Love. This four-letter word has baffled the wisest philosophers, dumbfounded the most prolific writers, and maddened the noblest gentlemen—so much so that it has caused Shah Jahan to build the Taj Mahal, an exquisite monument for his deceased wife… or Liu Guojiang to hand-carve 6,000 steps into the mountainside as stairway for his 10-year older wife.
As unbelievable as these stories sound, there is one that would blow our minds the most, written in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
A love that loves. “But God demonstrates…”
How many whispers of ‘I love you’ and promises of ‘till death do us part’ have been reduced to nothingness? Probably too many, that we are beginning to think if such pronouncements and promises are all empty blabbers. Well, not with God. He did not just say He loves us. He demonstrated it. How?
A love that accepts. “While we were still sinners…”
If we would tell people the vilest sin we have ever committed, they would probably be repulsed. Quite the opposite with our Great Lover. In His omnipresence and omniscience, He sees our most secret actions and reads our most hidden thoughts. In short, He knows all our sins, all our wickedness, all our imperfections, in their every detail, and yet, He still loves us. Because His love is not based on who we are, but on who He is: the God of love.
A love that sacrifices. “…Christ died for us.”
For a king to love his humble subjects is quite realistic, but for a king to actually leave his throne, live a pauper’s life, and die for his subjects? That’s bewildering. But that is what the Son of God actually did—and more! He left His heavenly throne and lived among us—became like us—only to be ridiculed, mocked, spat at, beaten, flogged, and crucified. All these He endured, for His love… for us.
Authentic love. This is what the holy and perfect God has for us, broken and filthy sinners. Shouldn’t we, then, also give Him our purest love?
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:9-11)