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. 1 John 4:9
In this fallen world, where can you look to see the love of God? You can look at Jesus whom God sent into the world.
John gets more specific about what this involves: God “loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (4:10). Here is how that love reaches us and gets inside us, “We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (4:16).
So a Christian is a person who is able to say, “I know that God loves me. I believe this. The love of God for me is clear every time I look at Jesus.” When you believe the love of God made known in his Son, Jesus Christ, then you will experience this love of God in your heart.
Imagine a friend who comes to you and says, “I know about the love of God in my head, but I don’t experience it in my heart.”
So, you say to her, “Tell me about the love of God that you know in your head.” She stumbles around and says, “You know, Jesus died for our sin and all that.”
When you ask her, “Do you have any sins?” She says to you, “Well, nobody’s perfect.” So you say to her, “No, do you have any sins that would damn you to an eternal hell where you are separated from God and from his love forever?”
If you have never felt that you have sins that would damn you to hell, it will be very difficult for you to feel that what Jesus did at the cross was significant for you.
Can you say with confidence, “I know God loves me”? Why or why not?
