Does God love me?
Few questions matter more, and the writers in this collection answer it not by pointing you inward to your feelings, but outward to something God has already done in public. The question then becomes whether you will believe the proof He has given.
The Proof God Chose to Give
Ask a commentator how anyone can be sure of God's love, and the answer is a fact, not a mood. Writing on Romans 5, one of them shows that this love had no cause outside of God Himself:
William Kelly"But God shows His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This is God-like and sovereign. We were powerless, unjust, evil, nothing but sinners on the one hand; and God, on the other, had no reason for His love except love itself. Only God can love like this. Man, even the saint, must have a motive outside himself; God has none. Those whom His grace makes the objects of His love are completely unlovable in themselves, yet He loves them in spite of all they are.
(Older translations read "God commends His own love toward us," which is the wording behind the comment.)
Why "The World" Leaves No Room to Opt Out
Many people accept that God loves in general but quietly exclude themselves. One writer answers that by weighing the actual word Jesus used:
C. H. MackintoshBefore anyone can prove that the free love of God does not apply to him, he must first prove that he is not part of the world, but belongs to some other kind of being. If our Lord had said, "God so loved a certain portion of the world," call it what you like, then it would be absolutely necessary to prove we belong to that particular portion or class before we could apply His words to ourselves. If He had said that God so loved the predestined, the elect, or the called, then we must find out our place among that number before we can take home to ourselves the precious assurance of the love of God, as proved by the gift of His Son.
Loved First, Then Loved as a Child
The love that reaches a sinner and the love a father has for his own child are not identical, and one writer distinguishes them carefully:
James BoydGod loved you when there was nothing lovable about you. He loved you because of what was in Himself. But the Father loves you because of what is in you. He has found something in you in which His heart has unbounded delight. What is it? Nothing but the little spark of love for His Son, which He has kindled there for Himself.
When You Cannot Feel It
Some people test God's love by measuring their own. That test is turned around here, and pressed forward into the future too:
William KellyDo not be discouraged because you conclude that you do not love God. That is not the real question. Doesn't God point to Christ and His death for sins as the best proof even He could give of His love to you and me? … And if He loved me with such a mighty love of His own, without one single thing or thought in me worthy of His love; if He loved me like that despite my whole being and all my life being full of sins, will He stop loving me when I am His child?
Knowing It and Enjoying It Are Two Things
Doubt often comes from confusing a settled fact with a fluctuating experience. One writer keeps the two apart:
J. N. DarbyIf someone asks me, How do you know that God loves you? The proof is that He gave His Son for me when I was a sinner. But if he asks me, How do you enjoy it? Oh, by the Holy Spirit whom He has given me. … He is not uncertain about the love — he knows very well he does not live up to it, though that is no excuse; still we do fail, and often; he knows he is not all he would wish to be — but he knows God is all he could wish Him to be for him.
The Step That Makes It Yours
Wanting certainty is not the same as taking God at His word. One writer tells a struggling reader where the certainty begins:
Edward DennettYou have been wanting the conviction that God has spoken to you. You cannot have this until you receive His testimony. Receive it, and you will know immediately that He has both spoken to you and made you the object of His love. … So to know, you must believe, and believing you will be able to say joyfully, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Summary
- Cause — God's love starts in Himself, not in anything attractive about you; He loves "where no goodness is."
- Gift — The proof is not a feeling but an event: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
- Reach — "The world" is a word no one can climb out of; to be excluded you would have to belong to some other kind of being.
- Claim — The love becomes personally yours when you receive God's testimony about His Son and say, "He loved me."
- Enjoyment — Knowing the love rests on the cross and never changes; enjoying it day by day is the Spirit's work in the believer.