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.

God is Love

“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” – A. W. Tozer¹

Haven’t you done something you’re delighted with only to find yourself secretly thinking that others should admire you for what you’ve done, that somehow you deserve to be loved?  Come on now…fess up.  What about the time you shipped a perfect quality batch, or the time you finish shingling the roof minutes before the rain?  What about the job you got done in the time-frame they needed it when everyone else thought it was impossible and gave up?  Or when you brought the new guy up to speed and now their working on their own?  Haven’t you ever felt that way toward God?  After this accomplishment, He should love me…look at all I did…

Or what about the other side?  Have you ever done something so bad that you got that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach?  You know like when you were a little kid and had to tell your parents you broke Mom’s favorite vase playing hide-and-seek or lost Dad’s favorite tool in the woods playing gun-spy?  How about the time you crashed into that parked car or “totaled” the car because you were not paying attention to driving?  Be honest, weren’t you just a little (or maybe a lot) afraid that Mom and Dad wouldn’t love you quite the same after this one…???  Have you ever felt that way toward God?  After this sin there’s no way He could still love me….I’m such a failure…

Well…I’ve got good news: God’s love is immutable (unchangeable). Rom 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  This means nothing we have done, are doing, or will do in the future can change how much God loves us.  The most heinous sin, the most righteous behavior bares no affect on God’s love for us.  He already loved us in our most sinful state.  God never changes.  He never grows or learns something that changes His thinking or His love for us.  There is “no shadow of turning” in Him.  We don’t have to worry about waking up one day to find out He’s angry with us, or frustrated about something we have done.  His love for us is pure and undefiled.  It is untainted by negative thoughts in the back of His head.  (He has no negative thoughts.)  His love is steady and unchanging – UNCONDITIONAL!  No condition “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39)

“Anything not rooted and grounded in the unconditional love of God eventually leads to legalism and bondage. Your human effort does not get God to love you more.  It is not based on what you have done.  It is based on the benevolence and goodness of God.  It is not based on how clean you are, it is based on what Jesus has done.  Walking with God is not about anger, duty and discipline; it is about love.” – Jack Frost

You are His child and He eagerly chooses to love you, wholly, unchangeably, and unconditionally.  God loves you as much as He loves Jesus (Jn 17:23).  God looks at you and smiles!  I think He’s talking to you right now, “You are my child in whom my favor rests!  I LOVE YOU!!”  - Dad  (See Ps 30:5)

Oh great God of love, come and fill us now.  We give our hearts to you.  Fill them as only you can.  Smooth over the cracks, repair the broken places.  Be our Father and let your unconditional love surround us as we trust in You (Ps 32:10).  Amen! 

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. 3. 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.