What does the Love of Jesus Look Like?


But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared....Titus 3:4
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about the Love of Jesus? When you hear the phrase Jesus Loves you what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is this a feeling that Jesus has for us right now? How do we know for sure that Jesus loves us? What tangible reality gives us a concrete knowing that Christ loves us?

When I ask people this question I get a lot of answers that basically come back to an explanation of how God "blessed that person circumstantially somehow....". Like the other day, someone said, "Ya Jesus loves me so much, he provided me with the money I needed". Now, I totally believe that Jesus is actively doing things in our daily lives and is showing His love to us. However, most of us get so caught up in our daily lives and we subtly or overtly interpret how much God loves us based on how our circumstances are going. This is ultimately a train wreck.

Mary the mother of Jesus was the most "blessed" of all woman had extremely bad circumstances after the angel announced to her of her blessedness. (She was called a fornicator cause of her pregnancy; had to ride on a donkey for days very uncomfortably being 9 months pregnant; gave birth in a dirty stable; Herod was trying to kill her baby; she had to suddenly relocate to a foreign nation as a refugee... etc).

Beloved, the first thing that should come to our mind when we think of the love of Christ is a real historic event. The love of Christ is so tangible and so concrete that it is forever etched in history and we can know for sure without a doubt today that Jesus loves us. This event is the cross. If Jesus crucified is not the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the love of God then has this idea been reduced down to a trite saying? Beloved, the cross is the pinnacle outward demonstration that gives a perfect demonstration of the Love of God. How does Jesus feel about me? Look to the cross! No matter how you are "preforming" in your Christianity the Lamb slain is screaming with thunderous strength .... "this is how much I love you!"

Beloved, the cross of Christ should be constantly in our minds, it should be our continual meditation, it should be our only boast, and our only hope; it should be the very thing that defines our existence. Where would we be without the blood of Christ? Where would we be without the cross? Why did He do it? How should I respond in light of this cross? These are questions that we will get lost in forever..... we will never stop staring at His nail pierced hands; we will never stop feeling the wonder of why He became a man and gave Himself for us. May we open the scriptures and spend long loving hours of meditation on a subject that is all to familiar that we don't know at all. You might know the story of the cross a little bit, but does that story know you. Do you weep over those wounds of the Lamb? Do you find yourself pondering that Day? Do you wonder what He felt that day? Or how his mother felt? Or his beloved Disciples? What was it like for John the Beloved standing there seeing the spear go into Christ side? What was it like when John saw him Alive? And what was it like when John perceived by revelation that the reason Christ died and rose again was to atone for His sin? I can picture John thinking to Himself? "What ... He did all of that for me?" I am sure this is why John explodes with praise
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called zchildren of God; - 1 John 3:1

Beloved, Lets get lost in the passion of the Christ and we will find ourselves burning with passion for Christ.