powerful. However, there are a few that really spell out the spiritual application for us (see appendix A for additional verses). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16, ESV, emphasis added). “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, NASB). “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:9–10, NLT).
God did for you and me what we call heroic today. Jesus’ life (the rescuer) was given for us (the rescued). Because He loves us.
I have a friend who has lived through more in her lifetime than most people would think humanly possible to endure. Her trauma experiences are many and go beyond imagination (think ritualistic abuse and all that entails). There has been so much pain and woundedness in her life, it has not been easy for her to understand that she has value because God loves her.
In fact, I would say that until this past year, she did not fully grasp it. She believed in the story of salvation and told many others about it. She memorized Bible verses and immersed herself in the Bible, care groups and serving in the church. She did everything she thought was pleasing to God, but it didn’t translate into anything meaningful to her. She thought she was worthless, unlovable. Jesus’ love and sacrifice for her had remained trapped in her head—it had not seeped into the fibres of her being. Over the years of her torture, Satan had done a really good job of convincing her that her abuse defined her and was a reflection of her lack of worth. So that’s what she felt. Not love. Even though the love was there for her. She had taken a shower to get clean, but she had never soaked in the warm bath of His love.
I know this woman well. And I know why the enemy worked so hard to keep her feeling worthless and unlovable. She will not keep quiet about something she believes in, and he knew if she felt the magnitude of God’s love, her testimony would be unstoppable. So he tried to silence her by making her feel worthless to the point of death. Literally. She miraculously survived many suicide attempts.
The problem was a lack of connection between her head and her heart. She knew in her head that it meant her salvation, and she was grateful for it. But as for what that sacrifice meant about her worth and God’s love—she just couldn’t feel it in those deep, soulful places. As a result, with the enemy’s lies about her deep wounds clawing at her, her life was precarious. She never knew when she would be spiralling down into the depths of despair again, ultimately ending in an attempt to take her own life.
One day (it still brings tears to my eyes), I got the most amazing email from her. She wrote to tell me this:
I feel prompted to tell you what I have just settled with the Lord. I am chosen and dearly loved. I was bought at a high price. Value and worth are determined by the price paid for them. Therefore I have great value. I am worthy because Jesus bought me for the value He sees in me. This is a message I am to bring to the people of God. A message I am to spread to the world. We are chosen and dearly loved.
Those deep, soulful parts were finally filled. The scales were finally off her eyes, and she could see. She has great value. Why? Because Jesus loves her, so much that He died for her. And if He was willing to give His life for her, then she has value. It’s that simple and yet that powerful. So she no longer tries to end her own life, because she realizes she is worth something. Nothing else changed in her life except for her understanding of what it means to be loved. Loved so much she was worth dying for. God’s love for her had moved from the place it held in her head, as a theological concept and truth, down into her soul to become something that was personally hers.
It’s like when you decorate a bedroom, and you have every item you need to make it complete—except for the lamp to go on your nightstand. You have found one, but it costs way more than you can afford. So you put it on layaway, pay your down payment and establish your payment plan. The lamp is technically yours once you have paid it off in full. But it isn’t in your home yet, so it doesn’t really feel like you own it. When you walk into the bedroom and scan the room, you try to picture the light on the nightstand, but because it’s just a picture in your head, it’s not the same. All you see is the empty spot where the light belongs, and it makes you long for it all the more.
And then comes the day when you make your final payment. It changes everything to see the light sitting in that once empty space, completing the room. It’s been yours since payment began, but now it feels like you own it because it’s where it belongs…where it was intended to be all along.
What’s so amazing about love? It is life-changing—life-saving. Remember 1 Corinthians 13:13? “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (NLT). My friend had faith. She kept hoping things would feel better. But things got better because of love, the greatest of the three. Ultimately, love is the greatest because God is love (1 John 4:16). It is a description of Him.
Reflect for a moment on your own life experiences or those of someone you know well. Can you think of a personal application that points to why faith and hope are important and valuable but love trumps them both? Maybe your experience isn’t as drastic as my friend’s. Maybe you haven’t been brought back from the brink of suicide because Jesus loves you. Or maybe you have. It’s far more common than most people believe. Because so many of us, even strong, seasoned believers, don’t truly grasp why love is the greatest…what it really means for our lives.
A Children’s Song Sums It Up
Lately I’ve been thinking that what is most important about the Christian faith is perfectly summed up in the first line of a popular children’s Sunday school song: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
There are so many different denominations. So many different interpretations of the Bible. But really, when you sort through and pull out what really matters, what ultimately makes a difference in someone’s life is this: Jesus loves us. Everything else flows from that one basic truth.
It was because of His love that He went to the cross to die for us. The love was there first. It was because of His love that He did things differently than the religious leaders who were out for their own glory. It was because of His love that He healed people. It was because of His love that He performed miracles. Everything good, right and true was and is because of His love. Everything. The whole Old Testament is about how God orchestrated and set in motion world events leading up to Christ’s death on the cross. Because of His love. Genesis 1:1 (“In the beginning God created”) happened because of God’s love.
Imagine that for a moment. Unlock the part of you that used to dress up, play school or imagine fantasy worlds—whatever you did with your imagination that caused you joy. Picture being the heroine of a land where everything miraculous, beautiful and good is because of how loved you are. What do you feel about that? Now consider—this is not a figment of your imagination. This is real life, with God.
It’s not surprising that a children’s song captures the truth. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 that unless you become like a child you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. God has always placed great value on a child’s simple way of looking at Him…stripped of all the trappings of our complicated adult minds, back to the simple, powerful, bottom-line truth: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
I can almost hear some of the backlash to what I have just said. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not discounting the many other very important truths that are found in the Bible. I’m just saying that when push comes to shove, when you are talking someone back from the edge of a cliff (figuratively or literally), you need to be able to be concise, powerful and convincing. It may be your only chance. So what sums it up? What matters most? Some would say salvation, through Jesus’s death and resurrection. That is true, but what prompted that? Yes, our sin made it necessary for there to be a sacrifice, I know. But what prompted that particular sacrifice? His love for us.
Remember one of the verses I quoted earlier? Pay attention to the way it is worded: “For God so loved the world that he