“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
In recent weeks Ed Sheeran has released another single. A few weeks ago he stated publicly that he wished to write his greatest love song, and with ‘Perfect’ he seems to have done that. It is the song that thousands of couples will now dance to on their wedding day. Here are some of the lyrics:
I found a love for me
Darling just dive right in
And follow my lead
Well I found a girl beautiful and sweet
I never knew you were the someone waiting for me
‘Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
Not knowing what it was
I will not give you up this time
But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own
And in your eyes you’re holding mine
Baby, I’m dancing in the dark with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight
In writing this song Eddie expresses his deep love for his girl. In doing so he gives us word pictures about how he loves her so.
What a way to express love! What a way to express what someone means to you!
I wonder how you express love?
I wonder how you express the love you have for others – for your family, friends, pets, things you do, things you have?
The passage at the top of this post isn’t talking about romantic love like Ed Sheeran is. Nevertheless, it describes the love God has for us.
It describes the love God has for us as sacrificial love.
The writer points out that God has shown his love for us through the sending of his one and only son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.
The way God has shown his love for us is through Jesus. The way God has shown his love for us is through the cross.
It is a cross-bound, life-sacrificing love.
God has such strong affection for us, he cherishes us so much, that he is willing to die for us.
This is a love that is deeply personal and a love that is of commitment and faithfulness to us. This love, this affection for us, is displayed for us through the action of sacrifice. He loves us so much that he sent his one and only Son to be an atoning sacrifice for us. He loves us so much that he sent himself, in human form, to take our place on that cross.
This sacrificial love is the love that God has for us.
As one commentator has written, the term ‘atoning sacrifice’ is a phrase to “…emphasise that God sent Jesus Christ to be the atoning sacrifice to remove the guilt we have incurred because of our sins so that we might have eternal life. This is the great expression of God’s love, and on this basis the author can say God is love.”
Due to our sin, both the sin we do as action and the sinful nature we find ourselves battling against as fallen creatures, we are in need of a saviour. Because of our sin we find that our hearts and minds are a mess. As we seek to deal with our own selfishness and brokenness and pain on our own we continue to place ourselves as king or queen over our own lives.
We become lovers of self, rather than lovers of God.
And so, we find God loving us through sending his one and only Son in order for our lives to be transformed. Transformed into life-giving, self-sacrificing, love-promoting hearts. Sin is forgiven, our hearts are changed, and we begin to be changed into creatures perfected by his love. All from him loving us first.
Ironically, Ed Sheeran’s song gets this. You may not remember but he sings,
Baby, I’m dancing in the dark with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight
Did you see it? Do you get it?
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight
Through God’s sacrificing love for us, through God expressing his love for us through the cross, we find that we are transformed from people who are messy to people perfected by love.
It is through this truth that we can know that we are indeed loved.
FOR REFLECTION
- Do you know the love God has for you today?
- What is your impression of God’s expressing his love for you through sacrifice?
- How will you hold onto this truth as you do what you do today?
This is part of a devotional series called You’re More Than A Number. To understand the purpose of these posts then please read the series introduction. If you’d like these delivered to your inbox, please sign up to follow this blog or my FB page.
Life and Faith 
9 thoughts on “Day 6 – You Are Loved”