By Cheryl Mah
As a mother of two, I always tell my children that I love them very much. When my almost five-year-old daughter tells me she loves me back, I’ll often ask her “How much?”
“Very, very (x10) much”, she’ll reply.
It certainly feels wonderful to be loved so much by this little being, but somehow, I get the sense that our human ability to love is limited and finite (even though we want to think it can be unconditional at times). It is not unusual for us humans to put limitations on love itself or have the tendency to want to “earn” someone’s love, or even to seek out reasons for why we are loved.
So then, I started thinking about my own relationship with God. I know I love God, yes, but that’s when I wondered: How much does God love me in return?
Although I may not have all the answers as to the true extent of God’s love – and we can certainly never fathom the depth and scope of His love – I daresay that Scripture does provide several insights and references. The actual list is likely to be much longer and inexhaustible, but here are some clues as to how much God loves us:
1. God chose us to be saved
God chose us before the beginning of time. Long before we even existed, God already had elected not only to bring us to salvation (Ephesians 1:4), but also to the Good News of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:9). He encourages Christians with the knowledge that He had predestined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4-5).
2. God sent Jesus to walk among us
Jesus laid aside His heavenly glory when He was sent by the Father to live among us as a human being. His main role on earth was to reveal God to humanity in a personal way (John 1:18), such as “His eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20). Without Jesus’ example of living a holy life (1 Peter 1:16), we would not see God and we would doubt His goodness and love for us.
Jesus also came to our world to prepare us for our heavenly destiny by dying for our sins, so that we may enjoy everlasting life (Romans 6:23; John 3:16). God wanted to do away with sin once and for all, and Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 10:8-10). By shedding His blood on the cross, He gave us complete deliverance from the hold of sin, so that we may make real peace with God (Romans 8:1).
3. God knows everything about us
Since the beginning of time through all of eternity, God has known everything (Mark 13:32). and He will always know everything about us. God knew us before we were conceived (Jeremiah 1:5); how many strands of hair are on our heads (Luke 12:7); our comings and our goings (Psalm 139:1-6); knows us each by name (Isaiah 43:1); knows our thoughts, worries, and anxieties (Philippians 4:6-7); and He even knows our behaviour and motives (Proverbs 21:2). God knows us more than we know ourselves (1 John 3:20).
4. God disciplines us
Christian discipline is about watching your children to see the direction in which they are going; it is an action of love and seeks the child’s best interest – regardless of how painful it may be. Like any good father, God disciplines us when we step out of line to guide us back to the path of righteousness. Our Father’s discipline (not judgement) is a means to our growth in holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8); in doing so He is training us to take our eyes off ourselves – our desires, strengths, or plans – and instead, to fix them on His character (Isaiah 12:2).
When we search out God’s character, we are reminded that Christ is truly sufficient for us and all our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). We can rest in the promise that God is for us and not against us (Romans 8:31) and be certain that even the most severe discipline is rooted in God’s great and steadfast love for His beloved children, ie. us.
5. God provides for us
God provides for both our daily spiritual and physical nourishment and has been doing so for His people since the very beginning (Matthew 6:25-33). As His children, we must be willing to bring all our concerns and worries to God and leave them in His hands (Deuteronomy 8:3). God wants us to live for Him and to seek all our needs and desires through Him. In return, God has promised to fulfill our needs (not wants) with His abundant blessings and providence (2 Corinthians 9:8; Deuteronomy 15:6).
6. God’s love is steadfast and enduring
God loves us with an infinite and perfect love that is deeper and fuller than any love we can ever imagine (Ephesians 3:18-19). His love is a gift of His very self to us, yet we did not have to do anything to earn that love (Ephesians 2:8-10). God loves us simply because God’s very nature IS love (1 John 4:16).
Even though it is splendid to have head knowledge about God’s love, it is another thing altogether to believe it so deeply and strongly that it wholly transforms every aspect of the way we choose to live our lives (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) – that is, according to God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2). And since God loves us so much, we must also keep His love alive and complete by loving one another – as we are reminded in 1 John 4:7-12:
So, how much exactly does God love us?
The answer is: Very, very, very (x infinity) much.