Does God really love me?
God doesn’t love me. That is perhaps the biggest lie ever told. It’s the essence of the lie that Satan told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and it’s the lie that we all struggle with today. We think that God is a cruel judge just waiting for us to mess up so that He can pour out His wrath on us. Or, we think that God is a strict teacher who has given us a long list of “dos” and “don’ts”. Or, we think that God is a nice old lady who smiles at everyone as they pass by, but not really caring about anything in particular. Or, we think that God is a myth altogether, because “how could a good God allow all of this evil in the world?”
The lie that God doesn’t really love us is hidden in each of these misconceptions about God, keeping us from Him. And, we all end up like Adam and Eve, covering ourselves from him with fig leaves and hiding from Him in the shadows.
Genesis 1-4 presents a God who really does love Adam and Eve, even in the midst of their sin and disobedience against Him. God shows His love by providing clothes for them and giving them many children – clear indications that His love is gracious and merciful.
But, God declares His love for Adam and Eve most clearly in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” God, in a single statement declares that His love is redemptive by promising to come for His beloved creation in the form of a man who would crush the power of evil, sin, and death. God was speaking of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who would become a man, live among us, experience the pain and suffering of our world, die for our sin, and rise from the dead victorious once and for all over Satan, evil, and death. His death was the redemption that God spoke of in Genesis, and it is our redemption as well. Romans 5:8 says it best, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s first response to Adam and Eve in their sin was love, Divine love that would cost God everything. This is the love of God.
So, what will be your response? Will you run and hide from Him? Will you continue to deny Him? Or will you respond by believing His love?
–This is an excerpt from Rob’s upcoming sermon, “The First Love Story”, which will be preached on Sunday evening, June 6.
