Have you ever wondered how God shows His loving-kindness for us? Do you know that God made a public demonstration of His love? God sent His only son to die for us as a demonstration of His love.
The World’s Love
The world has no true love in it. The world offers, at best, a lesser type of love that is not unconditional or everlasting love. The world does not offer a love that is true nor rooted in any solid foundation. The world has conditions for love that, in the end, are not really the type of love that people need. People need love and that love needs to be rooted in kindness, compassion, and truth.
God’s Loving Kindness
I’m thankful the Bible teaches us there is someone who actually loves us and gave Himself for us. The Bible says this in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world”. Paul wrote “But God shows His love for us” in Romans 5:8. John wrote that “God is love” in 1 John 4:8.
God has many attributes that perfectly describe who He is and one of them is love. How did God love the world? “that he gave his only Son”. God demonstrated His love in Jesus’s work on Calvary’s cross. The cross where Jesus bled and died is where God demonstrated His love.
God’s loving-kindness isn’t an empty statement though. He proves it by sending Jesus to bleed and die.
Let’s finish the rest of John 3:16. “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus’s work on the cross provides eternal life. I would call His work the most loving work that could ever be done.
God’s Offer of Salvation
Furthermore, I would say nothing can surpass His love. Jesus, as God incarnate, showed his loving-kindness by dying the death we deserve and He paid the penalty for the offenses we commit.
John 3:17 points to the fact that God didn’t send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it. John 3:18 points out that those who believe in Him aren’t condemned but those who don’t are condemned because they didn’t believe.
God, in His love for the world, does not override His other attributes to ignore our condemnation. Instead, He made an offer that forgives those who believe.
Are you looking for love?
Here’s how you can find love.
- Be a whoever – The Bible says in Romans 5:8 that God showed His love for us while we were sinners Christ died for us. The “whoever” in John 3:16 is someone that is a sinner. Luke 19:10 says Jesus came to seek and save sinners. It is encouraging for me, looking back, when I realized I was a sinner, that I was at the point to experience God’s love. It is encouraging for all Christians to know, when we came to the point of knowing we are sinners, that we were at the point to experience love. However, it is not just enough to be a whoever.
- Be a whoever believer – The Bible says that whoever believes has eternal life and is not under condemnation. God’s loving-kindness is not showing a love that can just ignore who He is, but rather shows a love that works with who He is. To experience His love fully one has to believe. Even an unbeliever experiences His love; however, to experience it fully starts by believing. I can be a whoever but not experience the love He has for me in the fullest sense. I can know I am sinful without actually doing anything about it at all.
God’s loving-kindness is great and amazing!
His love comforts and encourages me, knowing that I am sinful, yet Jesus came as God in the flesh and died for me. It is amazing to know He loves me. I am astounded daily, knowing that I sin, and yet He still loves me. His love has paid my sin debt in full, past, present, and future.
