This morning, as I'm reading, I came to these words at the end of Romans 8, "the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6-8 are three of the most amazing chapters in the bible. I think I could spend the rest of my life in these 3 chapters and still not plumb the depth of what they contain. If my old brain worked as well as it did when I was a youth I would memorize these 3 chapters....they are that important. But this morning I read those last 11 words and caught myself reading them again, then once more. The love of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord! If you don't know Jesus as savior then you don't understand or know what the love of God is all about. It's revealed and experienced in relationship with one person- Jesus Christ.
Some want a relationship with God, but want nothing to do with Jesus and miss entirely the love of God. These people will tend to be legalists living by law, trying to please God and find his approval by what they do.
Some will want to claim Jesus as their friend, but not have time for God. Jesus' purpose was to show us the love of God. If you want Jesus, but not God, you will like him for the way he lived with and cared for those around him, but you will miss his purpose- to show us God's love, to bring us into a living and loving relationship with the God who made us.
These last 11 words of Romans 8 tie Jesus to God in an intimate relationship with the plan to show the human race how God feels about us- HE LOVES US! That love is revealed in Jesus, but the revelation had a purpose. God wanted to show us how he feels about us so that we will hunger to know him and have a relationship with him. In Hebrews the appeal to us is simple and clear, "let us draw near." God wants us to know him. He loves us and desires to save us, forgive us, give us new life and spend time with us. It is so important to him that he sent his Son to show us what he is like and how much he cares for us. "The love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" is available to anyone who will come to him. Those who know this love are the very ones who will show the world the love they have experienced. It's that amazing love, revealed in Christ, experienced by us and shared with others that will change the world around us.
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