I Love You This Much

They meet and it’s love at first sight, it’s one of the greatest love stories of all time even.  It’s love at first sight, they stay up all night talking to each other, going on long walks together, and all is happy in paradise.  Until one day, she makes a costly decision.  It breaches trust, and the cost is not just the hurt in their relationship, the punishment is death.  Death, separation, a chasm in their relationship that seems impossible to close.  But the idea of losing His lover is unbearable, the though of her receiving this punishment, unacceptable.  So He does the unthinkable, He takes the punishment for her, He puts His life on the line for her, He takes the hurt for her because of the love He has for her.

 

This story is not from Twilight, Gone With the Wind, Romeo and Juliet, or even The Notebook, it’s the story that runs throughout the Bible between God and His bride, the Church, His people.  A story of God’s love for a broken people, separated from Him by their sin.  It’s a story about Jesus coming and dying on the cross to close that chasm, to reconcile the relationship between God and His people once and for all.  Romans 8:38-39 says it this way, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 ESV)  You are part of the greatest love story of all time, you are the one a loving God pursues, the one our God died for, driven by a love so strong that God won’t allow anything to separate Him from His people.  The next time you are having a bad day, or struggle to understand your value and worth, think of this verse, remember the story that you are a part of, and the God who loves you that much.

 

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

  1. God loves you this much, do you believe that?  Why or why not?
  2. What makes this easy or hard to believe this statement in your heart?