If you’re like me you may struggle to really believe that God loves you. I know he loves people. I know he loves you. I struggle to believe that he loves me. There are many reasons, most of them in my own heart and head where I am the only one who knows about them, for God to be angry with me.
God has been working on my heart a lot lately in regards to knowing his love for me. Some years ago I came across a quote from an old puritan writer named John Owen. He said…
“The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay upon the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you.”
To doubt that he loves me is to not see love in the extent that he has gone to love us, redeem us, and reconcile us into a relationship with him. How far has he gone? How much does he love us? For that we must turn to one of the most well known verses in Scripture.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believers in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The Power of “So”
The word so gets used in many ways. One of the ways is to express greatness or immensity. We look at our children and say, “Do you know how much I love you?” And then opening our arms wide we say, “I love you SO much!” While this is what John 3:16 is expressing, that is not what the word “so” means in this verse.
The Greek word behind so is houtos, and it means “thus” or “in this manner.” The big idea in John 3:16, the main clause, is that God loved the world. The so tells us that he did this in a certain manner. What manner you might ask? Well the answer comes in the next clause in the verse…”he gave his only Son.”
God has one Son. He has eternally existed with the Father in a loving relationship. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit…three persons, one God. God the Father gave God the Son. How much does God love you, enough that he gave his Son…to die. He gave his Son so that we might crucify him. He gave his Son so that the Son might keep all of God’s laws in the place of lawless sinners like me. He gave his Son to die the death that I deserved.
God loved the world, even me, so he gave his only Son.
With Joy
Now if it isn’t enough of a stretch to believe that God loves me…it’s an even harder stretch for me to believe that he loved me enough to give me his Son and that he did it with Joy. But that exactly what he tells us.
In the beginning verses of Luke 15 there are two parables of Jesus that illustrate how God has saved us from ourselves and from our sin and has done so with great joy. These are the parables of the lost sheep and the parables of the lost coin.
In the parable of the lost sheep we are told of a shepherd who leaves 99 in order to find 1 lost. And when he finds the lost sheep he says…
“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”
Immediately after this parable Jesus tells the parable of the lost coin. Here a woman had 10 silver coins and lost one. Now in that culture a woman would not have easily been able to provide for herself, so having 10 silver coins would not have been like having 10 quarters today. These coins were valuable and connected to her living. But upon losing one she cleans and searches the house until she finds the lost coin. She then exclaims to her neighbors…
“Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.”
Now here is where things get really interested. After telling these two parables Jesus sums up the point he making by saying…
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
I’ll give you one guess what the Greek word behind “Just so” is in Luke 15:10. You guessed it, houtos. In this manner there is joy before the angels when one sinner repents and receives God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness that came at the price of the precious blood of Christ. Forgiveness that he died for. Forgiveness that he rejoices to give.
The Knockout Punch
Here’s what really blows my mind. I was always told in church growing up that the angels celebrated in heaven when someone trusted in Jesus’ for their forgiveness. This may be true, but if you look closely at Luke 15:10 you will see that this is not what it says.
Jesus doesn’t tell us that the angels rejoice. He says that “there is joy before the angels of God.” What is before the angels of God? Or better yet, who? God. God is before the angels of God. They cry out to him day and night…
““Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almight, who was and is and is to come!” ”
He captivates their gaze. They delight in him. And when a sinner repents there is joy before the angels!
I once heard it said that the most simple way you can state the gospel is this: God saves sinners. I think this is true. But we should never forget that God joyfully saves sinners!
How much does God love you? He loves you so much!