Jesus Loves Me; This I Know

Blessed Assurance—Jesus is mine! O, what a foretaste of glory divine!

We just sang that. And yet another line said “Angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy and whispers of love.” And we sang that Jesus loves me!

God loves us. O blessed thought. We are given a great joy right here and now because God loves us. He loves me. He loves you. Have you given that any thought? Just how big is this love? “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

Let’s think about this by asking some questions:

1) Who is this that loves us?

2) How great is this love?

3) What is my response?

First. Who loves us? God does. We read in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” This is God the Father. God the Father loves us and gave a great gift to us. God the Father loves me! This I know; for the Bible tells me so!

But that’s not all. Paul writes that “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It is the Son who loves me! The Son, Jesus Christ, love me. This I know; for that Bible tells me so!

Oh, but that’s not all either! Paul writes that “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” You see? It’s the Holy Spirit that loves me too! This I know; for the Bible tells me so!

Let’s review. God loves us; this we know! The Father loves us; this we know. Jesus, God’s Son, loves us; this we know. And the Holy Spirit loves us; this we know—for the Bible tells us so!

That’s pretty amazing really. God loves us. But just how big is this love? We use this word “love” in a lot of different ways, don’t we? I say that I love my wife. I also love my children. But I also love going to the beach. I love a good sandwich or a plate of spaghetti. But it should be obvious that I don’t love spaghetti the same way that I love my family. Right?

So what is this love that God loves us with? How great is this love?

It is HUGE! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I Jn 3:1) He calls us His children! It’s that big. We weren’t His children. In fact, we were His enemies.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:6 - 8) “The sinful mind is hostile to God.” (Rom 8:7)

God loved us so much that He died for us while we were still hating Him. That’s how much He loved us.

Why did He have to die?

So that we would not die. That’s why. You see each of us in our sin had to be punished. We sinned against God. This was not a small thing either. This is against GOD! He is infinite and any punishment would have to be equally big. But there is no way that any of us could ever stand up under that punishment except it be spaced out for a real long time—that is, forever. That’s what hell is. God giving sinners the punishment that they earned—forever.

But God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit loved us. And they brought salvation for us. The Father planned it; the Son came and carried it out and the Holy Spirit brings it to our hearts. That’s how much He loves us. Jesus came and took our place and our punishment.

That is a big love. A very big love. And what should our response be?

Believe.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Believe. God gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see? Our response is critical. Either we believe and are saved, or we don’t and are condemned. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” (Jn 3:18). It’s not enough to kind of agree; not, you have to believe. Trust Jesus to love you and to save you completely.

Then you are changed. Not that you change yourself. No, God changes you. So now you have new desires and new loves. You have a love for God and His ways instead of being His enemy. Now you love the Bible, because the Bible tells you about His love for you. You look at the Bible as though it is a love letter from God to you. And you now have a thankful heart. Thankful for His great love.

You must remember that this love is only for those who love Him and have believed on His name. For those who trust in Him. Otherwise you are condemned and He is angry. You are in danger of punishment. But for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, we can take great comfort in His love for us that will not ever fail.

Yes. Jesus loves me. God the Father loves me. The Holy Spirit loves me. This I know. Now let’s sing that song again and really enjoy it because this great God loves us!