Love is the greatest of all gifts and without love a person will die. They first will die in their soul and then their body will die. We all need to be loved and we can not truly love others unless we ourselves are loved.
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
It is love that gives our lives significance and worth. The greater the love, the greater the worth and significance a person feels.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. I John 3:1a
The greater the cost of the love reveals the worth of the love.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
Love must come from the one who loves for it to be unconditional love. Otherwise, it is a selfish love, that is a “I love you because…” of what you can do for me or what you can give to me. A selfish love is not really love because once the condition is gone then the love is no longer there.
…for God is love. I John 4:8b
The Lord is the only One who has perfect love. His love is unconditional. Unconditional love is not based on the object of the love but it flows from the one who loves. There is no other love as the love which God has for us. A new word had to be created when God came to earth through Jesus Christ. The love that God showed to the world is “agape” love. It is a love that was shown to mankind on the cross. It is a love that gave when the recipient did not deserve it. It is a love that can not be comprehended except through Jesus Christ.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
The Father sent His only Begotten Son to die for us when we were helpless.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6
There was nothing that we could do to save ourselves. There was nothing that we could do to help ourselves from the judgment that each one of us deserves. There may be degrees of the expression of wrong that each of us does but each one of us has sinned against God in some way or form. The Lord made man upright but man, himself, has failed to live an upright life.
Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices. Ecclesiastes 7:29
Everyone has messed up. As hard as anyone can try, he can never live up to perfection. He will always fail.
Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and who never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20
The Lord in His great love for us knows that man has failed and so He made a provision for man at His own expense. He paid for our failures with His own payment.
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. I John 4:10
Propitiation means that God satisfied the payment for our failures. It is a legal term meaning that He took care of the justice that was due to us. The judgment that was ours, He took on Himself and experienced the punishment that we deserved.
knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. I Peter 1:18,19
Jesus Christ paid for our sins through shedding His blood on the cross. He died for everyone. He died for each one of us so that each one of us could live forever. Death was never in God’s plan for mankind. Life was His plan and He made it possible through His death, through which He offers us the gift of life.
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10b
Jesus Christ offers this gift of life to everyone. Each of us messed up and earned death but because of the great love of God, He offers the gift of life to everyone.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Eternal life is a free gift. There is nothing we can do to deserve it. There is nothing we can do to pay for it. There is nothing we can do to earn it. However, we must receive it as a gift.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, John 1:12
The way that we receive this gift of eternal life is to pray and ask Him for it. We do this by calling on His name. When we confess the Lord Jesus Christ with our mouth and believe in our heart we will be saved.
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-13
The Lord Jesus says that not only will we be saved and given eternal life and but He promises an abundant life and a life where we will not be disappointed. These are amazing promises that are offered to everyone but only experienced by those who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He must become our Lord for Him to become our Savior. When He becomes our Lord then He takes away our sin as “He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. Then He becomes our Savior then He saves us from our sins, for as it is written, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”.
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29
She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
See how great a love the Father has offered to us, that we should be His children and be called by His name. This is a love that can only be received. We can not fully understand it. However, when we receive this great love our lives are changed forever. We not only receive great worth and significance but we also receive the ability to trust Him. Once we trust Him with our life then we can trust Him with everything else. It is this love that gives us faith and hope. The faith to trust and the hope to believe in Him.
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32
For it is God’s great love that gives meaning to all things. Without Him we can do nothing.
Love never fails; I Corinthians 13:8a
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
Instructions To A Young Life 