Do You Long to Know God Loves You? Look No Further Than Christmas
/If you’ve ever watched a Hallmark Christmas movie, then you know that love appears to be the epitome of joy and contentment for the Christmas season. A survey of all those Hallmark Christmas movies reveals hearts hungering for love, for acceptance, for that special someone who will love them completely, unconditionally, in the good and the bad, and help them do better, to be better, to grow. There’s something deep down within all of us that knows being loved changes us.
The fictional characters in a Hallmark Christmas movie aren’t the only ones looking for love. All of us real-world characters search for a great, life-changing love too. Yet, we search in vain if we aren’t looking in the right places or with the right “lens” to understand what a true and transforming love is. And it’s that fruitless searching which produces the frenzied exploration for acceptance, the frantic trying out “all kinds” of loves, and the feverish looking for anything to fill the deep longings of our hearts.
Christmas can be especially difficult when we keep hunting for love and acceptance and deep-down heart fulfillment but can’t seem to find it. We know that all the stuff of the season, like the Hallmark Christmas movies, the traditions and the trimmings, the festive gatherings with friends and family, only provide a band-aid to cover our wounded hearts. And though band-aids can be truly helpful at times, we also know those band-aid solutions aren’t enough to aid us in our desperate search for a life-transforming love.
Band-aid solutions aside, the Hallmark Christmas movies do have one thing absolutely right. Love can be found at Christmas. In fact, Christmas is the first place God wants us to look when it comes to understanding His love for us. It’s at Christmas that God’s love is put on display in a real and tangible way so we can grasp it and be transformed by it. God intended from the very beginning that we see the connection between His love for us and Jesus coming to earth to be born as a baby.
Oh yes, dear ones, love came down for a purpose.
The Apostle John in his 1 John epistle takes special pains to help us see and recognize how God loves us and how we can know and experience God’s love in a life-changing way. Coming face to face with a great love should change us. God wants us to be transformed by love, but not just any love. He wants us to be transformed by His love for us.
“Christmas is the first place God wants us to look when it comes to understanding His love for us. It’s at Christmas that God’s love is put on display in a real and tangible way so we can grasp it and be transformed by it.”
Look at how the Apostle John explains God’s life-changing love. In 1 John 4:9-10 he writes, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
• In 1 John 4:9 we learn that God, in love, sent His Son that we might have eternal life.
God wants us to know how much He loves us, yet if you are like me, you can read these truths and think they apply to everyone else. Sometimes our skeptical, little hearts want more proof that God loves us.
Dear ones, God doesn’t communicate without purpose. There is never a time when God intends His Word to be believed lightly. He intends us to be changed by every word He has preserved for us in His book. That’s why when we come to 1 John 4:9, we know God wants us to learn something about His love that will change and transform us. What do we learn? First John 4:9 shows us the proof of God’s love for us. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”
“God intended from the very beginning that we see the connection between His love for us and Jesus coming to earth to be born as a baby.”
Are you from the “show me” state, always seeking to see with your own eyes how much God loves you? Do you want to see how God shows His love for you? Verse 9 reveals it—God sent us His Son.
Notice too that verse 9 says God sent His ONLY Son. This shows us the precious value of God’s act of love. God didn’t send one of His minions. God didn’t send one of His many Sons. No, the text says that God sent us His ONLY Son. God sent the prized One. The One of a kind One. The long-awaited Son.
And where did God send that precious, most loved Son? Into the world. God didn’t send His Son to the place where He would be honored and revered. God didn’t send His Son to the place where He would be worshiped the way He deserves. Instead, God sent His most loved Son into the world, where His love could be put on display in an amazing, life-changing way. Out of His own love for mankind, God sent His Son into the world because we had a deadly problem. The problem was so desperate that our band-aid efforts did nothing to provide healing.
1 John 4:9 tells us God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might LIVE through Him. We needed help with living, and Ephesians 2:1 tells us why—“We were dead in the trespasses and sins.” God sent His only Son into the world because we had a problem with sin. We were born in sin and then as sinners, we sinned—a double whammy! As a result of sin, we were spiritually dead. Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” And as you know, when something is dead, it can’t resurrect itself. Our spiritual deadness means we need someone to make us alive again.
God sent His only Son to the world because we were dead, but it was God’s desire that we live. Notice, too, that 1 John 4:9 tells us life comes through Jesus. We will live through Him. John explains further in his letter in 1 John 5:11, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”
Oh yes, dear ones, love came down for a purpose because God intended that His great, grand, and glorious love change us. He desired that our lives be different because of His Son. But just knowing that Jesus came for a purpose isn’t enough. We can know all kinds of things about God and His wonderful plan and still be dead inside. You must consider if your life is different because of Jesus. If it isn’t, then you are still dead in your sins.
Jesus Himself affirms this in John 14:6: 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Make no mistake about it. Love came down for a purpose. Ephesians 2:5 tells us, “We were dead in our trespasses, but God made us alive together with Christ because it is by grace you have been saved.” In John 8:24 Jesus taught, “Unless you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.”
Love came down so we would live through Him. This is exactly what Paul means when he says in Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul explained it like this in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Living through Jesus means that at salvation we gain new life, and we subsequently live differently and dependently upon Him each day. We live through Him. We live in Him. We live for Him. We live by Him. We live upon His strength. We live with His priorities and His focus. There is no “I got this. I can do it myself” in the Christian life. Love came down to help us with our sin problem. Without Jesus we are spiritually dead, separated from God, and in great danger of spending eternity in the lake of fire and eternal darkness, pain, and wrath. So, I ask you, have you received His help with your sin problem? Have you turned to Jesus so you could experience life, real life in Jesus that brings you into close and daily fellowship with God?
• In 1 John 4:10 we learn God lovingly sent His Son to cover over our sins.
In verse 10 John gives us another way God has tangibly showed His love to us. It reads, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Not that we loved God…Do you hear the wonder and glory in these words? God’s love for us isn’t dependent upon our love for Him! This is such good news for us! Even on a good day, our devotion to the Lord is intermittent, sporadic, fluctuating. One minute we love the Lord and the next minute we are loving the world. But God always loves us. He is fixed in His commitment to us.
“Oh yes, love came down because our sin necessitated it. There was no other way for us to be rescued.”
We also read in verse 10 that our God, whose very nature is love, lavishes love upon us in His sending Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a big word, but it simply means to appease or satisfy. We incurred God’s wrath against us because of our sin, but Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross settled our debt of sin. Jesus’ giving of Himself on the cross for our sins is like a force field that shields us from God’s wrath. His sacrifice satisfied our debt that we owed to God because of our sin.
God brought this plan to pass out of His love for mankind, knowing that there was no other way to rescue man from his sin and spiritual death. When we sin, we offend God’s holiness. God’s holiness and justice demands that there be a penalty for sin. Yet, God’s love moved Him to send His Son to die on the cross in our place. Jesus’ perfect and holy offering of Himself in our place on the cross was acceptable to God. God then compassionately allowed Jesus’ righteousness to be applied to us so we could become children of God. We are draped in Jesus’ righteousness so we can stand before God without fear or shame. And it is God’s great love that occasioned this precious gift for us.
As we look at verses 9-10, we learn that Jesus appeared so we could gain eternal life and our sins be dealt with by His own perfectly pleasing sacrifice. We learn in 1 John 3:5 that “He [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.” Then in 1 John 3:8 we learn that Jesus appeared “to destroy the works of the devil.”
Oh yes, dear ones, love came down, but not for twinkle lights, warm and fuzzy feelings, or to fulfill our Christmas longings. Jesus came for something greater and grittier than that. Love came to take away our sins. He came to destroy the works of the devil. He came that we might live through Him. He came that He might satisfy God’s holiness, justice, and wrath by covering over our sin with His own sacrifice, so we could come to know God and be known by Him.
Oh yes, love came down because our sin necessitated it. There was no other way for us to be rescued.
• Because love came down, our sins have been taken away. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior then 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
This should change how you interact with God. When you wear Jesus’ robe of righteousness, you can enter into God’s presence without fear, without shame, without guilt, with joy, with anticipation. You can look to the Lord with the happy assurance that your Good and Loving Heavenly Father cares for you. This is the power of 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Because love came down, our sins have been taken away.
• Because love came down, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. The evil one loves to make God’s children miserable, but his power in your life has been broken—through Jesus’ work on the cross. From the very beginning the devil has sought to destroy, deface, denigrate, and depress God’s creation. Yet, he is a defeated foe. Jesus not only won; He destroyed the devil’s works, which means you can live free from the power of sin as we learn in 1 Corinthians 10:13. “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” Because love came down, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil.
• Because love came down, we can have eternal life and live through Him. Without our loving Father showing such love to us, we would be forever separated from God, forever spiritually dead, without hope or help in this world or in eternal judgment, terror, and suffering hereafter. Love came down to save us from our sins, so we could draw near to God in faith and enjoy fellowship with Him. 1 John 5:20 tells us, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” Because love came down, we can have eternal life and live through Jesus.
J. Vernon McGee said in his commentary on this passage, “He has made a way for us, if we will accept it. Jesus said, “… I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). You either come His way, or you don’t come, my friend. It is nonsense to think that because God is love, everything will work out all right and everyone will ultimately go to heaven. It is going to work out all right because the lost are going to a lost eternity, and the saved are going to a saved eternity—that’s the reason things are going to work out all right. Are they going to work out all right for you? They will, if you come God’s way. This is tremendously important.” [McGee, J. Vernon. 1997. Thru the Bible Commentary. Electronic ed. Vol. 5. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.]
“Dear ones, if Jesus came to take away our sin, then shouldn’t we be in the business of taking our sins to Him for daily cleansing, so we will walk in fellowship and holiness?”
Friends, are things going to work out all right for you? Love came down for a purpose—to make you alive from the dead and cast away the reproach of your sins. Don’t reject this loving gift from the Father. Turn to Jesus in faith and receive the blessing of life through Jesus and the forgiveness of your sins.
Love came down for a purpose—that we might have eternal life. 1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. First John 5:13 reminds us, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Love came down for a purpose—to take away our sin and wash us and make us clean. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).”
Dear ones, if Jesus came to take away our sin, then shouldn’t we be in the business of taking our sins to Him for daily cleansing, so we will walk in fellowship and holiness? We teach 1 John 1:9 to our children, but the practical, life-transforming truths are for all believers from our new birth to the grave. We learn in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” How simple! How straightforward! But are you availing yourself of this awesome privilege to have your sins dealt with right away, all the way, so you can enter back into fellowship with God with a happy and light heart?
John MacArthur has said the old Puritans used to teach the Christian life wasn’t one of perfection but rather one of direction and affection that showed the heart’s transformation. [From John MacArthur’s sermon on Ephesians 4:17-24, “What’s Wrong with Everybody?”] Love came down for a purpose—that we would be changed, made new, transformed, so that we look like Christ.
God’s love is tangibly and powerfully put on display at Christmas, but it’s not just for us to admire from a distance. Love came down for a purpose—that we would receive the gift of eternal life that can only come by placing our faith in Jesus for rescue from our sins.
“Love came down at Christmas,
love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, Love divine;
worship we our Jesus,
but wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token;
love be yours and love be mine;
love to God and others,
love for plea and gift and sign.”
