That song has never resonated so much with me before. I have recently been struggling with trying to understand why God loves me. I have been looking within myself for some reason to explain it, yet all I see is my sin, my brokenness and all of the things that should (and used to) separate me from Him.
I think that far too often, we as Christians find ourselves falling into the temptation of looking in ourselves to understand why God would love us, which only results in finding far too many reasons for why He shouldn’t love us. So what do we do?
I recently read an excerpt from Jerry Bridges’s book called “Trusting God” that helped me better understand God’s love for me. He said, “The Bible is clear that God doesn’t look within us for a reason to love us. Rather, as He looks at us, He sees us united to His beloved Son, clothed in His righteousness. He loves us, not because we are lovely in ourselves, but because we are in Christ.“
Wow.
Just as the song said, it is because of God’s grace that we are in Christ. It is because we are in Christ that we are loved by God. Not because of anything we have done, but purely because of the gift of grace and faith that has been given to us by Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). Apart from Christ we are dirty, ugly, encased by the sin that we were born into. Yet because of Christ we are now clothed in the garments of salvation and in robes righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). We did nothing- NOTHING- to deserve this, but still God, in His mercy, grace, goodness and kindness, calls us His children and has made us fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17).
How humbling and awesome is that?
So if you have also been struggling with understanding God’s love for you, I hope this has helped. Remember, God loves us because He is rich in mercy and has made us alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-7). “Here then is another weapon of truth that we should store up in our hearts to use against our doubts and the temptation to question God’s love for us. God’s love to us cannot fail any more than His love to Christ can fail” (Jerry Bridges in “Trusting God”).
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
Ephesians 1:3-5
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