Dear Congregation,
On Friday towards the end of the memorial service for [one of our congregant’s] sister, we sang “Jesus loves me, this I know…” and you know how that incredible statement is supported. It is not supported by my ego, nor by the compassion of my friends who treat me kindly and warmly. Nor is it undermined by my failures or inconsistencies. It is a truth because the Bible tells me so. That is our authority.
But where does the Bible tell us so?
Well we can think of the well-known John 3:16 which finds its echo in 1 John 4: 9-10
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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.”
Then in v.19 “We love Him because He first loved us.”
In each the wonder is surprising and stunning. We who are people who hated God and provoked His anger have found the Father giving His Son to satisfy His justice and pacify His anger – and the only ground for this is love, God’s love.
It is always profitable to meditate on this the greatest wonder that permeates our lives and touches every areas from birth to death, and beyond.
Tim Challies put it his way:
‘As I learn about who God is, I see that He is a proud Father who is lavish with His love.’
Do you find that unrealistic? Do you find yourself thinking the opposite as you see your sin, as you see your failings, as you see your heart? All the more so as also you see from Scripture God’s majesty, His holiness, and His perfection?
These are continuing realities, and we should not minimise them, but the reality is that He loves us not in ourselves but in Jesus, in His saving relationship with us. As we meditate on Jesus Christ we begin to see that indeed God does hate my sin and commands me to mortify it, but also that He loves me. May the Lord in His grace, through His Word, through the whole counsel of God, ground us and assure us that He truly does regard each of us as a child, His child, a child He not only loves but one He genuinely likes.
“Jesus loves me, this I know…” is a child’s song, the song of a child of God, born again and adopted into His heavenly family – and through faith in Christ that makes it is our song as the children of God.
Neat, eh! Puts all our pressures and stresses back into perspective, and helps us to respond to the covid and other trials with hope and, yes, with thanksgiving – “Yes, Jesus loves me…”