[The Words of Advent] LOVESample

Christ Loved Us First

When we try to understand what is love and where it comes from, the Bible gives us amazing answers. The apostle John, in his first letter, tells us that love is encapsulated in God Himself. God loved us first. He is the initiator, the one who started it all! He set it all in motion.

John goes even further by saying love means God sent His Son Jesus Christ—God made flesh, the proof of His love for His creation. Jesus came to be part of our world to provide life now and life eternally. The Word, who was God and who was with God, came and became one of us. God reached out to us, His own creation, to say, “I love you.” He did not do this in response to us but by His initiative.

And He did so, not only to bring us life, but forgiveness for our sins. He sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for us, to take care of all our transgressions, past, present, and future. He didn’t leave us stuck in our condition. He didn’t say, “It is their problem.” Jesus paid the penalty for all sins so that we are no longer under condemnation, facing God’s justice.

Christ completed His mission when He was hanging on the cross and He said, “It is finished.” With that, He was saying, “The work is done. God’s love has been delivered. The atoning sacrifice has been paid. It is over.”

Think about the three gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus when He was born: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Two of those were burial spices. The wise men knew about the sacrifice that this King would make on behalf of His people.

That is the love God sent into this world. It is wild, unrelenting, unquenchable.

Father, we are overcome by the magnitude of Your unfailing love. As we close our eyes in solitude, we ask to be embraced by Your holy love. We thirst for You. Submerge us in Your love now and forever.