The title of this message is from a song written in 1975 by Kurt Kaiser. Here are a few of the lyrics: “Oh, He gave his life, what more could He give, Oh, how He loves you…”. A thousand songs could not begin to describe the love that Jesus has for you! Here are some things I have written on this precious topic of how much Jesus loves you:
Jesus is God’s love born on earth. “…God is love” (1 John 4:8).
Love is not shaped like a heart, but a Cross.
His love for you did not end on the Cross, rather it began on the Cross. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Do not measure the love of Christ by your suffering, but by His.
The greatest love story was Jesus Christ, crucified for you. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Jesus loves you, unconditionally. The only question is, do you love Him?
You cannot earn His love, you can only return it.
The Lord Jesus loves you regardless of how you feel. Your feelings are often the Devil’s leash.
Never measure His love for you by what others have done to you, but by what He has done for you. “…To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5).
You are always loved by Jesus, with everyone else love is an option.
The Bible in summary: Old testament, love Me, love Me, love Me; New Testament, I love you.
He loves you as you are
You don’t have to change to be loved, but His love will change you.
Jesus loves you by His qualifications, not yours. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
So long as you think you must change that God would love you, then you know nothing about His love.
We think if we will obey Him then He will love us. But Jesus loves us as we are. Obedience is the result of us loving Him, not the cause of Him loving us.
Jesus loves you for free. You cannot earn something which is free. It would be like paying for sunlight, when you get it simply by stepping outside. The Lord said, “…I will love them freely…” (Hosea 14:4). If you had to earn His love, it wouldn’t be love.
Learn to love the Lord for who He is, not based on who you are. For you are broken and He is not. He loves you even when you cannot love yourself.
Jesus loves you in spite of yourself. It is your pride that makes you think you must do something to gain His love.
You cannot make Jesus stop loving you. Reject Him, He still loves you. Run from Him, He still loves you. Sin, He still loves you. Be His enemy, He still loves you. The only thing you can do is either accept or reject His love, but either way, His love endures forever. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Don’t measure the love of Jesus based on how others in the Church have treated you. If you want to see a better example of Christ in the Church then be the example.
His love will change you
I heard this somewhere, “Jesus loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way”.
Stop thinking that if He loves you He would make your life easy. Jesus loves you so much that there is no suffering He would withhold from you to draw you nearer to Himself.
Stop blaming people in the Church for your disillusionment of faith. The level of your faith is measured by your closeness to Christ. It is between you and Him. The only obstacle is you. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?… [nothing, nothing, nothing] …shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35,39).
If you must carry a doctrine as your mantle, let it be this, “Jesus loves you”.
You cannot change Jesus, but He can change you.
Stop rejecting His love because you don’t deserve it. Let Him love you anyway.
There is no greater way to teach the love of Christ than to live out the love of Christ. “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:2).
Jesus loves you, every other doctrine is secondary to this truth.
You cannot study yourself into an intimate relationship with Christ. The harder you try, the harder your heart becomes.
The more you realize His love for you, the greater that God will fill you. My prayer for you is this, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).
“Oh, He gave his life, what more could He give, Oh, how He loves you…”.
Blessings to you,
Paul
All verses are in red and use the NKJV translation unless otherwise noted.
I love this message! I had an awesome time today sharing the love of Jesus with a homeless woman! I mean we had Church on the street corner! I walked away so blessed after having spent time with her talking, praying and just listening to her! It made my day! Thank you Jesus!
That is so wonderful! That is such a blessed ministry to reach out to those who can nothing for you in return, yet by doing so it does so much for you in return. Consider how you might do that ministry or something like it regularly. I have a dear sister in Christ who feeds the homeless on Skid Row in Los Angeles every Sunday for many years, she is so blessed by this.
Thank you so much
You are most welcome, thank you for the encouragement!
Praise the Lord
1Peter 1:1-2 and Eph 1:1-4 (and other scfipture) reminds me that God’s love for his people began in eternity past when God decreed that there an elect people would be called out of the rest of fallen humanity for his glory. God planned salvation for his people, Christ secured it on the cross, and the Holy Spirit brought it to pass. The Trinity saved us,
Thank you Dan, this is such a good word! For sure His love extended to us long before we were even born, before Christ came to earth, before the world was even here. Isn’t that just so incredible, to think God has loved you and me for a very very long time, I would even propose, forever.
This made me hesitate to write a couple of the sentences that I wrote. One was, “His love for you did not end on the Cross, rather it began on the Cross”. But like you pointed out above, His love started long before that, from eternity past.
But when once we step into the eternal time, things are harder to translate to temporal time. The scripture after my sentence is a great example of this, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Here it shows that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. It is as if when He died it cut through time, and in a way while we are still in our sin, He is still on the Cross. Fascinating to think about, how can it be?
So I did the same thing in my statement, using a cutoff point of the Cross. Still, I would not argue with you against saying my sentence is not exactly right. Oh the exactness we sometimes try to keep as we cross between the eternal and the temporal realms! Still, the point I am making, is His death was the beginning of us gaining eternal life, so the manifestation of His love towards us began when He said, “it is finished”.
Thanks for posting, I appreciate you have such a good mind with Scripture!
That came to mind mostly because both passages are part of a study we are doing in 1&2 Peter. I agree with your sentiments also.
And what perfect timing! Is so good for us to be in the Word. None of us has the Word perfectly, but the Word has us perfectly!
Great word. His love is unconditional, and I’m so thankful for that because, let’s face it, we’re not always a terribly loveable bunch.
Oh you nailed it! The other day I was praying to God that He would help me to love some specific unlovable people I am dealing with. He did help me. Then I was thinking, I wonder how many people must pray a similar prayer such that they could love me? I hope some do!
Paul, you are so filled with the Spirit, I think it would be impossible for anybody who knows you not to love you. You radiate the love of God, it shines through you.
Thank you so much Tracy! This has already made my day and my day is only getting started! You are something so special for the Kingdom. God has such glorious plans for your life. Thank you for your encouragement, I am so blessed to know you!