Saturday 25 December, 2021

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Let’s take a moment to stop and to try and let these words sink in. They are perhaps the most wonderful and the most powerful words ever written:

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

So, so simple, although it may take us an entire lifetime to try and understand how this could possibly be true. 

Everyone wants to be known and to be loved for who they are deep inside. People will go to great lengths (and sadly, sometimes depths) to grasp for love in different ways, to try and prove that they are worthy of love and belonging.

And yet the greatest love, the love of the One who created us and knows us better than we even know ourselves, has been right here all along, right within our reach.

This is the story of Christmas – we didn’t go looking for Him… Jesus came looking for us. And when He finds us in all our shame and brokenness, He doesn’t say “You are a mess – clean yourself up, then I will love and accept you”. No, instead, He Himself covers our shame with His sacrificial love and forgiveness.

As we approach this Christmas, may the wonder of God’s love and sacrifice for you sink deeper into your heart.

You don’t have to prove that you are worthy of God’s love. In one sense, we can never be worthy enough, but He loves us anyway.

“Long lay the world, in sin and error pining, till He appeared, and the soul felt it’s worth”.

Written by Shelley Witt