This article is a summary from the following episode: God Really Does Love Us
If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, you’ve probably said it: "I know that God loves me." We can even go a little further and say, "I know Jesus died for my sins. I know I'm forgiven. I know I’ll be with God forever."
But here’s where it gets tricky.
If someone presses us with the question, "How do you think God feels about you right now?" that’s when the discomfort begins. If they dig even deeper and ask, "How do you feel about how you think God feels about you?"—it’s almost unbearable. Deep down, many of us are suspicious. We wonder: Does God really love me? Is He really delighted to save me? Or did He save me out of obligation—some legal technicality of grace—and now He just kind of tolerates me?
Brothers and sisters, hear us: God really does love you. And not in some thin, sentimental way. His love is deeper, stronger, more sure than anything you've ever imagined.
God's Love Was Never Transactional
Ephesians 1 blows the doors off of any suspicion we might have. Paul writes that before the foundation of the world—before we had done anything good or bad—God chose us in Christ. He predestined us to be adopted as sons.
This means that God's love for us isn’t based on how lovable we are. It’s based on His unchanging character and His eternal plan of grace. He didn’t look into the future, see us at our best, and then decide we were worth it. No, He loved us first. He loved us freely.
As Dan Krueger pointed out in our conversation, the believers in Ephesus came out of a polytheistic culture where the gods were capricious and fickle. People lived every day under the crushing burden of wondering, "Have I done enough to appease the gods today?" Paul's letter to them—and to us—proclaims something radically different: The true God has loved you before you could ever do anything to deserve it.
We Struggle to Believe It
We struggle because everything around us teaches us conditional love. Even the best human relationships are often transactional. Perform well, and you're accepted. Fail, and love is withheld.
Because of that, it’s hard for us to comprehend a love that is unconditional, everlasting, and freely given. It's hard to believe that the Father doesn’t just love us in some abstract, cold way, but that He delights in us. Yet, Scripture insists that He does.
In John 17, when Jesus prays for His people, He says that the Father loves us even as He loves the Son (John 17:23). Think about that. The kind of love the Father has for Jesus—the perfect, eternal love between the members of the Trinity—is the kind of love He has for you.
No wonder Paul says in Ephesians 3 that we need strength to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ. We can barely wrap our minds around it. We live every day needing to be reminded: We are loved indeed.
The Enemy Wants You to Doubt
Why is it so important to know we are loved? Because the enemy’s primary strategy is to make us doubt it.
In Ephesians 6, when Paul talks about spiritual warfare and putting on the armor of God, he’s not giving us a list of things to do to be better Christians. He’s telling us to stand in the truth of the gospel. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith—these aren’t things we conjure up. They are all about standing in Christ’s finished work.
Satan accuses us by pointing out our sin and failures. He leverages our suspicion against us. He twists God’s law out of context and tries to convince us that we're still condemned. But the gospel is clear: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
When Satan accuses, Jesus stands as our advocate (1 John 2:1). And He’s not pleading a weak case. He’s standing there in all His righteousness, saying, "I lived for them. I died for them. They are mine."
God's Love Fuels Everything
When you know you are loved by God in Christ—really know it—everything changes.
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Obedience becomes joyful instead of fearful. We don’t obey to earn love; we obey because we are already loved beyond measure.
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Confession becomes honest instead of frantic. We don't have to prove we're sorry enough; we come to a Father who already embraces us.
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Endurance becomes possible. Life is hard. But knowing that God's love is unwavering gives us the strength to keep walking.
We aren't working for His love. We're working from His love.
Final Thought
The greatest evidence of God's love for you isn’t found in your feelings, your performance, or your circumstances. It’s found in Jesus Christ—crucified, risen, reigning, and coming again.
God loved you before you were born. He loves you now in the midst of all your struggles and failures. And He will love you forever.
Take a deep breath, weary pilgrim. Rest in Christ.
You are loved indeed.
