See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)
There’s a tremendous line in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump that surely resonates with all of us. “Forrest,” played by Tom Hanks, looks at worldly Jenny and says, “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.” Is this not true of each and every one of us? Not many of us have anything approaching a genius-level IQ, but do we not all know, regardless of our age or station in life, what love is? And why do we all know this? Because God is love, and the entire story line of the Bible is God’s unfolding plan of redemption . . . it is the story of God’s LOVE for us!
This love is unlike any other kind of love. God’s love is a saving love. God’s love is a sacrificial love. God’s love is a supernatural love. And there is no better picture of this love than the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And Jesus was not speaking figuratively; He expressed His love for us in exactly that way: He willingly set aside the glories of heaven and entered our world to lay down His life so that we could have eternal life in Him.
Here is something we must always remember regarding the love God has for His friends: It is a love that is ready, willing, and able to afflict both the One who is demonstrating the love and the object of His affection in order to work a greater good that could in no other way be accomplished. Christian, you are to find great comfort in this truth! God does indeed love us just the way He found us–He descended to us, because it is impossible for us to ascend to Him. But He loves us far too much to leave us in the condition He found us in. God is at work, both in us and through us, to change us and conform us into the image of His beloved Son, and He will use whatever means necessary to complete the work He has begun in us.
Regardless of where this message finds you today, keep the wisdom of Forrest Gump in view and the love your Savior has for you. He took the punishment for your sin: He experienced the unimaginable horror of taking on the full wrath of God in order to have a personal relationship with you forever and ever. He took your condemnation. He took your scourging. He took your crown of thorns. He took your nine-inch nails. He took your cross. And He took your death. Why? Because He loves you enough to die for you!
STOP! Read that last sentence again. Don’t just nod your head and read on; think about it for a moment. God loves you enough to die for you! Perhaps committing the verse that follows to memory will bring you great comfort when you are feeling a bit unloved or unlovable:
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness'” (Jeremiah 31:3).
Jesus appeared some 2,000 years ago–He was born, He lived a perfect, sinless life, He died on the cross, and He was raised to life again–as proof positive of God’s everlasting love for you. No matter what great difficulty you may be enduring right now, no matter what terrible storms are looming on the horizon, those trials are not there because God does not love you. I’m not a smart man, but I know love when I see it, and “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 