How God has loved us
God’s love is so powerful, it is unchangeable, yet so mysterious. Often I search for this deep feeling of God’s love, which can be so great, but usually, I am left feeling so utterly alone. Does this mean God isn’t present? I would argue that God is there loving you in those moments of loneliness It is just hard to see. 1 John describes how God has shown his love for us:
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:9–10
The word for manifest in the greek is 5319. φανερόω phanĕrŏō, fan-er-ŏ´-o; from 5318; to render apparent (lit. or fig.): — appear, manifestly declare, (make) manifest (forth), shew (self). God has shown his love and made it apparent for all by sending his Son into the world to forgive our sins. John is saying that we need to understand the cross, and if we understand that gospel we will understand God’s love for us.
God’s love is shown manifest with his sending his son into the world. In the beginning humans lived with God, in his presence. However mankind fell, we pursued ourselves and our own knowledge and selfish desires. We saw what God had to offer us and we decided that we didn’t want it. Humanity turned from God. So God set aside a group of people, in which he was going to show the world about himself. Since, God is so holy and so righteous, that to stand before God, they had to also be holy and righteous. He set aside a people to be holy. He gave them a law to follow so they could be right before God. However humans, make mistakes, so God set up a system so that anyone could become right before God. He set up a sacrificial system when someone sinned they could kill an animal before God and be forgiven of their sins. In this way, God dwelt among these people and the people dwelt with God.
However, humans, even from dwelling with God, could not keep themselves from sin. They ignored the laws that God had set before them and ignored his presence because they so desired what the world around them was doing. In this way, they rejected God and fell into deep sin. God at this point sent his Son, in the flesh, into the earth to live a life among humans. God’s Son lived a life that no one was able to do, he lived a perfect life and did not sin. He was truly righteous before God. Yet the Son’s purpose was not to show the world how sinful they are but to show them how much life they can find in him. The Son was hung on a cross and died a painful death.
This was not the end, because the Son came back to life 3 days later. He came back promising that whoever believed in the Son would be resurrected like he was. The Son came to earth to serve, he gave his life up as a sacrifice, a sacrifice, not to God’s chosen people, but now to anyone who would believe in the Son’s name. Whoever believed in the Son would be forgiven of their sins, and be righteous before God.
These promises are free to take, a perfect sign of God’s love for his people.
Personally, I don’t quite fully understand God’s love quite yet. I don’t think I ever will. It will be something that I explore more and more as I grow in the Lord and grow in love.
