Loved Regardless
I still fondly remember how I did something some might think a bit odd every time my wife became pregnant. Every day I would speak to her belly to tell the child inside her womb how much I loved them. For the first pregnancy, I didn’t know I was talking to two of them until two weeks before they came forth. But as a dad, even without seeing them or knowing whether they would be well-behaved or not, I loved them and wanted them to know it, simply because they were mine and they were wanted. To this day, nothing has changed for any of my children. I still love them and always will, not because they’ve earned my love but because they are my children. They didn’t earn my love from the start, so they could not lose it. Displays of undesired behavior on their part might have caused me some disappointment and led to corrective actions being taken on my part for their training and benefit, but it never changed my love for them. I never felt inclined to reward them for bad behavior. Nor could their bad behavior make me lose my love for them.
God, as a Father, loved us before we were born again. I’m not making this up; it says so in the Bible.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all Three in One, loved us in eternity past. You and I were loved in Christ before the world began. Nothing has changed. We were targeted for God's love before coming to know Jesus. He set His love on us before we came forth. Similar to how I loved my children before they came forth, except more so.
You know, I was never as excited about the birth of someone else’s child as I was about the birth of my children. I must also confess that although I love the children of others, my love for my children is much greater.
Not that God is like me in such matters, but think for a moment and imagine with me how much more loved by Him we are now that we are His.
Ephesians 1:3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
Jesus did not die for you because you were morally good or were even trying hard to be good. I know I wasn't morally good, nor was I trying to be. I was a rebel without a cause, not even thinking about God. Yet the Bible tells me I was loved even then.
Jesus died for you because you were greatly loved by the Father and deemed worth rescuing before the foundation of the world. His love is an everlasting love, so it hasn’t diminished over time! His love cannot be diminished even when we blow it and sin in our flesh. Our disobedience cannot drive His love away. It might grieve His heart because He knows there are no benefits to sin, and it often leads to undesired consequences that make it more difficult for us. But His love never changes. His desire for us to live in such a way as to prosper in our souls and that cause us to thrive in our daily lives will also never change. He wants us to find our identity in Jesus and learn to live in faith according to the Spirit growing in our trust.
Just as Paul stated, the life I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for me. The same holds true for every believer if they wish to please God. So go live that beautiful abundant eternal life you have received and rejoice in Jesus today! It’s your privilege to do so. You are a son now, a joint heir, and as Jesus is, so are you now in this earth! You, my friend, are greatly loved regardless!
