As humans we tend to find ourselves projecting our experiences with others onto God. We think that the way someone would have treated us is the same way God would relate to us. It’s easier for us sometimes to put our own definition on what God’s love should look like. We set the terms and conditions of what this love should entail. However, what we fail to realize is that this God has a love more pure than we can ever fully grasp with the human mind.
When the bible talks about God’s love, it’s not talking about something physical or merely a feeling of euphoria. It’s talking about God himself.
1 John:4:16 – “God is love“.
If we want to understand more of what this love looks like then we have to look at the one who God manifested himself through in human flesh and that’s Jesus. The following are 3 truths about the love of God that Jesus showed in his relation with us.
1) God’s Love Changes You.
Many people say the statement “God loves me” while they continue to live in a way that is not in alignment with what God has asked of us. God’s love is something meant to be experienced in our hearts (spirit, mind, emotions, will and body). It’s not merely intellectual knowledge that we store in our minds. Throughout the life of Jesus, each person He encountered, walked away a different person.
From the stories of Zacchaeus (a thief), the woman caught in adultery, Matthew ( a tax collector) to the woman with 5 husbands. Jesus did not merely see them as who they were, He saw them as who they could become. His radical acceptance and love towards them caused their hearts to be transformed and brought them to a place of repentance.
Luke:5:32 – “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
If there is no repentance (the act of changing one’s mind) then there is not a genuine experience of the love of God in a person’s life.
2) God’s Love Understands Our Brokenness.
Psalm 34:18 – The LORD is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
There is a story in the bible where Jesus does something that confuses his disciples a bit (he does that quite alot). There was a man by the name of Lazarus, brother of Mary who was one of the women who followed Jesus. Lazarus had gotten very sick and so word was sent to Jesus that his presence was requested in Bethany.
When Jesus heard the news that Lazarus was sick, He stayed and did not leave until 2 days later for Bethany. He then told his disciples that Lazarus was “sleeping” (Lazarus died) and that He was going to wake him up.
When Jesus got there, Lazarus had been in a tomb for 4 days. Mary and her sister were crying along with the Jews when Jesus arrived. It states that when Jesus saw them weep, He was deeply moved in His spirit and troubled (John 11). The scripture went on to say that Jesus began weeping. It’s interesting Jesus cried when He already knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
When we think about it a little more, we realize that Jesus wasn’t crying because Lazarus was dead but rather he was full of compassion. Upon seeing the brokenness in the hearts of the people who surrounded Him, His heart was burdened.
3) God’s Love is Sacrificial.
1 John: 4: 9 – 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.
John:3:16 – or 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.
God’s love is not something we can earn or pay for. It’s just who God is and what he emanates. He demonstrated that love through Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Jesus came to restore our connection to our Father. To restore our connection back to love Himself. He created each of us to share in His love and share that love to others.
