God is love.
“If we want proof of God’s love for us, then we must look first at the cross where God offered up His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Calvary is the one objective, absolute, irrefutable proof of God’s love for us.”
1 John 4:9-10 “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Love is self-sacrificing. Love gives. Love gives to others no matter the cost to oneself.
The bible is clear that we are not deserving of God’s love. We were enemies of God (Ephesians 2:3). We were stuck in our sin (Romans 5:8). We were spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). God chose to love us because He is at His very nature love. He decided to love us because of who He is.
John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”
God doesn’t love us because we are loveable. God loves us because He, out of His goodness and mercy, chose to love us. It is for His Name and His glory that He chooses to love us.
God’s love for His children is special. When we are surrendered to Christ as our Lord and Savior we are “in Christ”. This adoption into God’s family, this being brought into a relationship with Christ, is what makes God’s love special. When we are “in Christ”, God’s glory and our good are linked together. What brings God glory is good for us, and what is good for us brings God glory. Being “in Christ” means God’s love for us cannot change because we are connected to the One He loves perfectly and completely.
Ezekiel 36:22-26 “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name... I will vindicate the holiness of my great name… I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses… I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.”
God acts for His Name’s sake. God is revealing Himself when He chooses to love us. God is so great and so loving that He chooses to make Himself known through loving people that are totally unworthy of His love.
God forgives us for His own sake!
Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
God is worthy of praise and honor and glory! He knows that we are most happy and content when we are worshipping Him. So, He reveals Himself to us and others through forgiving us and loving us. He deserves praise and worship because He is the Most High God, and He chooses to give us love because it is Glory for Him and good for us! That is an amazing God!!
What did you do to receive God’s love?
What could you do to lose God’s love?
Romans 8:31- 35, 37-38
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.”
When we are in God’s family, knowing Jesus as Savior and Lord, God sees us clothed in Christ’s righteousness. His love for us is the same as the love for His Son.
Think about the last time your parents disciplined you. What rule had you broken or what had you done wrong that led to your discipline? Why do you think your parents gave you discipline for your behavior? Or, if you are a parent, think about the last time you disciplined your child.
Do you think your parents love you too much to let you continue to make wrong choices?
Do you think your parents love you and want you to learn to obey while you are young so that you can make better choice in the future?
Hebrews 12 addresses how God’s love and discipline are the same thing!
Hebrews 12:7-11
“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
God says His discipline is because He loves us. God loves us too much to allow us to keep going down a path of sin that will be harmful to us. God may put us through a time of discipline so that we change, and grow in our Christlikeness. That is God’s love for us! And, God may be using your parents (and teachers) to discipline you so that you grow and change!
Write out a prayer thanking God for His love.
Getting to know God in relationship:
How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?
Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor