|We, as Christians, can take comfort in knowing that God loves us. Because of God’s love for us, we can take comfort in knowing that, whatever happens to us here, we know that we will spend eternity with Him there. Because of God’s love for us, we can take comfort in knowing that, no matter what we do and no matter how bad we are, He forgives us. Because of God’s love for us, we can take comfort in knowing that we do not need the love of others, since we have God’s love. And, not because of us, but because of His Son, Jesus. God loves us because of His Son, Jesus. We can take comfort in knowing this.
What does the Bible tell us about the love of God? The Book of Psalms tells us that God’s love is a forgiving love: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:1-2). Because He loves us, He forgives us. But, God doesn’t just forgive us. According to this passage from Psalm 51, He “blots out” our sins. He erases them. It’s like they never happened. So, God’s love takes us back to a time before our sins are committed.
The Book of Psalms also tells us that God’s love is a listening love: “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me” (Psalm 66:20). Even though we are sinners, God still listens to us. And, perhaps, even more so because we are sinners, since He knows that we need Him. Whenever we communicate with Him, He hears us. We can take comfort in knowing that God always hears us when we pray to Him.
The Apostle Paul tells us in his letters to the Romans and the Ephesians that God’s love is a sacrificing love. God the Father, because of His love for us, is willing to sacrifice His Son, Jesus Christ, for our sins: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8); “…because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Jesus, Himself, also tells us that God’s love is a sacrificing love. He says this to Nicodemus in John’s Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The sacrificing love of God the Father sends His Son, Jesus, to us to take our sins away.
The Apostle Paul, again, tells us in his letter to the Romans that God’s love is a uniting love. The love of God the Father unites us to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Please notice that this uniting love of God for us is contingent upon Jesus: “…the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (emphasis added: verse 39, above). Jesus is a necessary variable in this equation. God loves us because of Jesus. God unites Himself to us because of Jesus.
And, finally, the author of the First Letter of John tells us that God’s love is an exemplary love. That is, the love that God has for us and shows to us is an example for us to have for others and to show to others. But, we can only love others because God first loves us by sending Jesus to us: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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” (1 John 4:7-9). Thus, we can love others because of God’s love for us through Jesus: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:10-12). God’s love for us through Jesus is an example for us to follow. We can love others because God loves us.
