God loves you as much as He loves Jesus

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”¹ – A. W. Tozer

Do you love your enemies?  Do you love them the same as you love your spouse, children or parents?  God does.  In fact, He commands us to do like wise in Luke 6: 35 and 36 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  It doesn’t take Jesus to lash out at those who hurt us.  It takes Jesus to love our enemies unconditionally like He does.  You were once the enemy of God, remember?  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We talked last time about how God’s love is unchanging and unconditional.  God loves everybody the same, regardless of what they do or don’t do.  Would it surprise you to know that God loves you as much as He loves Jesus?  Do you really believe that?  I have to confess I’m still in awe of that one, but I’m working on it.  Okay, so your wondering just how I came to such a grandiose conclusion.  Well, He tells us so. 

But before we look at that, let’s think about what we know to be true of God.  He has no favoritism.  His love is unconditional.  He does not change.  Therefore, the level of His love could not change.  He is faithful and true.  All these could lead only to one premise.  God loves you the same as everyone else.  Yes, including Jesus.  If He did not, His love would be conditional on who you are.  God is no respecter of persons.  He loved you before you trusted in Him for salvation, while you were His enemy, a sinful person. 

Let’s think about what else we know about God.  He gave up Jesus for you.  He sent Jesus to die in your place.  He sent the most precious thing He could to be sacrificed on you behalf.  Why, because He loves you the same as He loves Jesus.  That should speak volumes about how much He loves you.  Look at Romans 8:31-32,  “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

One more time let’s look at this from another angle.  Father calls us His children and co-heirs with Christ.  Father calls us his children (Rom 8:12, 1 Jn 3:1, Eph 1:3, Gal 4:4-7, Luke 20:35-36, Eph 5:1).  Father also calls us heirs (Rom 8:17, Gal 3:29, Gal 4:7, Eph 3:6, Tit 3:7).  We are co-heirs with Christ and one of the Father’s children.  Father loves all His children the same.

Lastly, and most importantly (for man’s reason is fallible, especially on matters of God), God’s word tells us that He loves us as much as He loves Jesus. OK, here it is: John 17:23 Jesus is praying to the Father (one of the few recorded prayers of Jesus), “I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  So God loves you as much as He loves Jesus.  Jesus said so.  It’s pretty hard to argue with that.  God help our unbelief.

 Father, please help me to understand and apprehend, to eagerly lay hold of, and count as my own, the truth that you love me unconditionally, as much as you love Jesus.  Give me the Spirit of revelation and understanding to strengthen me in my inner man that I might know and experience as my own the height, breadth, and width and deepness of your unconditional love.  For once I understand even a little of your love for me, I cannot help but give it away to those around me.  (See Ephesians chapters 1 and 3).

Footnotes

¹ Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. 1. Print.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Print.

Live by Faith

We have been studying faith and this month is more of the same.   Our key verse is Heb 11:1 (ALT)  “Now faith is [the] assurance [or, substance] of [things] being hoped for [or, being confidently expected], [the] confident assurance [or, proof] of things not seen.”  Our working definition is: “Faith chooses to see and believe in what is not seen.  It chooses to possess a moral conviction that its subject is true.  Faith chooses to believe in, to substantiate, to have confident assurance in, to count as the evidence, demonstration, and convincing proof of what God has promised.” 

Now let’s look at New Testament heroes of the faith.  Of course, you can find a great list of O.T. heroes in Heb 11, but let’s look at N.T. examples.  Acts 6:8 describes Stephen as “full of faith and power” doing great wonders and miracles.  Acts 11:24 describes Barnabas as “full of the Holy Spirit and faith.”  In 1 Tim4:12, Paul admonishes Timothy to be an example in faith.  2 Tim 4:7 has Paul proclaiming he has “fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”  2 Pe 1:1 Opens “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:”  More generic examples are 1Tim 6:11; 2:22 which shows the man of God being led by faith,  1 4:6  shows the good minister of Jesus Christ is nourished up in the words of faith and Heb 11 shows us heroes of the faith, Heb12 the great cloud of witnesses, and Jesus as author and finisher of the faith.  Wicked men are perceived as men who have not faith (2 Th 3:2,8).  1 Tim 5:8 portrays those who do not provide for their own as having denied the faith. 1Tim 6:10 shows the love of money as having erred from the faith. 

Next let’s look at what faith does for us.  What happens to us if we are people of faith?  God counts as just, righteous, and forgives all those whose faith is in Jesus (Rom 3:26; Rom 5:1-2; Gal 2:16).  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” Eph 2:8.  We have confidence in God.  “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)” Heb 10:22-23.  He is the source of our faith.  “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" 1 Cor 2:5.  The we learn that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” Rom 14:23.  We put our faith in God, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him” Eph 3:12  and He lives in us “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” Eph 3:17.  We become His children, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” Gal 3:26.  We learn we must “…walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Cor 5:7.  Then we come to understand “faith works by love” Gal 5:6 and “if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing” 1 Cor 13:2.  Rom 12:5 tells us to use our spiritual gifts in proportion with our faith because “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” Jam 2:17-18.  So let us “ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed”  Jam 1:6 and “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked”  Eph 6:16.  Finally, “…let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” 1 Thes 5:8. 

Let’s appropriate by faith what God has purchased for us at the cross.  Let’s find the promises of God in the Scripture and claim them as our treasures.  Let’s call things as not as though they were.  Let’s be people of faith.  Remember “…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” Heb 11:6.



Oh Author and Finisher of our faith help us in our unbelief.  Help Your love in us to activate our faith and focus our minds on You and having faith for Your Kingdom.  Help us to live by faith.  Help us to trust in Your awesome character.  Help us to call things that are not as though they were and things that are as though they were not - though faith.  Reward our diligent seeking of You.  Amen!

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.