Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so
– Anna Bartlett Warner (1859)

Our pastor made the comment today that “Jesus loves us” is one of the most important messages of the Christian faith.

He preached from Romans 8:1-4 as the first in a five-part series about being able to experience acceptance. He was talking about God’s love for us, and how we respond to that. I felt like some of what he said was over my head – hard for my mind to grasp. Perhaps that was his point – that we as humans have a hard time grasping how much God loves us.

One thing that stuck out to me was how our sin, God’s love, and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross all work together. Because of our sinful natures, God has to condemn us because He is a God of justice. However, through Christ, God is able to separate who we are from our sin –

“For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us…” (Romans 8:3-4a)

Our pastor used the phrase “we have been enveloped by Jesus”. I really like that. We are eternally bonded with Him, and our own sinful lives are hidden. God’s love for us is not conditional on what we DO – but rather, He is loving us with the same love that He feels for His own Son. Wow! I find that really hard to grasp.

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What did you learn at church today? Leave a link to your own “Sunday Ponderings” blog post, or you can just mention your thoughts in the comments. Read more about this weekly carnival here.