CHRIST’S UNFAILING LOVE

“Who shall separate us from the LOVE of CHRIST? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” – Romans 8:35

The Love of Christ is a Conquering Love – the UNFAILING LOVE: “Who shall separate us from the LOVE of CHRIST? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom.8:35). Nothing can get between us and His Love. No adversity or negativity can faze us because Jesus loves us. His love is unconditional, constant, and guaranteed: “His Mercy endures forever” (Psa.136:1). God didn’t love us because we deserved it. No, He loved us while we were unlovely: “But God demonstrates HIS OWN LOVE toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us” (Rom.5:8). If God loved us with such great love when we were sinners – His enemies – would He love His children any less?

“LOVE NEVER FAILS. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away” (1Cor.13:8). Divine love never fades out, become obsolete or ceased from being. And those who walk in love will never fail. The believer is never lacking in the supply of divine love. We need not run from person to person looking for love. Just opening the Bible ushers us into God’s Living Love Letter; a statement of the intent of the Father who wants nothing but the best for His children: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (v.28). No trouble, tribulation, hard times, hatred, hunger, homelessness, bullying, backstabbing, threats or the worst of sins can drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us?

God’s Love for us is set in concrete; it has no cut off point; and that’s the foundation we can build our lives on! The Lord assured Israel: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you” (Jer.31:3b). God’s Love is not conditioned by our action, inaction or perception. Nothing could make God love us more than He does right now: not higher achievement, greater beauty, grander recognition or even superior spirituality. And nothing could make Him love us less: not past failures, character flaws, faults or imperfections. God hates sin; hence His love saves us from sin! The irony is; we spend our lives trying to earn a love that can only be received by faith when we acknowledge that within us is an emptiness that only God can fill. And He will. Learning to walk in the love of God is the challenge of a lifetime.

Many individuals grew up with parents who withheld their love as expression of their disapproval, and erroneously assume that God does that too. But He doesn’t: “Behold what manner of love the Father has betstowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1Jh.3:1a). C. S. Lewis wrote: “God did not make us because He was bored, lonely, or had run out of things to do. He created us to be the objects of His love! Sometimes our actions make us unlovely, but we are never unloved. God’s love revealed at Calvary fastens itself onto flawed creatures like us, and for reasons none of us can ever quite figure out, makes us precious and valued beyond calculation. This is love beyond reason.”

Beloved, never underplay God’s Unfailing Love. God loves you simply because He has chosen to do so. He loves you when you don’t feel loved and when no one else loves you. Others may abandon or ignore you, but God will always love you. So, let His love reflect through you in your love for others. God’s Love commands our love. Because of His love, we have no excuse not to love: “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. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another…We love Him because He first loved us” (1Jh.4:10-11, 19).