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oes God Love Me?

Naturally speaking, the better you truly know yourself, the less worthy you feel of God's love.  The more you read in God's word (the Bible) of God's righteousness and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the more you conclude, if you're honest with yourself, that from your human point of view there is nothing in you that is worth His love and great sacrifice.  When you recognize that you are just a sinful person who doesn't measure up to God's righteousness, it's normal to ask the question, "How can God love me?", or, "Does God really love me?". 

 

King David, was the greatest of ancient Israel's earthly kings, a man of which God Himself testified as being, "a man after My own heart, who will do all My will." (Acts 13:22). And yet, even King David said, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?"(Psalms 8:3-4). David thought about the awesome breadth and majesty of creation, and questioned our worthiness in God's sight.  So even David, the man after God's own heart, couldn't grasp why mankind would merit God's attention at all, let alone His love.

What is man?

Well, we were made from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7).  God created mankind and placed them in fellowship with Himself originally, in the garden of Eden.  They disobeyed God and the fellowship was broken. They were cast out of the garden and the entire human race born of them is now in bondage to the consequence of that disobedience to God. The consequence is spiritual death.   But God loved us.  He did not execute the man and woman and foresake mankind, or just scrape off the whole of creation and start over.  He postponed the sentence of death and provided for man, a way of escape. God made a way in the sacrifice of His only Son Jesus Christ.  Jesus died in our place so that we could live.  

 

Jesus Christ is God the Son. He made the world and everything else that was made (John 1:3).  He came into the world to sacrifice Himself in order to reconcile mankind to God. He allowed himself to be tortured and killed. The prophet Isaiah wrote that he was brutalized so badly that He couldn't even be recognized as a human being afterward. Why did He let His own creation humiliate and kill Him?  Jesus Christ Himself answers the question:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16).  That is, "For love".  He did it to save those He loves.  He did it to save whoever would believe in Him from spiritual death, and to give them everlasting life with Him.  All that is required, is to believe in Him. 

What is Love?

So He did it because He loves us.  What is love? Deep affection? In Ephesians 3:19a (NLT), the apostle Paul says to believers, "May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully." Since it's too great to fully understand, we should just admit that God's love is beyond our ability to define.  However, gaining even a partial understanding of His love will be deeply rewarding.  

 

Surely the purest form of love is unconditional love. Unconditional love is love that is not based on any conditions.  It's love given regardless of any circumstance, no matter what.  It's not based on an expectation of the love being appreciated, or reciprocated (given in return), or even recognized.  It's a one-sided love, given from one to another.  How do we know somebody loves us?  We can't see their heart.  They can tell us they love us.  But how do we know?  We can only observe their actions toward us.  So love is realized through actions.  How can unconditional love be demonstrated? One giving something, for the good of another, without expectation of a reward.  For example, to lay one's life down for another person.  Jesus said, "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:13) 

 

If I sacrificed my first-born son, so that I could save you and be with you, would that convince you that I loved you? Would you ever require anything more of me? The same questioning mind that would ask, "Why does God allow evil in the world?" would also quickly admit that it can't understand why a man would die to save the lives of men who would beat and murder Him. What is perfect love? How can it be demonstrated? Giving one's self, for the good of his enemies. Giving 100%, even to death, even knowing you'd be rejected and hated, to give the few who would accept you, a way to come to you. That is the ultimate demonstration of perfect unconditional love.

 

What does He get out of the deal?  The answer is not what He receives from us, but what He gives.  He loves us because He loves us, not because we're lovable, not because He gets something back.  This is difficult to accept.  It seems completely absurd that one could love a person who is torturing and killing them, but that's what Jesus did.  What we can't wrap our minds around, is that it's pure unconditional love, a love demonstrated in the utmost extreme.  As the Apostle Paul wrote, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). 

"May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.", Ephesians 3:19a [NLT]

 

While we might grapple all our lives with why God loves us, we cannot disbelieve the fact that He does in light of Christ's sacrifice.  How can we question God's love for us when it's clear that He could pay no higher price to save us.  He so desired that you be with Him, that He endured the torture and shame of the cross to make a way. Yes, He loves you. 

 

What is mankind that God loves us?  Why save us? God has the ability to create anything from nothing. It took Him only six days to create all that exists by simply speaking it into existence. Why wouldn't He just start over? The answer is love. It's because He loves us. 

 

Do you want to believe these things are true? Faith in Jesus Christ, in His sacrifice for you, is what will save you. Faith is a hope-filled trust. If you hope it's true, you're halfway there.

"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." , Romans 8:38