Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
Love is, and always has been a powerful emotion. It’s the subject of countless books, songs, poems, and movies and it’s theme never fails to put hope in us all. A person who says they are not interested in love is a liar or someone who has been so deeply hurt by its lack that they are in total denial. We were made for love!
Elizabeth Browning Barrett wrote a poem in the 1800s that is still known and recited on some level, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” After 40 years as a single woman, she had finally found her Prince Charming. In order to be with him she had to run away from home and elope. Her father disinherits her for leaving, but she goes on to have a son and sixteen years of marriage with the one she loved. Another key point was her love for the Father. It is said that she taught herself Hebrew in order to read the Old Testament. While she is not my focus today, I thought it would be good to give this insight about a poem that has been rewritten and used for the past 200 years. That’s a long time!
But over 2,000 years ago, another declared His love with even greater passion, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16) and in another place He declared through Paul, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)!
Another personal favorite: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ” (Romans 8:35)? I can answer that one, no one can! No one and no thing can lessen His love for us or cause Him to stop loving us! Even when we toss His love in His face and walk away from Him, He still loves us. Even when we reject His Son and die and go into a Christless eternity, He still loves us, for it is the greatest love ever known. Period!
John wrote, in 1 John 3:1- “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…” Isn’t that something? He bestows His love on us and calls us His sons. Can I clarify something here? Although He genuine loves the whole world, only those who receives Jesus becomes a part of the family and enters into sonship! But His love invites all those who are not in the family to enter in.
Years ago we sang a song, and I’ve been hearing it more today, that simply states:
“O how He loves you and me!
O how He loves you and me!
He gave His life, what more could He give,
O how He loves you, O how He loves me,
O how He loves you and me!”
Paul relishes in this love! As he writes to the Galatians and remind them of this love and why it is so hypocritical to slight one another based on heritage or for any other reason, he boils it down to it being about love. And when Paul thinks about dying to himself, being crucified with Christ and allowing Christ to live through him, Paul is basically saying, “it’s easy because He loves me so!”
Oh how He loves us! Why? Because He is love (1 John 4:8)! Everything He has said, everything He has done, and everything He will ever do, is because He loves us so! Jeremiah wrote that He loves us with an everlasting love and He has drawn us to Him through his unfailing kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).
The devil is constantly bombarding us with lies about who God is and why God did or didn’t do something. He has us looking at the Word, the commands of God as if they are there to spoil life for us, to bind us up and to keep us from having fun. He even tells us when our loved ones die that God needed them more than we do and that’s why He took them as if He is so selfish and so needy that He hurts us to satisfy His longings! THE DEVIL IS A LIAR! Stop choosing to listen to him over what your heart knows, GOD SO LOVES YOU!!!!
Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13). In other words, He laid down His life for us to show us how much He loves us!! His love isn’t demonstrated in coming through for us, or in answering our prayers per se; but in dying for us! Receive it today! Wonderful Jesus!
Wonderful Jesus! 