You Never Need To Ask, "Does God Love Me?"

March 9, 2003 Romans 8:31_39

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

One of the biggest mistakes that happens in a marriage is when we take each other for granted. After being married for a few years, it’s easy to assume that your spouse knows that you love him or her. But when you don’t express it with words or actions, human nature likes to assume the worst. You need to keep the communications open.

God compares our relationship to him with a marriage - where he is the groom and we are the bride. Whereas we are sometimes negligent in our communications with each other, God is never negligent with us. He keeps his communications open. The book of Romans is a wonderful letter from God that expresses His wonderful love for us in Christ. Whenever you get to wondering whether God really loves you, all you need to do is open this book. Then you will quickly find that -

There is No Reason to Ask, “Do You Love Me God?”

I. Look at what He did for you!

James once said, Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? He used this illustration to show that faith without actions is dead. In the same way you could apply it to love. You could tell your spouse or your children a hundred times over that you love them - but if you never hugged them, never kissed them, never bought them any gifts or spent any time with them, they would start to wonder if you really meant what you said.

Jesus once said that “nothing is impossible” with God. The almighty God can do anything easily. God says that he loves us. Yet I would imagine that it is more difficult for God to love us than tocreate the world. If we keep the comparison of a spouse - in God’s eyes we were like sleazy prostitutes who had gone to sleep with other gods - caught their diseases and rotted away to rotten corpses. How could he show love to sinful humans?

According to Robert Ripley, The longest—and simplest—love letter ever written was the work of a Parisan painter named Marcel de Leclure in 1875. It contained the phrase “jevous aime” “I Love You” 1,875,000 times. The prodigious lover did not pen the letter with his own hand. He hired a scribe. He dictated it word for word and had the hired man repeat it verbatim. All in all therefore the phrase was uttered orally and in writing 5,625,000 times—before it reached its destination. Robert Ripley then concluded, “Never was love made manifest by as great an expenditure of time and effort.” I thought to myself, “that’s a ridiculous conclusion to come to.” How loving is it to just write the same thing a million times?

God’s Word doesn’t just contain the same words over and over again, “I love you.” It is illustrated and displayed in Christ. He wrote love by calling His only Son to put flesh on for 33 years. Then he subjected that Son to a lifetime of laws which He had created. After that, He took His own Son and put Him on a cross. The God who abhorred child sacrifice, allowed His own Son to get beaten and mangled and sent Him to hell. Some people are offended by such a thing. They say, “how could a God of love sacrifice his only son? What kind of a God is that?” They would rather talk about a God of love being one who just winks at sin and says, “hey, that’s ok - we all sin.” But God’s love was so great that He didn’t want His creatures to be constantly subject to pain and sorrow. Instead, His love wanted to see us holy and pure on Judgment Day. The only way this could be done would be if our sins could be taken off of us and eradicated forever. So He appointed His only Son to do just that - to die for our sins. Paul wrote that, He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. I couldn’t imagine sending either of my sons to die for my friends, much less people who had stabbed me in the back. But that’s the kind of love God showed toward us. He spared nothing in saving us from hell. That’s how much he loves us - more than just words - but with actions.