Jesus' Love for Us: More Than An Emotion

Photo by Roberto Nickson

“Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You.”

Psalm 63:3

I am sure that many of us have heard stories of a great love that fades. Perhaps a husband and wife were married for years before deciding that they should have just been friends and divorce. Maybe it is a parent who loves their child only to the extent of how they perform in sports. Maybe two girls decide from a young age that they will be best friends forever, only to distance themselves in adulthood because of a grudge against the other. A lot of times it comes down to realizing that the emotion you felt for the other person has fizzled out. Eventually they fail you and there is no emotion at all. The warm and fuzzy feeling of their friendship, romance, care, is gone. All of us, albeit in less life-changing or dramatic ways, have loved someone weakly or insecurely at some point in our lives (I personally cannot count how often I have). Yet, our hope for love in this world is not found in ourselves, it is found in Jesus Christ. What do we make of “Jesus loves you” when love according to the world is so unstable and shallow, based on an emotional high or personal gain? While the love of Christ is not separate from emotion, it is not limited by it. He showed what love truly is. To know the love of Christ is to know what He did for you, to repent from your rebellion against Him and believe in Him, and to receive life from Him. To understand what love truly is, we must look at the love of our great Savior, for “God is love” (1 John 4:16).

Love in His Sacrifice

First, Christ died on the cross for us. John 15:13 tells us, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Christ loves us with the greatest love, and this was seen most clearly when he laid down his life to bear our sins. He bore our sins and sorrows, taking on the wrath of God that we deserved. By dying for us, He chose to give up His life. By suffering for us, He chose to give up His own safety and comfort. He had intended to do this for our good since the beginning of time, and He carried through to His final breath on the cross (Luke 23:46). He withheld nothing for Himself.

Love in His Gift

Christ not only gave up His life to take our sins off our shoulders, but He also gave up His life so that we might have life in Him. Many have heard the verse “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). By conquering death and rising from the dead, Christ has the power to give life and salvation. If we believe that He bore all of our sins and that He alone is able to give us full forgiveness and freedom of our sins, He will grant eternal life to us. His death and suffering heals us (Isaiah 53:5).

Love in His Grace

I have heard many say that Jesus died for us because we are “worth it.” There is no truth in this. We were worthy of nothing when Christ was nailed to the cross, for “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, emphasis added). Apart from Christ, we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). A verse from the hymn “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” by Stuart Townend explains very clearly how unworthy we are that He should give Himself for us:

Behold the man upon a cross;

My sin upon His shoulders.

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished.

We were His enemy, yet He has looked on us with kindness in our doomed state. Christ still loved us and died for us. The love of Christ is not dependent on how good we perform or how often we mess up. His love for us is grace - far from what we deserve, but exactly what we need. How deep His love for us must be!

Love in His Assurance

The love of God is not love without power. His love pursues His sheep and keeps them safe in His arms. In the book of Romans, Paul writes about how we are completely justified in the work of Christ on the cross, and in the finished work of Christ alone! He then asks:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

What the scripture says is clear: there is no trial that can separate those who are in Christ from Christ. If you are truly His, He will keep you to the end, and He will not let anything snatch you from His mighty hand out of His great love for you. Not even because we deserve His pursuit, but because His love is without bounds and everlasting. Do you fear that you will be separated from Him when you sin? When you are fearful and doubtful of Him? He will leave the 99 sheep to find the one that has gone astray and lead it back to the right path. Praise the Lord that our salvation depends on Him and His endless love for us! If it depended on our own strength and might, we would stray from the path and never find our way back.

Love in His Care

His love is not only power that holds us to Him, but in His love for us He cares for us every second, minute, and hour of our lives. Even when we do not think that we need the Giver of life, we need Him, and He sustains us. In our trials, our weakness becomes much more obvious to us (not that we were not weak before, but we see ourselves rightly). We need Christ to be righteous and flee from sin. We need Christ to give us breath in our lungs and to pump our hearts so that we can live. We need Christ to have peace and comfort when grief comes in our path. We need Christ to see the world rightly and rejoice in all the blessings He has given us. Out of love for us, Christ spoke truth to us, saying, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). His love for us did not stop at the cross but continues in every step we take. Whether you are tired and weary or filled with joy, know that Christ is not only your Savior but your Friend. Through His Spirit that He has placed within you, He walks at your side to hear the burdens and delights of your heart and to help you grow. In this life, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Know that when you are running to Christ as He sees us from eternity, He is also running alongside you.

To Love Christ

But the love of Christ is much deeper than any action, word, emotion, or article heading. The love of the world is shallow and turbulent, founded on emotions and preferences rather than a choice that touches every part of us. But the love of Christ is so great that it surpasses all knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). We love Jesus because He first loved us, but it is not the love of Christ that is worthy of love - it is Christ Himself. Just as Christ does not love us based on what we do, our interests, ethnicity, etc., we do not love Christ simply because of what He did but because of who He is. He pours out His love to us in so many ways (most of which we do not pay attention to), but most of all He is our God, Savior, and Friend. If your love is devoted toward the actions but not the person of Christ, it is a dwindling love of your own preference. If your love is devoted to the person of Christ, it is a love that makes you into a new person. Dear friends, there is nothing in Christ that is not worthy of love greater than we can ever give. Hold anything in your heart above Him and you will lose everything. Hold Him as your greatest treasure, and you will have eternal life.