Wondrous love, IV

Yesterday we closed with the knowledge that our hearts need transforming. Total repair. Whether we are a "rookie" believer or a "veteran," we need daily to ask for His transforming power.

Let's look again at John 13..... I think our focus needs to be on "just as I have loved you."
What was Jesus' ultimate act of love?
Was it humbling Himself and washing the disciples' feet?
Nope.
Serving the meal?
Nope.
His ultimate act of love is one that will melt the most hardened heart, and leads a person away from self and towards God. His act of love is when His arms are open on Golgotha, and He looks down at the wriggling, writhing, dirty masses of people on the hill; some are spitting at Him, some jeering; He looks at them (and at you and me) and says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Then He selflessly shoulders the sin of all of us, and faces the wrath of God for those sins....He dies in our place so that we can have eternal life.

This moves me to tears as I consider the wondrous love that sought me when I was still a sinner.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 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. (I John 4:9-10)

We didn't love God and really didn't know what love looked like, until God showed us. The world is sinful, and an enemy of God; we can't love Him until we are born again, and then the Spirit living in us enables us to love Him and one another, too.
God loved us. Sinful. Turn that word around: full of sin. Brimming over, flowing out. And God loved those who didn't love Him (and still does). That is the most extreme sense of love -- that is wondrous love! That is Who God is.
That's not the case in other religions, did you know that?  Check out Islam....in our Bible, the word "love" occurs over 500 times.  In the Koran? Less than 100, and most of those times it is referring to man's love for things, or referring to mankind's love for each other. There's not a lot there about God's love for man.
And when you do see a reference to God's love in the Koran, it only talks about God's love for certain people.....only those who do what is right, or those who love him.  The Koran's god is no better than man. Here is why, in the words of our Savior:

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. (Luke 6:32-35)

So the Koran falls short of showing us the essence of wondrous love.
Wondrous love is what God showed us: pure love. It's unconditional, undeserved, and unmatched. God showed selfless love in letting Jesus go -- He let His Son leave His side in the glories of heaven, and Jesus came to earth. They both knew what was going to happen to Him, and it is all for our benefit.
Jesus showed us unmatched love when He was willing to be tortured, killed, and spiritually separated briefly from the Father, so that we could be born again -- and we would not have to face the spiritual death that He suffered to pay our sin penalty.

No greater example could have been offered, than that of God's sacrificial love, in sending His Son as an atoning sacrifice. Jesus showed us wondrous love, too, when He died for us.

When we love someone and pour ourselves out for them; when we sacrifice for them; when we show them love that they don't deserve, it can melt that person's heart. It can change them, because they want to love in return.
Many of us who study here have known such love, and rejoice in it each day. Some of us may still be searching for wondrous love. Oh, there is no need for us to look any further than the cross....look no further than the One Who pours out His life for us.
Look no further than Jesus, the God Who came to earth -- because He wants us to live with Him for eternity! We were created by Him, and through Him we're redeemed and made a part of the family of God. Through Him, too, we find strength and desire to love like He loved.
This is what we mean when we talk of transforming our hearts.
This is how His commandment will be fulfilled. We will begin to love one another as He loved us, when we truly see what He has done for us.

When we see His wondrous love.