I Am the Object of God’s Love

 


Who Am I? Part 2

 

Introduction

Most of us should be familiar with the children’s song, Jesus Loves Me. The last line of the chorus is, The Bible tells me so. And this is how we know that God, and Jesus, loves us. We simply can’t assume based on the premise that since God exists, and created us, therefore He loves us. To understand it fully, we must go to God’s word.

 

The Things God has done for Us

He Gave us a Place to Live—In Gen. 1, the creation chapter, we know that God loves us because He gave us a place to live. Air to breathe, food to grow and eat, animals for food and clothing, and the intelligence to care for ourselves.

He Gave us a Soul—And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed (Genesis 2:7-8). The soul is what separates us from animals. We think, we reason, and we emote. When was the last time you heard a cow sigh when it saw a sunset? When did a dog cry when it learned that hundreds of people died in a plane crash? Furthermore, because He gave us soul, we have the hope of eternal life. That is not something given to any other of God’s creations. Contrary to the movies, no dogs go to heaven.

He Gave us a Mate—And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) God didn’t want to see his creation live his life alone and created a mate for him. Thus woman was created for man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24) Marriage is an invention of God and He did it so that we wouldn’t have to live alone.

 

The Ultimate Gift

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The greatest gift He gave was His only begotten son. He did it, even though we didn’t deserve such a gift. As the apostle writes, But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8 NKJV). His Son walked and lived among us, taught us how to live right before God and, ultimately, went to the cross for our sins. Not His own, which He had none, but ours! All because God loved us.

 

Conclusion

Although we are the object of God’s love, there is a condition that is placed on that love. There are too many people that see God’s love as unconditional and that is simply not true. We’ll look more at that, in depth, in next week’s article.

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