He Loved First

We are able to love because God loved us first. The story of that love still affects me every day, and every day that is the love that makes me new and gives me grace.

Love started off so pure and so innocent. God created man, and God created women. And he created them both in His image. When they first met, when they first saw each other, they were naked, and they felt no shame.

Can you imagine? Shame is all we’ve ever seen and felt. We’ve heard of these stories, but all we’ve ever experienced is shame. You see, when Adam and Eve ate that apple in the Garden of Eden, sin washed over the world, and a lot of it. Sin that made us feel guilt, and pride, and hate, and sadness, and shame. As soon as sin entered the world, Adam and Eve realized they were naked, and felt this need to cover up their naked bodies. Shame. It’s all we’ve ever known.

But even in our sin and shame, God has never, even for a second, stopped loving us. He loved first. But God looked at our world full of sin and shame and knew we were in need of a savior. Sin was never free. With sin comes a heavy price to pay.

Death.

So God sent his one and only Son, and His name was Jesus.

Jesus, the Son of God. He taught the gospel like no one had ever heard before. He brought miracles. He performed what the world needed most. Healing. But some couldn’t love like He could. He was arrested and prosecuted. He was forced to carry His own cross. And there on that cross, He was hung, with nails in His hands and nails in His feet. He shouted, “Father, forgive them. For they do not know what they have done.”

Father, forgive them. For they do not know what they have done.

There Jesus was, being crucified for sins He had never performed. He had been betrayed. But yet he asked His Father to forgive them, because they didn’t know what they had been doing. Jesus, who was sinless, asked God to forgive a world filled with people full of sin. Jesus spent his life saving us rather than saving Himself, and He did it because He loves more than anything; more than we can even begin to comprehend.

But how can we be loved? We’re sinners. How can we be loved if Jesus had to die on a cross to save us from our sin? Why would we dare to be loved if we are so bad that someone had to die for us? We’re sinners, and we don’t deserve this love that knows no conditions.

And we will never be able to deserve the love that God shows us, but he gives it to us anyway.

We were so loved, that God sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for us.
We are so loved, that Jesus died on account of our sins.
We are so loved, that His mercies for us are new every morning.

The love we are able to give is because of Jesus; because he performed the greatest act of love the world has ever known. We are able to love because he loved us first, and that changes everything.