How Great is the Father's Love

 “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! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3)

Love is one of the greatest motivators in the world.  When someone loves you, it gives you hope and strength.  When you feel unloved or rejected by someone you love, it can be devastating.  Although human love is wonderful, God’s love is far greater.  It is the most life-changing force in the universe. The apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians (3:17b-19), “…that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

In Genesis 1 we see the testimony of the true origin of our world, the universe it dwells in, the earth, the land, the sea, the plants, the creatures, and finally, mankind.  Man is not just another creature without morals, but rather he is created in God's image with a soul.  However, we find that man sinned and broke the magnificent relationship he had with God.

But from the very beginning, God had a plan to redeem man from the eternal punishment he justly deserved.  In December of each year we celebrate the coming of God in the form of a little child.  He was called Jesus, the son of a poor, but godly couple.  His mother was Mary, but His father was the Holy Spirit.  Because He was born perfectly God and perfectly human, He alone was able to pay the debt of sin that left a stain on our souls.  Through the payment of this debt He purchased a people for Himself. 

Is this not the ultimate love?

Many times I have asked myself why people do not cry out to this Savior, Jesus, for salvation.  I believe it’s because the serpent, Satan, who deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden is still working today to trick people into rejecting the Christ so that he may take as many as possible with him into everlasting torment. 

This is not a book of fiction, nor is it a movie theme.  It is the truth.  To those who are called children of God (See John 1:12), to whom the truth has been revealed and have then cried out to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, have been granted the keys to the Kingdom of God as children and joint-heirs with Christ! 

Those of us who are born again (See John 3:5-7), have not only been made in the image of God, but we have been purified.  Not by our own righteousness, but by the righteousness of the blood of Christ shed on the cross for us.   Because of this a Holy God sees us as holy and righteous.  We no longer belong to this world, but instead we have a longing in our hearts for heaven to live with Him in righteousness and perfection forever.

If you know God through faith in Jesus Christ, pause often to revel in the Father’s great love that made you His child.  If you do not know God, His great love calls you even now to the cross, where Jesus Christ shed His blood to pay the penalty for all that will believe in Him.