How Much Does God Love Us

One of the neatest things about God…according to His word-is His abilities are unlimited, they are absolute.   He is Infinite and His Majesty is beyond comprehension.

 1 Chronicles 29:11  “Yours,  O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.

Habakkuk 3:4  His brightness is like the sunlight. Rays of light {stream} from His hand.  

Nehemiah 9:6  “You are the Lord, You alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships You.

In fact, many of us believe this is the greatest misunderstanding of God,   His absolute qualities cannot be measured or compromised.   He is eternally complete.

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.   Is. 40:28, Ps. 90:2,  Is. 26:4

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

For God to be God-as most would define a Supreme Being, His infinite nature could not be changed.   Absolute qualities could not become incomplete or imperfect.    Our world where sin caused sickness and death-is not a realm in which God will eternally inhabit.   The Old Testament prophet David foresaw Jesus overcoming death

Acts 2:24-27   But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.  ²⁵  David said about Him: … You will not let Your holy One see decay.

Simply, God cannot be morphed into the finite realm where we and our world eventually die.     See Link.

James 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Ps. 144:4 

The Lord’s hand will one day restore the cosmos without sin.

Revelation 21:1-4   And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; …⁴  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 

Understanding His Divine Love 

His love is indeed without measure (discussed below), but this also includes His other qualities like righteousness, justice, sovereignty, etc.   Please see more scriptural details on understanding God, His absolute nature and how this impacts our eternal relationship with Him.   See Understanding God.

While more time is given to the other infinite attributes of the Lord in the above article, this one looks more into  much God loves us…and    He has proven His Love toward us.

AS ALWAYS, WE START WITH A FOUNDATION 

When the Lord created man, He gave him the ‘second most’ valuable gift in His heavenly Kingdom.   The ‘most valuable’ gift will be discussed later…for that one comes at a cost, a great sacrifice to Him.

This ‘second most’ is really neat, however, and I think we can understand the reasoning behind it relatively easily.

If you were God…and had these fantastic qualities…like…infinite understanding, everlasting life, absolute sovereignty, righteousness, justice, power, etc.-oh yes, let’s not forget unlimited glorious love.   The ‘second best gift’ you would want to share with mankind-your creation that you desire a relationship (fellowship) with.   See Fellowship or Friendship.  Naturally, a loving God would desire to give mankind (His most intimate creation) a ‘part of Himself’.   This would be His great treasure to us, who He is, ‘His essence’.

Let’s stop and think about this.    If you were the most majestic presence in the universe (the greatest Being one could ever experience or encounter), this is exactly what you would want to give away, you simply could not offer anything ‘greater’! 

Nor one would want anything more…not Park Place, Boardwalk, biggest house or coolest car.   After meeting the True God, they would want to be part of a majestic love that breaths a holy compassionate fire… a heavenly presence that penetrates every part of their being.   Infinite love that translates into absolute completeness.   Our value and self-worth would be overflowing…Divine glorious rays of love shooting right into our soul and spirit.

Ephesians 3:14-21    When I think of the wisdom and scope of His plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God…16) that out of His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you the mighty inner strengthening of His Holy Spirit.   17)  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love;   18-19) and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep and how high His love really is, and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it.  And so at last you will be filled up with God Himself. 20) Now glory be to God who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of-infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. 

Once we experienced this encounter,  we would have zero doubt that we were receiving the maxi Divine Dose of  itself  🙂

Made in the Image of God 

Yes, the Lord understood there is no greater treasure than giving mankind part of His nature.

Genesis 1:27   So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.

While God cannot create man ‘to His full capacity’  (man was created finite -he has a beginning and limited qualities-God has no beginning or end-infinite qualities), the Lord still indeed gave man an ability to ‘share’ in His nature.

Man and women were set to take part in a relationship with God, even adopting them into His eternal family.   He gave mankind the greatest title one could give, calling us ‘Gods Children’.

Romans 8:15-17  the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
¹⁶  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,  Eph. 1:5,  Gal. 4:6-7

The Divine Fellowship with God Was Severed

Many of you know what happened.  God does not want us to be ‘guessing’ about the things of this world-a Father would want to help us, so He tells us plainly how sin entered the world. 

Adam and Eve-took the bait- from satan and disobeyed the Lord.

Please read the account for yourself, but here is a short summary.

Gen. 2

-The Lord provided man with everything they would ever need, including a Divine relationship with the holy True God.

Gen. 3

-Adam and Eve were given the ability to follow God-or choose sin-and eat from the tree of good and evil.   God, who is absolute love…cannot force His love on someone.  This goes against His nature.   The tree of Good and Evil was put in the mist of the Garden of Eden-to allow man to choose their path of life.    Eve, along with Adam disobeyed God, took the bait from satan…and sin entered their lives.   

-As early a Genesis, the Father established His plan to have His Son shed His blood on the cross to take away the sins of the world.  This was demonstrated by the entire Old Testament, having an animal sacrifice pointing to the cross, Jesus dying for our sins.

Genesis 3:21  The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (covered their ‘sin’ by a sacrifice of an animal). 

When Adam and Eve fell into sin, their nature changed.   This part can be difficult for man to understand, so we need to listen very carefully to Gods word.

The 10 Commandments are not a pathway to heaven, but a signpost proclaiming that all mankind has sinned…

Ever told a lie (false witness 9^th commandment), committed adultery (in the heart 7^th  comm.), coveted anything or anyone  (this one convicted the apostle Paul 10^th comm. Rm. 7:7-8 ), dishonor your parents (5^thcomm.), replace God with the things of this world (1^st comm.)   Bottom line, all men fall short of the righteousness needed to have a relationship with God Ex. 20:1-17.  

Romans 5:12   Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned    Rm. 3:23

In other words, when man sins,  they become guilty of sin before God.   God is absolute righteous and cannot eternally abide with sin.  His absolute justice gives a verdict of our sin-and judgment is passed.   We stand guilty of sin before God.   Since the Lord created man with everlasting qualities, we stand guilty before God of sin, our punishment is placed upon us for eternity.   The concept of spending our eternal lives in punishment…in the darkness and torment (isolated from the presence of God)- a place that was designed for satan and his demonic crew-hell Matt. 25:41  …should make us cry out to the Lord-Father…what is the solution-to restore us to You…

Glad you did not stop reading.   It’s called God’s Love!!!!     You will absolutely be amazed at His infinite love He has for mankind.

Man needs to understand-as the Lord proclaims in His Word from cover to cover…God has to restore man back to His image-sinful man cannot create heavenly holiness, that can only come from God above.    Man’s redemption has to be a

  Divine Restoration, not a man-made substitution. 

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags  James 2:10

Simply, only ‘God’ can restore ‘God’  back to man.   Holiness or absolute righteousness cannot come from a vessel with sin.     Perfect Divine Holiness has to be given by a Being that is absolutely Holy.      It’s not complicated when if we don’t try and overanalyze it 🙂

  1 Corth. 14:33 The Lord is not the author of confusion 

How Much Does God Love Us 

Here we go.   Mankind, without the Lord’s intervention, is doomed.  Let’s remember His important nature…He knows ‘all’ things.   Adam and Eve’s disobedience did not take the Lord by surprise.   He knew of the solution from eternity past.   Again, His love for us will blow you away, plain and simple.

Gods nature cannot change, He cannot deny Himself 2 Tim. 2:13.   Yes, Scripture and logic are in complete agreement, perfect qualities like righteousness and justice cannot -disappear-, they have to be accounted for.

So God, by His incredible example,  demonstrates     HE loves us.  Let’s let His Word show us just how much  🙂

Scripture suggests the Father presides as is the righteous bearer and cannot let sin enter His eternal realm.  (Rev. 21-after sin is eliminated, the Father joins His Son to reign eternally, Hab. 1:13, Ps. 5:4-6. )  Again, complete righteousness and justice, (some call His holiness) have to be satisfied completely.

In order to accomplish this, God needed an Individual that could become man-one that could restore mankind with the Godlike qualities they had before they fell to sin.   This Individual would need to have the Divine qualities of God, but also have the nature of man so He could represent mankind.

He asked His Son –one having the same God-like Nature, to become a representative of man.   An ambassador for man without the inherited sin nature.

Hebrews 1:3  The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 

He would need to be one hundred percent God and one hundred percent Man….and God would address Him as both

Matthew 18:11  For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.  Son of God Jn. 11:4, Jn. 10:36

Yes, a virgin birth, the union of both man and God-the messiah who was prophecied since the fall of Adam and Eve. Gen. 3:15, Lk. 1:26-38

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel (God With Us).

The Cross

If the Lord’s purpose on earth was not about the cross, we could speculate He would have been obedient to the Fathers will and ascend to heaven, similar to Enoch 2 Kings 2:11.

He had a stop to make, however.  Remember the ‘love of God will blow us away’ stated above.   Let’s look.

We will start with an example.

Take the worst day of your life and ponder for a moment, what would be like to ‘revisit’ the most difficult time of your life.   Were there abuses, painful experiences-both emotionally and physically?   How would like to experience this day again and fit it into one afternoon?   I think we would all say, “I take a pass’.

Now, consider taking all of the abuses and painful experiences, both emotionally and physically in your lifetime…and relive them in one afternoon.   We would simply think…this would be entirely too traumatic to think about.

It’s not over.   Now, what if you were asked to experience all the abuses, both emotionally and physically of your families lifetime, in one afternoon.   We would go into complete panic mode.

The same exact question, this time for your entire city.   Incomprehensible.

Exact same question, this time for the entire world.   Impossible to imagine.   In fact, a ‘finite’ man could not withstand this experience…it would have to be ‘someone not of this world’ to be able to endure trauma caused by the sins of this world.

Final challenge.   Imagine taking on the horrors of sin, all the spiritual, emotional and physical abuses  (traumas) for each individual born-beginning with Adam and ending with the final restoration of the last person when Jesus returns and restores mankind Rev. 19:11-16.    This includes all experiences of wars, sexual abuses, emotional pain, all the physical agony that the world has ever experienced.   All the above suffering is a direct result of sin- the outcome is death, pain, torment-both physically, emotionally and spiritually.     This affliction is what Jesus endured, – when He took our sins on the cross.   

Galatians 3:13  Christ paid the price to free us from the curse that God’s laws bring by becoming cursed instead of us. Scripture says, “Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed.” (Christ Paid the Price for Us). 

Isaiah 53:5  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

Jesus knew what was coming, this was no ordinary death.   Jesus was about to experience the greatest sacrifice in all human history-multiplied beyond belief.

Luke 22:44  And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.  A condition known as hematidrosis link. 

Matthew 26:39   And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.

We can think about this for a moment.   Jesus- who throughout all eternity lived in absolute truth, holiness and love by His Fathers side … was willing to experience the complete opposite of His character-hate, death, darkness-the worlds sin.    He took for us… what He as a righteous  God loathes the most, our sin and death.   We-I-fail so miserably, when I say to the Lord…I really don’t want to do this for You.   Jesus literally could not pick a worse punishment than taking our sin that went against everything He knew to be holy, valuable.   

He took what was completely opposite of all that He loved, and

‘HE TOOK IT COMPLETELY!’ 

2 Corinthians 5:21  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

The Sacrifice Was Even Greater 

I hope, in some way, these scriptures have helped us get an idea… how much Jesus and the Father ‘proved their love toward us’ by taking the affliction of sin from all mankind.   The sacrifice did not end here, however.

The wrath-punishment for sin that comes from the Father is real, very real.   When Jesus ‘took’ our sin, He also took the Fathers wrath for our sin.   Jesus did not lie when He said

Matthew 27:46   And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

While the separation was temporary, for the first time in all eternity the Son felt the rejection and wrath from His Father-because He became ‘our wrath’ for us. Mk. 16:19

Isaiah 53:4-9  Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten ( slayed) of God and afflicted …for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken.
⁹  And He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

Jesus, the sacrifice for our sin… also took ‘our wrath’ from the Father and placed it upon Himself.   Rm. 3:24-25.   I personally believe one of the reasons the ‘hour’ of sacrifice became dark-is because no man could bear to see the face of Jesus in His torment. Mk. 15:33

When we have faith in Christ, as demonstrated through water baptism,   our sins die on the cross-‘with Jesus’.     As He was raised from the dead, we also rise ‘with Him’.   In other words, the Fathers righteousness is satisfied through Christ ( now mans representative)  because He did not sin, and His justice is satisfied because Jesus paid the penalty for us, dying on the cross for our sin.   Jesus is the only Human Being able to satisfy the Fathers absolute righteousness by His sinless life and is the only One who can satisfy the Fathers justice because Christ took the verdict of punishment for us-His wrath of ‘the worlds sins’ for us.  Jesus could represent man-because He was  born of flesh and blood  Jn. 1:14,  2 Cor. 5:21

John 3:16   For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

As this picture illustrates, when we have faith in Christ, accept His sacrifice for us-our sins ‘die on the Cross’ and we will ‘raise with Him for eternity’ Praise God!   See references below.

God Proves His Love For Us 

If your nature was infinite love, that means there would be no hint of selfishness within you.   Your sacrificial love for others, especially your Family members would always be the first priority.   Having the Nature of God, you would also know and understand, the complete extent of suffering a family member is going through.

We don’t need a theological degree to answer the question.   Who suffered more, the Father or the Son?    The answer is simple, they both suffered for mankind in ways we will never be able to completely understand.

No words will ever be able to describe what they endured…to give us Eternal Life.

The greatest gift to man will always be, the Father giving His Son to us-experiencing the horrors of sin so we could have life!

1 John 4:9 & 19   This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  ¹⁹  We love because He first loved us.

I wanted to close this section with one of the most powerful statements in the Word of God.   I am not sure it is the right place or fit…but I have to include this.   We now realize the Word teaches there is no greater demonstration of love than the sacrifice God has for us.   We are about to read a verse that declares Jesus took this suffering with ‘joy’ ‘gladness’.  Why??!!  The Joy Set before Him on the Cross,  was all about you and I.   He loves us, He wants us beside Him for eternity…secured in heaven-abounding within His infinite love.

He’s God, He already knows His sheep!  Jn. 10:27-28.   He was willing to endure ‘all’ afflictions to share His life with us.   This brought Him joy, and it came at a great cost.

Hebrews 12:2  who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Simply, when the darkest hour of mankind fell upon Jesus, He was able to endure because He knew His sacrifice would bring us together-  forever.  This future reunion brought Him joy…our bond of unity sustained Him on the cross.  🙂 

The Divine Solution

God desires that no one becomes lost due to sin, separated from Him.  He wants everyone to become His sons and daughters for all eternity.

1 Timothy 2:2-4 ³  This is good, and pleases God our Savior,
⁴  who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Eternity is a long time my friends.   God is righteous,  He cannot change that.   He cannot allow sin an eternal presence in heaven.  God does not just ‘talk of love’ He gave His Divine Example of Love-Giving us His Son who freely chose to take the horrors of the sin from all mankind.   Jn. 10:18

This gift, however, cannot be forced.  Absolute Divine Love cannot coerce an individual to have an eternal relationship with Him.   We have to be humbled, like a child, and receive this gift from Him Mk. 10:15.   We have to ask for Jesus-to come into our lives-our heart-and believe what He came to earth for…die on the cross-take our punishment for us.

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  ⁸  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

John 6:37  Everyone whom the Father gives Me will come to Me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me.

It’s time to get real with God and allow Jesus to come into our heart.   Please say a prayer humbly asking Him into your life.   If you desire, we can follow this one below.

Jesus, I come to you sincerely wanting my sins to be forever covered by the sacrifice you made on the cross for me.   I believe that You died on the cross for me and that You rose from the dead and now sit on the throne beside Your Father.   Jesus, right now-I ask you into my life, my heart.   I will spend the rest of my life following you, making You my Lord-turning away from sin-strengthening our relationship that You started for me.   

I will now proclaim You as my Lord and Savior and will speak this truth to others. 

Romans 10:9   If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, welcome to the Kingdom of God…I am sooo excited for you.

Feel free to view other articles about salvation Link, and I would suggest start reading the gospels…here is a site for the book of John . (Chapters navigation at the top)

Keep checking in on this web site link… we are posting what the Lord is doing across the world…and we desire to pursue opportunities of fellowship in the future.   Link 

Find a good church, one that humbly pursues a walk with the Lord, believes that Bible and the inspired Word of God and knows the full potential of allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives Link. 

May the Lord bless you as you pursue His truth.