How can I know that Jesus loves me?
I would like to quote a line from one of the most well-known and loved hymns ever to be written. The name of the hymn is “Jesus Loves Me! This I Know.” The first line says, “Jesus loves me this I know, For the Bible tells me so!” Dear friend, this is THE ANSWER to your question, for the only way you can know that Jesus loves you is because the Bible tells you so. Let’s take our Bibles and explore this blessed truth.
Jesus Himself said, in John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The Lord Jesus was teaching His disciples to love one another and then He gave them the true standard of love, “as I have loved you.” He loved His disciples and He wanted them to know it! He went on to describe the greatest expression of love there is…for a man to lay down his life for another. Within hours of this saying, Jesus would willingly lay His life down on Calvary’s cross to save sinners. This is the main reason He came into the world, as we see in 1 Timothy 1:15 which says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” And it was LOVE for you and me that led Him to take our place in death and judgment so we could be saved.
Jesus had said that a “man’s love for his friend” could motivate him to lay down his life. But when Jesus laid down His life for us, we were NOT His friends. In Romans 5:6 we learn, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Verse 8 goes on to say, “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And then verse 10 declares, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son…” Think of it, dear friend, when Christ died for us we were UNGODLY; we were SINNERS; and even worse, we were His ENEMIES! And yet HE LOVED US! His love wasn’t conditional, for it didn’t depend on our love for Him, or our obedience to Him, or on anything in us. He loved us because He is love, as we see in 1 John 4:8 which states, “God is love.”
Our prayer is that you will take these verses to heart and BELIEVE them. Romans 10:17 reads, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God cannot lie, so won’t you take God at His Word and believe that Christ loves you and that He proved His love for you by dying for you? If you do, you’ll be able to echo the words of the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 where he said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” You’ll also be able to sing from the heart those words we began with, “Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so!” (159.10) (DO)