When I think of God’s love for me (for us), I want to sing . . . mostly because there are some great songs today about God’s love for us that capture some of the essence of it.
One song we sing at church and is on the radio has the refrain, “Amazing love, how can it be that my King would die for me? Another has a repeating refrain, “He love us, oh how He loves us.” The repetition of the phrase over and over starts to really speak of the limitlessness of God’s love. Another song puts it this way, “Your love is amazing, steady and unchanging. Your love is a mountain firm beneath my feet.” I don’t think there is much better to sing about than the love of God for us and the manifestation of that love in the person and death of Jesus.
Of course, we learn of the great love of God for us (that causes us to sing) from the words of scripture:
- For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
- In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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 4:9-10)
- For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Rom. 5:6)
- But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8)
- But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Eph. 2:4-9)
This love is like an avalanche that crashes over us. It is no small thing, this love of Jesus, to be discarded as mere philosophy or self-sacrifice of one good teacher. No, this act of love is so great that mere words cannot describe it, songs only hint at it, and pictures fall short of portraying it. This love is an endless sea into which we pitch ourselves in desperation when we have nothing else, and there we find our Savior-God, our Kinsman Redeemer, has provided us a great yacht on which to travel in safety under His direction to see the greatest wonders of the universe, a life filled with adventure and purposeful challenges to make us like Him. What other lover offers so much and has the resources and desire to deliver and never take back what He has given.
This is God . . . these are the mere edges of His ways.
Rooted and Grounded 