12/30/2016
“The Faithful Love of Jesus”
It doesn’t makes sense. It doesn’t seem fair. In a culture where the mantra is “you get what you deserve,” to be told that Jesus loves us no matter what, it can be hard to wrap your head around that. It’s almost easier to hold the life-changing message of grace at arm’s length than it is to fully embrace it. “Surely my sin is too much…too deep…too dark for Christ,” we say. “Surely I am too far gone this time.”
But Jesus’ gift of life was never intended as something we would deserve or earn. It was a gift because he knew we could never come close to earning or deserving it. We are too far gone, but that’s where Christ intervened.
I pray you know the love of God
The love that never leaves us
The height, the depth, the width, the breadth
The faithful love of Jesus
Romans 8 says we can’t do anything that would separate us from God’s love: “For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Rom. 8:38-39)
We don’t have the love of Jesus because we’ve been so faithful to him. We have it because he’s been so faithful to us. The depth, width, height and breadth of his love is beyond our comprehension. It has nothing to do with our behavior—whether good or bad—and everything to do with the free gift he’s graciously given us, a mercy he makes new every morning, no matter what happened the night before. That is a truth we can rest in.
