Any day is the perfect day to talk about love. If you ask people what the greatest love story ever told is you would get many different answers. Some may say Romeo and Juliet or Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Maybe some would say Johnny Cash and June Carter or Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
All of these that I mentioned definitely portray stories of true love. But what if I told you that the greatest love story ever told is one that involves YOU? I promise it does and it goes like this…
Once upon a time, there was a fallen world lost in sin, unable to attain righteousness and uphold the law as it was written. All mankind was doomed because of their inability to follow the commands of God. It was a time in which there was seemingly was no hope. The people may not have known it, but they needed someone to help them; to show them the way in which they should go.
God saw that this was a helpless situation without His intervention. He knew that His people were failing. He also knew He had to do something for His these people that He loved beyond words. God, knowing there was only one way in which to save the world, made up His mind. He was going to go to earth, become a man, and save His lost people....
Do not underestimate the plan that God had set in motion. This plan was created out of God’s unconditional love for each one of us. As I said before, there is no love story in history that can compare to this one. “The Lord has appeared of old saying to me: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you’” Jeremiah 31:3. The story continues like this…
So, God sent Jesus, His Son, who was God in flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) to come to earth and had one objective – to save us… ALL of us. While here on earth, Jesus traveled around and taught others, He performed miracles, He healed the sick, and cast out demons. He spoke to those around Him, teaching the very things that He needed them to learn. These things He taught were relevant not only then, but today, as well. Although His teachings and miracles were awesome, these things were not the basis for Him being born a man. Jesus was on earth to SAVE all mankind.
Jesus knew what He was sent to earth to do. He was here to fulfill the prophecies about the New Covenant as they were written in Jeremiah 31:31 & 34: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
As Jesus lived and breathed, He was a sinless man. He did no wrong. He loved others more than Himself and served others with a gentle and lowly heart. Jesus states in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He knew what He was here to do. And it was out of love for each and every one of us that He did it all. Jesus was kind and loving to everyone, but He was betrayed by His friend and disciple, Judas, to be given over to His enemies. And although Jesus was without sin, He was convicted, without cause and sentenced to die… FOR US!
God knew that man could not live under the Old Covenant Law…it was impossible. Romans 7:6 says “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” Jesus was sent to earth to die for everyone. He took on all of our sins and was condemned to death in order that we may have eternal life. Jesus became the New Covenant. In Luke 22:20 Jesus “took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
Jesus was found guilty of OUR crimes. He received the ultimate punishment for what WE did. He was brutally beaten, spit on, cursed, mocked, and nailed to a cross for US… on behalf of US. Can you think of a greater love than that? He didn’t have to do it. He wasn’t persuaded to do it. In fact, He could have stopped it if He so chose to. But He did it out of love, pure love. Jesus loved us so much that He literally DIED for us. He said “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13).
The love that Jesus has for us is beyond our comprehension. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that he hoped that they “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (chapter 3:18-19). We will never be able to understand this kind of love.
No matter what we do, the love God has for us will never fade; it will never fail. It is love in the purest form and without condition. It is a promise that we all need to accept and embrace and we will never be apart from it. In Romans 8:38-39, Paul describes God’s love this way:
That is the most precious form of love that could ever exist. And He loves YOU in that way. How amazing is that?
Three days after Jesus died on the cross, He arose from the dead and spent 40 days on earth in His resurrected body. After those days, He ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of God. He intercedes for us and has made us white as snow by His blood that was shed.
“So then, after the Lord had spoken with them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19)
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34)
I love my husband, my boys, my parents and my sister. I love my family and friends. But there is no way that I can ever love them the way Jesus loves me, the way He loves all of us. There is no love that will ever compare to His love. It is truly the Greatest Love Story of All Time.
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Blessings,
Amy
