The Big Love of God

 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7–12 ESV).

 

I sometimes ask people if they believe God loves them. For those who answer affirmatively, I follow that question with one that goes a bit deeper in revealing what they understand about the love of God. I ask, “Why does God love you?” The answers are shockingly similar. Almost everyone answers with phrases like “Because I am sometimes kind to others,” or “Because I try to do my best in my life,” or perhaps something like “I try my best to take care of my family.” In almost every case the answers are connected to their efforts to earn it. This idea is foreign to the Scripture.

 

The true heart of the gospel is captured in the powerful words of our reading today: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

 

The gospel message is that there is nothing we can do to make Jesus love us. Our salvation is offered as a completely free, undeserved gift: we simply receive it. Our passage sums it all up in one word: love. The Apostle Paul writes it this way:

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV).

 

Receive the good news for you today: This is love: not that you loved God (or did anything else to earn God’s favor), but that he loves you and sent his Son as a saving sacrifice for your sins. You are loved—just because you are you and God is love.