found merely in Christ’s earthly life, death, and resurrection. They are found in the extraordinary transformation the Holy Spirit works within the believer — the soul that grasps the immense power God directs toward those who believe. It is less surprising that the eternal Logos would unite himself permanently with a flawless human body and soul than that the Holy Spirit, equal with the Father and the Son, would first cleanse a deeply corrupted person and then transform a heart once described as a “cage of unclean birds” into a “holy temple,” fit to be God’s dwelling.
For those who have experienced God’s love fully poured into their hearts, this is the deepest mystery of all. The age of miracles has not ended. Jesus once turned water into wine without resistance, but the Holy Spirit performs an even greater transformation—changing a sinful soul bristling with opposition, converting corruption into purity through the powerful alchemy of love. This ability to radically remake human character is the enduring miracle of Christianity.
As Scripture declares, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree” — tenderness replacing cruelty; “instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree” — gentle virtues taking the place of sharp hatreds. And all of this “shall be to the Lord for a name,” revealing his nature, and standing as an everlasting sign that will never be erased. By holding up transformed lives — people purified in character and energized for Christ — the Holy Spirit continues his miracle-working testimony in an age marked by materialism, selfishness, and disbelief.
God has already begun the work of saving every human soul. Humanity as a whole was rescued from immediate extinction when the death sentence pronounced after the first transgression in Eden was not instantly carried out. Redemption began with the promise that the woman’s Seed would crush the serpent’s head. The children born to Adam and Eve after their fall inherited their parents’ likeness, carrying powerful tendencies toward sin in their passions and wills. Yet they enter life under a dispensation of mercy.
By accepting the truths of the gospel and placing full trust in its Author, any repentant sinner can be delivered from the guilt of sin. But if someone refuses God’s plan of salvation, then God’s merciful intention is thwarted, and this initial salvation never becomes complete or final. By misusing the God-given power of freedom, a person can resist every appeal of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and shape for themselves a destiny of enduring sorrow.
The human will stands as an independent source of moral choice, uncaused in its decisions. As one thinker put it, “Whatever the good person is, they are so through God and their own will; but the evil person is so only through their own will, for evil is a turning away from God.” From this comes John Fletcher’s theological axiom: “All damnation flows from man; all salvation flows from God.” God saves all that he can without violating the sacred gift of freedom. Hence the urgent plea: “Turn ye, turn ye — why will ye die?”
In this way, love is revealed as the ruling power of the world — not a soft or sentimental affection, but a holy force always aligned with wisdom and justice. It saves the repentant, persevering believer and consumes, like fire, those who stubbornly reject it and cast aside the shelter of the atoning blood through persistent disobedience.
The extent to which this love conquers the believer’s soul in the present life has fascinated Christians throughout history. At times, God’s grace has been magnified, and many have demonstrated that he can do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” At other times, this great Christian privilege — often called evangelical perfection or perfect love — has faded into partial or total eclipse. In those seasons, the Church has wandered in darkness, chilled and spiritually numb.
This is a revision of Chapter 1 of Love Enthroned: Essays on Evangelical Perfection (1875) by Daniel Steele, written with the assistance of Microslop CoPilot. The original chapter can be found here: LOVE REVEALED.
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