Day 19: The Love of God

“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 

God’s love is not an emotion that changes from moment to moment. It is His very nature. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). His love had no beginning, and it will have no end. It has no limit. It is perfectly pure.

Love does not ignore sin. He conquers it. “God shows His love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Before we could reach for God, He reached for us. We could not bring ourselves to life, so Love came down, took on flesh, and died the death we deserved so we could be reconciled to Him.

Love bore the weight of our rebellion. Love endured the wrath that belonged to us. Love covered our sins and clothed us in righteousness. It was love that sent Christ to His death, and it is that same love that now holds you fast. “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Tozer calls this love a “bottomless, shoreless sea.” We stand at its edge, unable to measure or comprehend it. This is why Paul prays that Christ would dwell in our hearts, that we would be rooted and grounded in love, and that we might somehow begin to grasp “the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

And this love doesn’t end with us. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Jesus said the world would recognize His disciples by their love for one another (John 13:35). The Love that saved us now sends us out as living testimonies to the God who loved us first and loves us still.

One day, we will see Love with unveiled faces. Faith will become sight, and the love we have understood in part will be known in full forever. Until that day, we walk in confidence knowing every step is kept by the One whose love will never fade, never fail, and never be taken from us.

“Because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence.” — A.W. Tozer

Prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven, we Thy children are often troubled in mind, hearing within us at once the affirmations of faith and the accusations of conscience. We are sure that there is in us nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as Thou art. Yet Thou hast declared Thine unchanging love for us in Christ Jesus. If nothing in us can win Thy love, nothing in the universe can prevent Thee from loving us. Thy love is uncaused and undeserved. Thou art Thyself the reason for the love wherewith we are loved. Help us to believe the intensity, the eternity of the love that has found us. Then love will cast out fear; and our troubled hearts will be at peace, trusting not in what we are but in what Thou hast declared Thyself to be. Amen.   – A.W. Tozer

Response:

What do you need to bring into the light of God’s love today?

Who will you actively show Christlike love to today, knowing “we love because He has first loved us”?