‘Easter Love’
- Apr 4, 2025
- 4 min read
How deep the Father's love for us? How vast beyond all measure?
That He should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss? The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One, Bring many sons to glory
Philip Yancey tells of a postcard he received from a friend with just six words written on it – "I am the one Jesus loves."
Apparently, the thought came from Brennan Manning, "If John were to be asked, 'What is your identity in life?' he wouldn’t reply, ‘disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author,' but rather, 'I am the one Jesus loves.’"
1 John 4:10: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
When was the last time you heard God's "I love YOU!"
As we journey towards Easter, this is God’s “I love you!” He loves you more than you can ever grasp. It’s a selfless, sacrificial, generous, giving love that He gives to each one of us.
Someone once said that the only way to trust and experience the fullness of God’s "I love you” is to first hear God’s “I know you.”
And it’s a love that changes everything; God's love does that. Only the love of God could change a wooden cross, an instrument of execution, into a symbol of the victory of life over death. This is the greatest love story.
God’s love is ‘Easter Love’
It’s a clear reminder to us that God’s love is greater than any of our rebellion toward God. Just stop and think about that! Struggling?
Listen to Romans 5:8: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
While we were still living in sin, in rebellion, as enemies of God, God pursued each one of us in love. Wow!
God’s Love is … A Love from the Start
Ephesians 1:4-6: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ”
John Stott said, "It cannot be emphasised too strongly that God’s love is the source, not the consequence, of the atonement... God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us."
God took the initiative and loves us with an extravagant love, even if we do not, or may not, love Him in return.
God’s love is… A First love
It’s based on I John 4:19, "We love because he first loved us."
This is important because it means that God's love wasn't a reactionary love; God's love acted first; He does not love us as a response, but as a choice. He has chosen to love YOU and I! Isn’t that an amazing thought?
I began to understood this verse more when our children were born. I can remember just holding them moments after they were born. They didn’t have to earn my love. It was there instantly.
God’s love is just like that (although infinitely greater!) It’s a first love – instinctual, uncontrollable. God can’t do anything else but love us.
God’s Love is … Enough!
Henri Nouwen writes: “What can we say about God’s love? We can say that God’s love is unconditional. God does not say, “I love you, if…” There are no ifs in God’s heart. God’s love for us does not depend on what we do or say, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity. God’s love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. God’s love is from eternity to eternity.”
1 John 4:15ff: ‘If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."
Easter love means God gave all He could give. He gave His only begotten Son. This gift was freely given, lovingly given, graciously given to all of us. We can ‘know and rely’ on God’s love today, which is ‘Enough!’
Ephesians 3:17-19: “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love.”
Two other words that come to mind: unconditionally and wholeheartedly.
Romans 8:38-39: “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
A.W. Tozer talks of the love of God: "Because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning. Because He is eternal, His love can have no end. Because He is infinite, it has no limit. Because He is immense, His love is incomprehensively vast, bottomless, shoreless, an eternal ocean".
Love of God fits!
Even in broken and messed up lives!
Where are we in our relationship with Jesus? Do we love him a little and long to love him more?
"God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is not simply that God 'loves,' but that He is love itself. Love isn't just one of His many attributes, but is at the core of all that He is, it's His very nature.
So, how do we respond to God’s great Easter love?
We can’t offer God anything of equal value for all that He has done for us. But He doesn’t ask us to. Instead, God simply tells us to receive His Son, receive His love, receive His salvation, and live that love each day as we love others.
John Owen said, "We are never nearer Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at his unspeakable love."
Thanksgiving
“Father, Thank You for a love that never gives up on me. Thank You for the assurance of knowing that I am secure in the promise that nothing can ever separate me from Your love. I thank You for Your love that seeks the best in my life. I am grateful for Your sacrificial love that did not withhold the Lord Jesus Christ from me. Thank You for sending Him to die on the cross so that I can truly realise that You love me unconditionally. Amen.” Anon.
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