Did you know that God created us not in order to get love from us, but to give His love to us. Before time began God existed in perfect peace and harmony as a triune God. Not only that but God had no need to be loved by any outside source since the triune combination of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit provided God with all the love and fellowship He could ever want. Nor was God incomplete in any way for the trinity of God was perfect in every way.
However, I believe, it was out of this amazing completeness that God wanted to share His love with us. So, in order to lavish His love outside of the trinity, He decide to create humanity to be the recipients of His awesome love. Thus, in the words of Pastor Jason Harris, God created our planet in order to expand the circle of His love.
Not only did God create us to be the objects of His love but He created us with a need for relationship. All of us as humans want to be loved – we are hardwired for this. And this type of love is not just romantic love but it encompasses love for our children and parents, for our fellowman, and of course love for our Creator.
Just how deep is this love? Well, (Romans 5:8) tells us: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I love this verse for two reasons. First, it states that God chose to love us despite the fact that we still were sinners. Now we know that God hates sin so much that heaven will not allow it to dwell in it – but yet He still loves us. And second, God sent His beloved sinless Son, Jesus, to die in order to make a way back into His presence.
My friends, God loves us so much that He went through extraordinary lengths to draw us back to Himself, even allowing the second member of the trinity to die on a cross. Jesus took on the pain, suffering, humiliation, and unjust death for you and me because His love for us was that great. And the more we learn to appreciate just what God did for us, in dying on the cross, the more we should want to reciprocate our love back to Him. I challenge you to take a few minutes and meditate on (Romans 5:8) and see why loving and glorifying Jesus, the lover of our souls, should be looked at, not only as a high priority, but as a wonderful privilege!