What does the Bible say about the love of Jesus?

The Bible teaches that Jesus' love for His people is eternal and unconditional, as emphasized in John 3:16 and 1 John 3:1-2. The love of Jesus is described in Scripture as an everlasting love that transcends human understanding. Jeremiah 31:3 proclaims, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love.' This love is not based on the loveliness of its object but is rooted in the sovereign will and grace of God. According to Ephesians 1:4-5, this love existed before the foundation of the world, illustrating its eternal nature. Moreover, the love of Christ does not fluctuate with human performance or faithfulness. As Romans 8:38-39 states, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. This assures believers that His love is unwavering and steadfast, seeking to redeem and transform even the most wretched sinner.

How do we know Jesus' love for us is true?

We know Jesus' love is true because He demonstrated it by His sacrificial death for our sins, fulfilling God's plan of salvation. The affirmation of Christ's love for believers is profoundly demonstrated through His sacrifice on the cross. As stated in John 15:13, 'Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.' This act was not merely symbolic; Jesus bore the full weight of humanity's sin, becoming a substitutionary sacrifice for His people (2 Corinthians 5:21). Furthermore, the effectiveness of this love extends beyond a mere display of affection. It accomplishes what it intends—salvation for those whom the Father has given Him (John 6:37). This certainty of His love is not grounded in human potential but in the sovereign grace by which He calls and keeps His chosen ones, as seen in Philippians 1:6, assuring believers that He who began a good work in them will carry it to completion.

Why is the love of Jesus important for Christians?

The love of Jesus is essential for Christians as it assures them of their eternal security and transforms their lives through faith. The love of Jesus undergirds the entirety of the Christian faith, providing a foundation of assurance and hope. It reassures believers of their eternal security, as articulated in John 10:28, where Jesus declares that no one can snatch them out of His hand. This unwavering grip dispels fear and fosters confidence in their salvation. Additionally, Jesus' love is transformative. It cultivates in believers a holy hatred for sin and a profound hunger for righteousness (Romans 8:29). As they encounter His love, they are compelled to live in light of it, yearning for conformity to His image. This sanctifying work is a testament to the power of His love, which not only saves but also continually shapes and redeems the lives of His followers in preparation for eternal glory.

The Love of Jesus for His People! - Various

The Love of Jesus for His People. Jeremiah Chapter 31, Verse 3 I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with lovingkindness. There is no subject more humbling to the soul, and more glorifying to God, than the love of Jesus for his own people.

It is a love that staggers the mind, silences human pride, and brings the redeemed sinner to his knees in wondering adoration. To speak of it carelessly is to do it violence. To approach it rightly, the soul must come with shoes removed, standing on holy ground. Let us, then, with reverence and sobriety, consider what manner of love this is.

It is an eternal love. Before the mountains were formed, before the seas were set in their boundaries, before a single star was flung into the vast expanse of the heavens, Jesus loved his people. The Father chose us in Jesus before the creation of the world.

This is not the language of sentiment. This is the language of sovereign, eternal, purposeful election. his love did not begin when you first believed. it did not ignite when you first wept over your sin, or first bent your knee in prayer. his love for you, if you are truly his, reaches back into the dateless, measureless eternity before time itself was created. you were loved before you existed. you were chosen before you could choose. you were known before you could know.

This ought to demolish every trace of human pride. There was nothing in you that moved the heart of Jesus toward you. There was no foreseen faith, no anticipated virtue, no spark of goodness that drew his eye. He loved you because he loved you, and for no reason that originates in you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. the love of jesus is rooted not in the loveliness of its object, but in the sovereign freedom of its source. it is a love that descended into this incursed earth for us. but eternal love, as glorious as it is, was not content to remain in the councils of eternity. it descended. it stooped. it entered into the wretchedness of a fallen world in order to accomplish what sovereign grace had purposed from before the foundation of the earth. for god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. consider what that giving cost.

The Son of God, co-eternal, co-equal, co-glorious with the Father, laid aside the unhindered exercise of His Divine Majesty and was born in a stable, wrapped in poverty, and laid in a filthy feeding trough. He who upholds all things by the Word of His Power, was held in the arms of a young woman from Nazareth. He who is the Bread of Life, grew hungry. He who is the Living Water, grew thirsty.

He who is the Resurrection and the Life, lay down and died. and he did not die as a martyr dies, as one who sacrifices himself for a noble cause. He died as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of his people. He bore, in his own body on the cross, the full, unmitigated, holy wrath of God against the sins of his people. God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us. He was not merely sympathizing with sinners from a distance.

He was numbered among them, crushed beneath the weight of their guilt, forsaken by the Father in their place. this is the measure of his love. not a love that admires from afar. not a love that wishes well and does nothing. but a love that goes to calvary's cruel cross. a love that bleeds. a love that bears the curse, so that the cursed might go free. it is a love that pursues and conquers. Nor did the love of Jesus merely provide a theoretical possibility of salvation. It actually pursued, and actually saved, those whom the Father had given Him.

He declared, All that the Father gives me will come to me. Not may come. Not might come, if they are wise enough to respond. Will come. this is the invincible, irresistible drawing power of sovereign grace. the sheep hear the shepherds voice. the dead hear the voice of the son of god, and they live.

Those who were by nature children of wrath, slaves of sin, spiritually blind and helpless, and without God in the world, these are the very ones whom Jesus pursues with a love that cannot be thwarted, cannot be outwitted, and cannot fail. You did not find Jesus. He found you. You did not seek Him first. There is no one who seeks God. He sought you. He drew you with cords of love. He broke through every barrier of your rebellion. He conquered your stubborn will, not by violating it, but by transforming it, making you willing on the day of His power.

The love of Jesus does not stand at the door of the heart and plead helplessly, hoping for admittance. It enters. It regenerates. it raises the dead. it opens blind eyes. it turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. and when he has done this mighty work in a soul, then that soul loves him in return, not because it has manufactured love from its own resources, but because, we love him, because he first loved us. it is a love that will never let you go. Here is where the trembling soul must come and rest.

The love of Jesus for his people is not a love that waxes and wanes with their performance. It is not a love that burns brightly when they are faithful and grows cold when they stumble. It is not a conditional affection that hangs suspended over their heads, ready to be withdrawn at the first sign of failure. i give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand. no one. not satan. not the world. not the accumulated weight of a lifetime of sin and rebellion. and, let this penetrate deeply, not even you yourself can snatch yourself from the hand of jesus. his grip on his people is not dependent on the strength of their grip on him. they are held, not because they hold on, but because he holds them.

Paul, writing from a dungeon, with chains on his wrists and death perhaps only days away, declared with unshakable confidence, I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. death cannot sever his love for his people. life with all its seductions cannot erode it. demonic powers cannot overwhelm it. time, in any of its dimensions, cannot exhaust it. the love of jesus for his redeemed people is as indestructible as he himself is. it is a love that transforms. but this love is not merely a comfort to be enjoyed passively. it is a power that transforms those it touches. those whom jesus loves, he also conforms. those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. the golden chain of redemption admits no broken links. The love of Jesus works in His people a holy hatred of sin, a deepening hunger for God, a growing conformity to the image of the One who loved them. He does not save His people, and then leave them to live as they please. He saves them from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and He will one day save them entirely from the very presence of sin.

He who has begun a good work in you, he, and no other, and by no power less than his own, will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus, as Paul promises in Philippians 1 6. Every true believer is a work in progress, but it is the Almighty Himself who is doing the work. The outcome is not in doubt.

A Word to the Searching Soul Come to Him, not with your goodness, for you have none. Come to Him not with your merit, for it is as filthy rags. Come to Him as a hell-deserving sinner, empty-handed, with nothing but your sins. For it is precisely such souls that the love of Jesus was designed, from before the foundation of the world, to save. and if you are already his, if the Holy Spirit has sealed you and indwells you and bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, then lift your eyes from your circumstances, your failures, your fears, and your sins, and behold the love of Jesus. It is older than creation. It is stronger than death. It purchased you at infinite cost. It holds you with an almighty hand and it will soon bring you home to heaven.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. Dear friends. Now we are children of God, and what we will be, has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is.

The Love of Jesus for His People!

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What does the Bible say about the love of Jesus?

How do we know Jesus' love for us is true?

Why is the love of Jesus important for Christians?

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The Love of Jesus for His People!

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the love of Jesus?

How do we know Jesus' love for us is true?

Why is the love of Jesus important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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