From God Exists to God Loves Me
This month’s article continues our discussion of 10 Big Truths that we should believe and meditate upon daily. When we remind ourselves of these truths each day, they reorient our thinking, our beliefs, and our actions so that we begin to “live worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (Eph. 4:1).
Last month, we discussed how the reality that God exists changes everything. It causes us to reevaluate ourselves and our place in the universe and in our own lives. It leads us to consider our ultimate purpose. It confronts our pride and selfishness and drives us to proper worship and service to the One who is truly preeminent. Once we accept that God exists and is preeminent, the next natural question is: What is He like toward us? Answering this question is our reflection for this month.
The same awesome Being who is so much bigger, better, and grander than we are is not distant or indifferent toward us. He is loving, and He shares Himself with us because He loves us. The danger in reflecting on the awesomeness of God is forgetting that He is also personal, intimate, and caring. These two truths must be held together so that our perspective of who God is and what He does doesn’t get out of balance. So today we pair the truth that God is the preeminent reality of the universe with the wonderful truth that He loves you and me.
How amazing is it that:
God loves you. (John 3:16; 16:26–27; Rom. 5:8; Gal. 2:20)
Why God Loves
When we talk about God’s love, we often think about it primarily in terms of its impact on how we feel. Thinking about God’s love often brings comfort and hope. These are good responses, but they become dangerous if we begin to think that God loves us because we are lovable. In reality, God loves us not because we deserve love, but because God is love (1 John 4:8).
We tend to assume we are (mostly) lovable. After all, we aren’t like the people out there doing who knows what. We aren’t murderers, rapists, thieves, or thugs. Therefore, deep down, we say, “Of course God loves me.” But Scripture tells a different story. We are sinners—vile, wicked, and undeserving of God’s love. Just because we haven’t sinned in spectacular ways doesn’t mean we haven’t sinned in substantive ways. The scriptural indictment against humanity is absolute. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Since we are sinners and have sinned, we deserve His wrath (Eph. 2:1–3). And yet, God loves us in spite of us. What an astonishing truth! What I deserve is wrath. What I get is love. Biblical love is not merely emotion. It is a self-giving, sacrificial commitment to seek another’s true and ultimate good.
Love Doesn’t Ignore Sin…It Solves It
Does God’s love mean that He ignores sin? No! God’s love never ignores sin. God’s love pays for it. At the cross, through the death of Jesus Christ, His justice and His love meet perfectly. By paying for our sin on the cross, God remains just and holy while also proving to be the justifier of all those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:21–26). When Jesus paid it all, God’s love produced forgiveness and reconciliation.
God did not begin loving us because of us, and He does not stop loving us because of us. His love is unchanging and unconditional. In other words, God’s love is influenced by nothing outside of His own nature. He is love. God does not love us because we are great, talented, attractive, or deserving. We often really want to believe that so that we can find some merit in ourselves, but it’s simply not true. The reason God loves us has everything to do with who He is.
We should praise Him for this. If His love were conditional, we would never have been loved to begin with, and we would never be able to keep His love. But thanks be to the Lord, He loves because He is love!
You can trust God completely because He loves you perfectly
Now consider what this means not merely for how you feel, but for how you think about God and how you relate to Him. The fact that God loves us means that God is good, that He can be trusted, and that He desires our good even though we do not deserve it. This is a massive truth that deserves daily contemplation.
The holy and righteous Judge of the universe seeks what is best for us, His beloved, even though we are helpless and ruined sinners. This reality should drive us to trust Him with everything we have. We should run to Him with eagerness rather than run away in rebellion. We should gladly submit to His authority rather than view it as oppressive. A firm belief in God’s love gives us hope in our suffering. It gives us strength to obey when God’s commands feel difficult. It gives us patience to wait when God seems silent.
And yet, in our pride, we often think that God wants to spoil our fun, bring us pain, or act against us. When we think this way, we question His goodness and doubt the kindness of His will. We forget the Savior who died on Calvary’s tree for you and for me.
The love of God reminds me day by day that God is for me, not against me. The God who rules the universe is the God who loves you. If you truly believe that, then you can, as the old song says, “trust and obey.”
This article is part a series on 10 Big Truths to Remember Daily. Find the others here:
