God's Love

His good disposition is a manifestation of His benevolent love.

By God’s goodwill, we are elected. By His beneficence, we are redeemed. By His complacency, we are rewarded in heaven. It is by His love of complacency that He will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21).

Since our election is unto conformity to Christ and unto good works, we see the love of God working in our redemption from beginning to end, fr

Augustine also taught that when God rewards our works in heaven, this is a reward of grace and is, as it were, God’s crowning His own work.

The seeking of God begins at conversion; it does not end there. It is the regenerate person who seeks God and makes seeking after God the main business of his or her life. And that lifelong quest is accompanied by the complacent love of God.

Such rewards will flow out of God’s love of complacency. He will express His loving pleasure toward His saints. Again, this takes place within the broader context of God’s adopting love. The rewards that He gives are not according to their merits but according to the merits of Christ. Whatever deeds we do as Christians we do as a result of His grace working in us. Because of the gracious character of these works, we have nothing of which to boast in ourselves.

The love of benevolence refers to His goodwill toward the creature from eternity past. His love of beneficence is expressed in time and space, and His love of complacency reflects His love in the creature’s redeemed state. Another way of saying this is that, by His love of benevolence, God loved us before we existed; by His love of beneficence, He loves us as we are; and by His love of complacency, He loves us when we are renewed after the image of Christ.

Classical theologians saw this love of complacency as the delight God has for His creatures who manifest His image. Of course, nowhere is this image of God so clearly and marvelously shown as in the person of Christ.

The Latin root originally meant “to please greatly.” In this sense, God’s love of complacency means that He is greatly pleased with His children.

The gifts of divine providence are truly good gifts and not the ploys of an ill-tempered deity who takes delight in giving gifts to sinners merely so He can increase their punishment.