The Song of His Love

            Growing up, my family and I began attending a small church in a rural area of Kansas. Two ladies had come by our house inviting people to attend, and because I was of the magic age of six, I could begin riding the bus. From the first step onto the bus and into the doors of that place, love like I had never experienced before surrounded me. These people who I had never met seemed genuinely glad to see me. Their smiles welcomed me again and again, even when my foolish, childish antics should have brought about their wrath.

 In fact, I tested that love on occasion, just to see if it would hold up when I purposely disobeyed. One day in Sunday School, our teacher gave us the yearly missions poster to color. This poster kept track of our giving throughout the year, so we could see how our offerings to the missionaries would add up.

            We were given specific direction to color it carefully. We all sat around the large poster and began to color. While the teacher turned away, I began to scribble with dark reds and blacks all over the poster. The expression on my teacher’s face when she turned around was not the stormy anger I anticipated. She did not yell or scream or command me to leave her classroom. Instead, tears sprung into her eyes, as she sadly relayed her disappointment at my disobedience. This poster was the only one we had, and my scribbles would be on display for the entire year. It would be a sorrowful reminder that my disobedience had not made my teacher angry; it had grieved and saddened her heart.

            That morning, she used this moment to teach me how our sin breaks God’s heart. Though grieved deeply by our sin, His love sent a way to pay for the consequences of that sin.  He knew the depths of hate, rebellion, idolatry, lust, and evil every human soul was mottled with, and the wages that those things demanded.

Romans 6:23a:  For the wages of sin is death…

            A holy, righteous God cannot allow sin in His presence. Sinful man had no hope to bridge the gap.

But God

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

            My teacher used that moment to introduce me to Jesus, the One who, though He was holy and perfect, came down as man to live among us. This One allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross, taking all of God’s wrath for sin upon Himself, and dying on our behalf. The wages of sin meant death for Jesus, instead of me.

            Because Jesus was perfect and holy, though, He did not stay in the grave. Three days and three nights later, God’s power brought Him out of the grave to live in heaven for eternity. His life could now give me life.

Romans 6:23b …but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

            He would take all my sin from me and give me life with Him forever! All He asked was that I take this gift from Him.

Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

            It would be six more years of hearing this before I admitted that I was a sinner, and asked Jesus to save me from the wages of my sin. The day that I did, my separation from my Creator ended, and I became His own dear child. His love paid all the price for my sin. Though sin will continue to be a part of my life all the way until heaven, the price for all of it has already been applied. Eternal life in heaven is promised to every person that places their faith in Jesus who loved them so much, He died in their place.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

            Perhaps you have made this decision already. That is so wonderful! If not, then will you make this choice today?

God does nothing by accident or coincidence. The fact that you are reading this clearly shows His love as He calls you to come to Him. It is a decision you will never regret. If you do choose to accept His gift of salvation, or if you have any questions regarding this, please do reach out to me by emailing me through the form at the bottom of this post.

            For those of us who have already received God’s love through salvation, we must keep ourselves in constant remembrance of His love. His blood covered all our guilt, our shame, our regrets, all of His wrath that we deserved.

Colossians 2:13-14  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

            Have you sinned since you received His gift of salvation?

            He knew we would. He made a way to keep our fellowship with Him when we do.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

            There is absolutely no sin that His blood has not already paid for on our behalf. His part is to forgive when we ask. Our part is to own our sin, to admit to God when we do anything that breaks His law.

            When two of my children were preschoolers, they often helped each other get into mischief. One day in the middle of making cookies, I left them unattended in the kitchen while I answered a phone call. I returned to a blizzard of flour settled over every surface. When I asked my children what happened while I was gone, their first answer was, “I don’t know.” Their second answer was to point at the other child in accusation.

            And so it is in our hearts with God. We forget that He knows what we have done already. He knows exactly who is responsible for what sin, and He is not confused as to how “the flour wafted about the kitchen.”  Ha!

The question is, why are we afraid to admit to what we have done? Sometimes it is pride, sometimes it is fear of the consequences, sometimes it is anger in our hearts toward some reason that makes us feel justified. But none of those reasons give us peace and fellowship with God.

His perfect love was given before we even knew of Him, while we were still sinners. Our sin now cannot remove His love from us. But like my children learned, sin removed the happy fellowship we had together until they admitted what they had done and asked for forgiveness. The natural consequences of their mischief meant that they would have a lot of cleaning to do and no cookies. The consequences of our choice to sin will naturally play out, also. His fellowship through that time, though, does not have to be broken by lack of admission and repentance on our part.

Jude 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

By keeping ourselves in His love by being daily reminded of all that He has done for us, we will seek to please Him by our obedience. By dwelling on His amazing love, our natural response will be love toward others, even those who are less than loving to us. Can you hear Him singing His never failing song of love over you today?

Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?