These words—simple enough for a children’s song, yet filled with the truths that we base our lives on!
How often do we gloss over these truths? In our studies, in our times with God, we jump right past these elementary truths in search of a new nugget to feed our faith. Yet these truths are the foundation that we base our faith on. If the truth in these lines proves to be untrue, the entire structure of our belief will crash down around us.
Do I sound a little overdramatic? Let’s break this down and take a closer look at these familiar stanzas.
Jesus loves ME. He loves YOU.
What kind of love is it? Impersonal? Inactive? Passive?
No! Our God’s love is so different from anything else we’ve experienced. It is active, personal, and beautiful. God loved us SO MUCH that He sent a part of Himself to live in a fragile human body in a forgotten village in the Middle East, during a time in history when indoor plumbing had not even been thought of—all to rescue a creation that had turned traitor to the Most High.
If you were fighting a war, and you saw an enemy soldier drowning, would you save him? What if that soldier used every ounce of strength to curse and ridicule you, even after you offered to save him? What if you would have to give the life of your only son to save the enemy soldier who, even after you gave your child’s life, would continue to curse you with his last breath…would you do it?
THAT is exactly what God did for us. He didn’t leave heaven to save a people who were “just not quite good enough” for heaven. He didn’t give His own son’s life so that we could live happier lives, free from that pesky sin problem. God rescued us from the camp of the Enemy. We were actively supporting the traitor of heaven, but God’s love led Him to do the unthinkable for us. God’s love crafted a plan to rescue us from sin and death. When we say, “Jesus loves me,” THAT is what we are proclaiming. Not that some deity has a filial affection for us, but that our Creator-Redeemer was willing to give His most precious possession to save His creation.
This I know.
How do we KNOW that this love is real?
It can sound too good to be true. Can we be certain that this saving love is real? YES! We can know! Our God does not want us to live with uncertainty, and that is why He gave is the BIBLE.
For the Bible tells me so.
The Bible is full of declarations of God’s love for us. The pages of scripture are rich with God’s grace and redemptive plan, both of which flow from His love for us.
Start with a favorite verse: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Read those words with fresh eyes. God loved, so God gave. God’s love motivated the entire redemptive story.
In Romans 5:8 Paul writes, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still sinners. While we were still traitors. While we were still running after our own desires, our own lusts—CHRIST DIED FOR US.
One more, just to drive the point home— In 1 John 4:9-10, John writes, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Again, we see how God’s great love for us motivated His grace and redemption. Also, propitiation is an amazing word. My challenge to you: use it in a sentence today.
God’s love is interwoven through each book of the Bible, each familiar story. God’s love started with creation and runs through the entire Bible, right through Revelation.
But…can we trust the Bible? Can we honestly say, “the Bible says it, so I believe it”? Can we know Jesus’ love just because the Bible declares it?
The Bibles says in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”
The Bible is the true, everlasting, Word of God. God-breathed. And in John 1, we read that the Word became flesh–Jesus. Jesus and the Word are one. And yes, we can put our faith securely on the truths proclaimed in the Bible.
The Bible has been constantly reviewed and critiqued by skeptics across the ages. But no critique against it has stood. So test the Bible. Go ahead—test the historicity. Test its truthfulness. I believe you will find what men and women across the centuries have found—the Bible contains a truth not created by men. The Bible contains God’s truth, God’s story of love and redemption, and the Bible will stand.
So yes, I can boldly proclaim, “For the Bible tells me so!”
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Let these words be the solid foundation for your everyday faith!
