GOD LOVES YOU

In order to appreciate another person’s love for you, it is important to know who the person is
and what value they bring to your life. If they bring no value to your life, their love will make no
difference to it one way or the other. Therefore, in order to appreciate God’s love for you,
you’ll need to know who He is, why He loves you, and how that love can impact your life.
So, who is God? God is the holy Creator of the universe, including both the visible and unseen
things. He has ultimate power and wisdom. He owns everything and everybody (see Psalm
24:1), and has the right to do with each person as He chooses. He created man in His own
image, so humans have the character of God, and just like God, we are eternal as well as
emotional beings. Being emotional, we have the ability to love, hate, forgive, create, and
admire beauty.

When God created man (Adam and Eve), He enjoyed a relationship with them; He visited and
talked with them often (see Genesis 3:8), until that relationship was tainted and interrupted by
sin, the result of Satan’s doing and man’s disobedience. Sin ruined the relationship, not only in
the present, but also for the future--eternally, because God is holy and cannot co-exist with sin,
in this world or the next. Out of love for us, and the desire to resume an ongoing relationship
with us, God put into motion the plans He had since the beginning of time to restore the
relationship. The only solution to the problem was for sin to be punished.

Did God punish sin? Yes! How did He do it? He became Man, in the person of His Son Jesus, to
take on the punishment for the sin of mankind: the only way back to God. What this means is
God the Creator left His holy dwelling place in heaven with all the pomp and worship of angels,
to live among sinful men on earth. God, the giver of life, died willingly. By His death, Jesus paid
the penalty for sin, thereby restoring the relationship between God and man. This is the
demonstration of God’s love for you and me.

Do you know of any kings, leaders, masters, or lords willing to trade places with their servants
or subjects? How many of these dignitaries would want to serve a one day jail sentence for any
criminal in their jurisdictions, let alone die for one? Without interviewing any of them, I can
accurately answer this question. None of them! The point is they all enjoy the honor, respect,
and power that come with their positions. They’ll not consider giving all that up for anybody—
whether it is for a friend or foe -- but Jesus did! The Scripture tells us, “God showed how much
he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life
through him” (1 John 4:9 NLT).

If God set His glory and majesty aside, became human, suffered, and died when He didn’t have to, we should equate it with love. He did all this out of love for us; it should mean something to us. He knows what our lives would be like without His death. For His love to mean anything to us, we need to respond to His love and the salvation He’s offering through His death. We are not automatically saved by His death; we have to ask to be saved, because of the onetime death He died in our place. We’ll be doing ourselves a disservice if we turn our backs on Him. The Bible says, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:13-14 NLT).

That’s as good as it’s going to get. The only way to get into a personal relationship with God is to accepting Jesus’ death as your own. No amount of arguments you pose about salvation through Jesus will change anything; He is God and the buck stops with Him. His Word says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 NLT). “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3 NLT).
God loves you! Before you were born, He had plans in place to redeem you from the sin nature you inherited from your fore-parents, Adam and Eve. How are you going to respond to this demonstration of love? Please embrace it. Call on Jesus today, repent of your sins, and ask for forgiveness. He will forgive you and start the work of transformation in your life that will begin to restore the loss of His image in you.

Being aware of God’s love does amazing things in one’s life. You can approach Him anytime, anywhere, in any situation with confidence. After all, He is your Father and has promised never to leave you or forsake you, and to give good gifts to those who ask Him (see Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 7:9-11). I encourage you to fall in love with Him today!