How do you know that God loves you?

How do you know that God loves you?

The foundation of our faith, hope and love toward Him, is His love toward us. The strength to press on toward holiness, to love our neighbour, to live sacrificially and joyfully, to extend patience and grace to our family members, and to abound in hope when everything seems to be falling apart is rooted in our knowledge of God’s love. 

His love is the fuel for our love. Without a meaningful knowledge of it, our efforts soon lose steam and our good deeds are hollowed out of the very thing that gives them eternal significance. We become a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.

So how do we know that He loves us?

If you grew up in church, then it’s very likely that at some point you sang the song “Jesus loves me”. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

The Bible, the word of God, tells us so. John 3 says “God so loved the world”, and John 15 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you”.

But is that enough? Is it enough when all hope seems lost, or when all the world seems against you, or when all God’s promises for a good future seem like a mirage, or when your heart whispers enticing words about forbidden fruit? Is it enough simply to be told “brother, sister, Jesus loves you”?

It isn’t.

You see, you have a soul. It’s the person within your person. It’s the invisible you that’s wrapped in a mind and body. It’s the command centre of all you believe and do. For an idea to govern your life at a fundamental level, it must be embraced as true in your soul.

So how does that happen?

Our ears are one of the ways that our souls come upon knowledge. We hear “Jesus loves you” and that reaches through our ears to our souls. But unless what we hear is confirmed by what we see, it will never be embraced in such a way that it takes over the command centre of our lives.

This is why merely hearing is not enough. Our hearing must be accompanied by seeing, which leads to believing, embracing and conforming. We need the Bible to do more than just tell us that Jesus loves us, we need it to show us. How is the love of Jesus manifested so my soul can see it? In such a way that my soul yields to Him and my life conforms to His?

1st John 4:9 answers this question.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”

God, in communicating His love, appeals not only to our ears, but to our eyes. He not only says I love you, but He manifests His love among us.

Words without action are meaningless. This is why in 1 John 3 we are told “let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.” Love in word only is a lying love. When our souls only know of God’s love second hand through the word of another or the word of the Bible, we don’t have that kind of knowledge which is essential.

But God’s love is manifested by His speaking and his acting. And if we are to truly know the deep love of God, we must perceive both what He’s said and what He’s done.

And what has He done?

He’s sent His only Son into the world. Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, was not only declared from heaven, but also manifested on earth. And this manifestation was catered to our exact need.

We needed life. And Jesus came that we might live through him.

We didn’t have life, because by our sin we cut ourselves off from God, the very source of life. We broke communion with Him.

But Jesus, who is perfectly one with His Father, had life in Himself to give us.

“as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself”

We didn’t have life, because our weakness kept us from remedying our sin problem.

But Jesus had no such weakness and offered us the righteousness that His strong hand had obtained.

“while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.^”

We didn’t have life, because the holiness and goodness of God called for the death of all sinners.

But Jesus took the death penalty on our behalf.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”

We didn’t have life, because no amount of payment that we could afford would satisfy the demands of justice.

But Jesus, infinite in spiritual riches, paid the full amount of our debt while He hung on the cross.

“though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

God didn’t just say He loves us, He manifested His love by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have life in Him.

When we say that God loves us, we are making a trinitarian statement. We are saying that the triune God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit- loves us.

The Father declared His love, the Son manifested His love, and the Spirit applied His love to our hearts. Romans 5 says “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

It is by the work of the Spirit that the word and manifestation of love penetrate through our eyes and ears into the depth of our soul, so that the truth of God’s love reigns supreme and animates our very being.

So, how do you know that God loves you? Because the Father sent the Son and the Son sent the Spirit so that His life might take up residence in your soul.

Believer, You have life now, forever, because God loves you. This isn't subject to the whims of of feelings or the events of our lives. This isn't less true when the fires of temptation burn or the sorrows of life weigh heavy. It's as finished and fixed as the gospel itself.

And God, kind as He is, further appeals to our creaturely need to not only hear but also see, in the gift of The Lord's Table, The Eucharist- the table of blessing.

All of the blessings that are ours by the life of Christ come into focus right here at this table.

We see His compassion as the body which the Father has prepared for His Son is represented in the bread and wine.

We taste His goodness as they enter our mouths.

We hear his love unto death as His unleavened body breaks between our teeth.

We feel the enlivening and nourishing of our souls as the bread and wine are swallowed.

And we reckon ourselves united to Him as His body and blood pass into every cell of ours.

We eat, and we are convinced that We are His and He is ours.

Every week as we gather for corporate worship, we hear the truth, grace and love of God declared from the pulpit.

And as we partake of the Lord’s Supper we see it manifested.

At this meal, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all present, declaring with one gracious voice “I love you”.