While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. When we were without strength…
Paul Harvey once told the story of man named Coleman whose car was damaged by a woman who had passed him too closely on the highway and sideswiped his car. When they’d pulled over to the side of the road to wait for the police, the woman broke into tears. It was her fault, she admitted. But it was a new car – less than 2 days from the showroom. How was she ever going to face her husband?
Mr. Coleman was sympathetic but explained they had to exchange information about their license numbers and automobile registrations. She reached into the glove compartment to retrieve the documents from an envelope and, on the first paper to tumble out, in a heavy masculine scrawl, were these words: “In case of accident, remember, Honey, it’s you I love, not the car.”
A couple of things: the husband knew that inevitably the wife was going to cause an accident. Since love suffers long, and to show his kindness, he had placed note there to remind her the car could be replaced, but she was irreplaceable. I love you honey, not the car.
This is the type of love exhibited to us by our God; I know that you are inevitably going to have an accident, you’re going to mess up, you’re going to cause some damage. But I left you a note to let you know, I knew it was going to happen, and it’s okay. It’s you I love and I’ll take the blame. I’ll take the shame. You remember all of that is replaceable, but you are irreplaceable.
So read the Note (Bible), and remember I knew it was going to happen, but My true love covers a multitude of sin.
This is the kind of love that changes lives. It’s the kind of love that changes a marriage. It changes kids. Go for love that is patient and kind. It will change your life. I know that it has changed mine.
God loves you so much. His love is about truth. Truth can often be painful to hear, but it’s certainly not as painful as realizing that you’ve been lied to.
God says I love you so much that I tell you the truth. You were a sinner and you were going to hell. But I loved you too much to let that happen, so when you believed in, repented to, confessed to Jesus, I forgave you. And I forgave you so we could spend time together and I could show that my love is a love that never fails; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Let me say it another way: God wants you to know that His love will never give up on you, it will never quit on you, it will never stop, it will always protect you, always trust you, hope in you.
God knew that we would mess up; so when you wreck it, just look in the glove compartment. God wrote you a letter. He knew it would happen, so He wrote, “There is therefore now, no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1.
If your greatest need was information, God would have sent you a professor. If your greatest need would have been technology, He would have sent a scientist. If your greatest need would have been money, God would have sent an investor or banker. Our greatest need was forgiveness. Therefore, God knew that you need a Savior, and because He loved us so much, He sent one.
I’d like for us to accept that kind of love, experience that kind of love, and then we must purpose to model this kind of love.
Further Reading
Romans 8