In his apostolic letters, John the beloved was simply beside himself as he described God’s great love for his people in Christ. He testified that “the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. . . . So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:14, 16). What do we need to know? What do we need to believe? Simply this: we need to know and believe that he loves us. We are assured of his love every time we look at the cross; he has sent his Son to be our Savior so that we might “live through him” (1 John 4:9).
Look at the cross to know love
We know his love when we hear the Son’s cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). Jesus Christ was the propitiation for our sin. Propitiation is simply the amazing truth that God’s righteous wrath, which we richly deserve, has been deflected from us and focused instead on his innocent Son (Rom. 3:23–25). He bore the Father’s wrath; he assumed our guilt as God poured out upon him every drop of punishment we so justly deserve.
Do you wonder if God really loves you? Look at the cross! Do you think he might still be angry with you? You’re not seeing Calvary! So much of what passes for Christianity doesn’t have anything to do with this simple premise: God set his love upon undeserving sinners by turning his back on his deserving Son—all because he loves. How is it possible that we will stand confidently before him on the day of judgment? Because his love “casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). How can we war against our selfishness and learn to love God and our neighbors? Because “he first loved us” (v. 19).
Do let God’s love overwhelm
Drink deeply of his love, the kind of love he has given us: justifying, propitiating, adopting love. Because of his love, we are the “children of God” (1 John 3:1–3). Don’t let familiarity with this truth anesthetize your soul to its power: his beloved Son left his heavenly home, traversed down into our world, lived sinlessly, died shamefully, was forsaken by his Father, and was buried in a cold tomb. The Father gave his Son in exchange for us so that he might claim us as his sons. And then he raised him from the dead to assure us again that we are now and forever his. Jesus Christ, the God-Man, has taken our flesh into the throne room of heaven, and therefore nothing—not our weakness, not our sin, “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” (Rom. 8:38–39). Think on his love. You can’t do it enough. Be enraptured by it—let it overwhelm you. Don’t worry that it will make you apathetic; just the opposite is true. Hoping in his transforming love causes us to strive after purity, to be pure, “as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
Don’t let Satan’s lies blind
Your enemy wants to blind you to God’s love, to make you think that God isn’t as good as he says he is. He sneers with wicked glee when you gloss over verses about the Lord’s love for you and seek to know only your obligation. He will flatter you and tell you that, now that you are mature, you don’t need to think on God’s love.
But if you believe Satan’s lies, you will cut yourself off from the very engine that will empower true obedience. He will continually try to distract you from thinking on God’s love for you in Christ, and he will do it either by pointing out your sin or impressing you with your achievements (and others’ failures) or by enticing you with some worthless trinket. He will do anything he can to keep you from basking in God’s steadfast love for you and pursuing purity in loving dependence. He doesn’t care if he keeps you down by pointing out your sin or pointing you to sin. He seeks to damn both the religious and irreligious. What do we need to remember? “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16).
This article is adapted from Elyse’s latest book, Counsel from the Cross, and is posted with permission from Crossway Books. She will be speaking more on this topic at our Resurgence Women’s Training Seminar at Mars Hill Downtown Bellevue on Saturday, October 27.
