We Are Loved!

Galatians 2:20 — “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…”

Those of us who are saved are to live by faith. The Bible says in multiple places that the just (saved) shall live by faith. We have all been given the measure of faith. Your faith works! How do I know? You are born again, and you have been saved by grace through faith. You have used faith to obtain the most important thing in life: salvation. Now, take that same faith and use it for whatever you need. You don’t need faith to move God; He has already been moved. You use your faith to receive what He has provided. All His promises are yes and amen.

I remember when I first began pastoring, the Lord instructed me this way: “Don’t teach your people to have faith projects; teach them to live by faith.” That is what I have endeavored to do. We live every day by faith, and everything we do we do by faith. Remember, God lives in you. God gave you the measure of faith. When you hear the Word of God, it will cause faith to come. You can release your faith by saying what God said. You can activate your faith by corresponding actions. There is no reason that you and I cannot receive what God has promised us. I am living by faith in the Son of God.

God loved us so much that He sent His very best gift—His only begotten Son. The love of God is so important. It is the greatest of all of God’s attributes. His love for us never fails or comes to an end. The Bible says nothing can separate us from the love of God. God loved us first when we were altogether unlovely. He loved us without a guarantee of us ever returning His love.

When I think about His love, I think about how it is so longsuffering—how He shows us love over and over again, especially when we do not deserve it. His love chased us down. Even after being rejected over and over, He still pursued us. God’s love is so determined. He set His love on us, went after us, and made a way for us to get to Him.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
1 John 3:16 says, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Jesus showed the greatest display of love ever as He laid down His life for all humanity. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for me. He took my guilt and my shame. He took all the pain of humanity. He took all our sickness and all our diseases. He let them beat Him beyond human recognition so we could have healing for our bodies—that is love. He became poor so we, through His poverty, could be made rich. He loved us so much.

We were living in sin and denying Him, yet He loved us. We didn’t care about Him at all, yet the thought of us consumed Him. He gave Himself for us, He took our place, and He delivered and redeemed us. What love! What a Savior!