“God loves you” is a wonderful thing to say, isn’t it? But these
three words are easy to misunderstand. We can’t just look at the way humans
love each other and then project that on to be God’s love. We need to look
first at how God himself loves, and only then work out what that means from our
love. Normally you love someone who is inherently lovable. But God
didn’t love us because we were particularly lovely.
In today’s scripture, Paul uses the word “love”. But he doesn’t
just say “God loves you”. He explains and spells out what that love means. Here
we see that God’s love is related to his “mercy and grace”. These are fundamental to God’s
love. God’s love is not about approving who we are and what we do. In
fact, it’s the opposite. It’s a love that God showed us even though he didn’t
approve of who we were or what we did; Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God”. Our state was “dead” Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life in b Christ Jesus our Lord”. We were in a way cut
off from the life of God and out of a relationship with him, deserving his
wrath. And yet he loved us. How?
God showed his love in this way: he “made us alive in Christ”. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life”. This is what God’s love means. God has transformed our very
identity. He hasn’t given us what we deserve, but instead, he has made us new
people: people whose hope and life are set on Christ; 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new”. Let’s not just say the words, but let’s use
the rich and profound content that the Bible gives us to communicate what God’s
love means. God’s love is shown in rescuing us, though we don’t deserve it.
Halleluiah!