God will never love you more than he does right now and he will never love you any less. 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. 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 4:9-10 | NIV) 

In the New Testament four Greek words are used for love: eros (romantic), storge (family), philia (brotherly) and agape (God’s divine). The focus of this article is agape. For many, God’s love is a difficult concept. Unless they are acquainted with the back story, the God of the Old Testament appears harsh and angry. And when we refer to him as father, those with a difficult childhood may find it hard to equate father and love. Yet, here is the unvarnished truth, God loves you simply because he does. It has nothing to do with who you are or what you do.

Nothing can ever cause God to stop loving you.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. (Romans 8:38 | NLT) He will lovingly give you what you want even if you decide to live your life apart from him.

It has been said Christianity is the greatest story ever told. If that is the case, it is also history’s greatest love story. And it began with creation. God’s Word spoke us into existence and in his image. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness . . . Genesis 1:26a Apparently Jesus is the pattern he used. Jesus, God’s son, took on human form to walk in this world to show us the character of our creator.  The Son is the image of the invisible God, (Colossians 1:15a | NIV)

Jesus is actually the one who made us. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16 | NIV) Although we bear a strong family resemblance, Jesus did what no human has ever done or will ever do. He lived a perfect, sinless life. His obedience glorified God. It was his sinlessness that made him what John the Baptist called “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29.)

You were created to be in relationship with him. God loves his creation unconditionally. But we pridefully chose a different god, ourselves. Sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, recorded in Genesis 3, began a separation from God that continues to this day. When they realized they were naked, they fashioned clothes from leaves. They could hide their bodies, but they could not hide from God.

Their disobedience set into motion the promise of a savior, a Messiah. God punished the couple and cursed the serpent who enticed them to sin and promised there would be a day of reckoning. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 | NIV). After God received the couple’s confession of disobedience, he clothed them in animal skins. From then on animals were sacrificed.

The Jewish practice of regular animal sacrifice in response to sinful disobedience was not observed until Moses received God’s Law, the Ten Commandments. Every year on the Day of Atonement, which Jews call Yom Kipper, the high priest sacrificed a perfect goat to atone for the sins of the people. Animal sacrifice for sin continued until the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 AD. Jesus fulfilled the Law by becoming the perfect sacrifice that takes away sin once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)

God’s love and desire to call his family to himself (reconciliation) was made complete in the birth of Jesus. Christ’s birth (incarnation) was described by Jesus like this, 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 (John 3:16 | NIV) The Apostle John said it like this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-2, 14 | NIV)

This is an aside, but an important one, nonetheless. On August 30, 2020, the Christian Post reported 30% of evangelicals did not believe Jesus is God. And on December 8, 2021, Christianity Today reported a Lifeway survey that found only 63% of professed Christians believed Jesus existed before his birth in Bethlehem. Apparently, it has been a while since nearly a third of us read the Book of John.

Because of his great love for his creation, God offers life in abundance here and eternal life when our time on earth has come to an end. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5 | NIV)

As difficult as it may be for us to wrap our minds around it, the torture and brutal, barbaric death Jesus endured in obedience to his father’s will is a manifestation of his love for us. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 | NIV)

When we accept Jesus as both lord and savior, his Spirit lives in us and leads us to glorify God in all we do. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 | NIV) 

We cannot live God-honoring lives unless we have received his Holy Spirit. And, like salvation and forgiveness, God’s Spirit is an act of grace. It is free for the asking. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13 | NIV)

When our faith is in Jesus, we become part of the family of God. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1John 3:1a  Faith in Jesus involves believing you are lovable simply because you are breathing in and out. You are his creation and if your eternal faith is in him, you are God’s child. And if you are his child, there is no force stronger than his love for you.

As part of God’s family our behavior should reflect the love for others that God has for us. When asked which was the greatest commandment, He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”(Luke 10:27 | NIV). He wasn’t just speaking of those neighbors we like. He directed us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, that we may be children of our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:44-45a). We haven’t been tasked with liking them, but we are to love them.

As disciples of Jesus, God’s love not only saves us, it defines us. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 | NIV) That brings to the heart of God’s love. Scripture tells us not only that God loves, but that he is the very definition of love. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16 | NIV)

Finally, because of God’s love for us, love is the litmus test for Jesus’s disciples. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8 | NIV)