by John Doyle
It is so important that we as believers in Christ enjoy and rejoice knowing that we are unconditionally loved by God to the greatest degree possible. Our desire should be to magnify the Lord for loving us the way He does. This is why it matters to us what Jesus really accomplished for us when He died, was buried and rose again.
There is a common way of thinking about Christ’s death that diminishes our experience of His love. It involves thinking that the death of Christ expressed no more love for me than for anyone else in the human race. If that’s the way you think about God’s love for you in the death of Jesus, you will not enjoy being loved by God as greatly as you really are.
Have you ever felt that amazing love in times of struggles or grief? I am sure you have. It’s a never ending unconditional Love. Ephesians 2:4–5 “God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”
1. The phrase *Great Love*
“Because of the great love with which He loved us.” That phrase is used only here in the New Testament. Let it sink in. God loves His own with a “great love.” Surely Paul writes this so that we will enjoy being greatly loved.
2. The peculiar greatness of this love that moves God to “make us alive.”
“Because of the great love with which he loved us, . . . God made us alive.” His great Love is the cause of our life. Our life did not cause the greatness of His love for us. It’s the other way around. The greatness of his LOVE made us alive.
3. Before he made us alive, we were “dead.”
“Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive.” There is such a thing as the living dead. Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60). Before God made us alive, we were the living dead.
We could breathe and think and feel, but we were spiritually dead. We were blind to the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3–4), we were stone-hearted to his law and could not submit to him (Ephesians 4:18; Romans 8:7–8), and we were not able to discern spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:14). Only God could overcome this deadness so that we could see the glory of Christ and believe (2 Corinthians 4:6). That’s what he did when he “made us alive” (Ephesians 2:5).
4. God does not make everyone alive.
What happened to you, to bring you to faith, has not happened to everyone. And remember, you don’t deserve to be made alive. You were dead. You were “by nature a child of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:3). You did not do anything to move God to make you alive. That’s what it means to be dead. But the Lord because of His Agape Love for us brings us into a relationship with Him through Faith in Christ and we become *Alive*
5. Therefore, God’s great love for you is really for you, and no one is excluded from His Love.
To experience this Love requires us to trust Christ as Lord and Saviour of our lives, we then become spiritually alive. He will bring you into an eternal relationship with Him. We did not deserve this any more than anyone else. But for reasons that we will never fully comprehend, he pours out his great Love on each of us.
6. There is no one who deserves to be saved.
No one deserves to be made alive. Salvation cannot be earned as its already been paid for through the Life, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We have all sinned and deserve death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). He could have left all of us in the deadness of our rebellion, but His Love for us was so Amazing that He would not give up on any of us.
If you have seen the wisdom of the Cross, and trusted His promise, and treasured his glory, he has made you Alive forever more. Yes you and I have been greatly Loved.
The Special Love of the New Covenant
When Jesus died, he secured for us the removal of our deadness, and purchased for us the gift of life through faith. In other words, God’s great love would make us alive, because in Christ that same great love had provided the punishment of all our sins and the provision of our righteousness made possible in Christ.
We know this because Jesus said at the Last Supper, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). The blood of Jesus is the price God paid to establish the new covenant. And the new covenant, at its heart, is God’s securing, by the blood of Jesus, living hearts for dead sinners.
“Christ did not purchase the possibility for you to raise yourself from the dead. He purchased your resurrection.”
“I will make a new covenant. . . . I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” Jeremiah 31:31, 34. “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh” Ezekiel 11:19. “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” Ezekiel 36:27.
What wonderful Promises from the Lord that confirms His Amazing Love for us all. Are you looking forward to that Glorious Day?
It’s time for us to join together in song:
One day when heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men my example is He
Living He loved me dying He saved me
Buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming, O glorious day
One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish despised and rejected
Bearing our sins my Redeemer is He
Living He loved me dying He saved me
Buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming, O glorious day
One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose over death He had conquered
Now is ascended my Lord evermore
Living He loved me dying He saved me
Buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming, O glorious day
One day the trumpet will sound for His coming
One day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day for all of His children
My blessed Savior forever is mine
In the Love of the Lord Jesus
John and Barbara
Thank you for sharing the devotional Ps. Graham. The Lord bless you and your precious family.