This Is How Much He Loves You (Four)

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

This kind of love is not the passive kind. It’s not just a feeling one gets for another person. No, this kind of love transcends all love.

God was willing to sacrifice (a form of love) His own son for sinners. Jesus, in obedience to the Father (also a form of love), came down and became human. Not just any kind of human but a perfect, unblemished one — the kind that was required to save mankind from an eternal separation filled with darkness and misery.

Jesus chose to suffer the agony of the cross. Let the words of Charles Spurgeon sink deeply into your mind and heart:

“The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness … To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted every drop.”

This kind of love is a foundational, active love that seeks our ultimate good, making us worthy when we aren’t deserving. It’s an immense, unconditional love that endures all things and is powerful enough to overcome death!

Amen, and amen!