Summary
How Do I Know God Loves Me?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous sonnet begins, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." For Martin Luther, that question—turned toward God—became unbearable. No matter how diligently he confessed, he would walk out of the confessional only to remember another sin, or commit one, and turn right back. He could find no righteousness in himself worthy of approaching the holy God before whom the earth trembles. The Reformation was not born from a desire to take a stand; it was born from the anguish of a man who could not stop sinning.
Try as we might to love the Lord, we end up making idols of family, friends, work, sport, or drink. We murder with hateful thoughts toward neighbor and self. We look with lust, dishonor those in authority, and covet what belongs to others. The honest accounting of "how do I love the Lord" yields only failure. Scripture confirms what the conscience suspects: we are dead in our trespasses and born as enemies of God (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:1). Apart from grace, the most we can ask is how to save our own neck from a vengeful God.
The breakthrough of the “How Do I Know God Loves Me?” Reformation was learning, by the Spirit's grace, to invert the question. Not "How do I love God?" but "How does God love me?" That reversal moves the starting point from human striving to divine gift. The answer is given in Jesus' own words: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16. Notice the order. Jesus does not say that because the Son is given, God will love the world. God loved the world first; the Son is given because of that love.
This is love directed toward the unlovable—the sinner, the gross, the dark, the world that cannot stand on its own two feet before the Lord. And God does not demand that we stand on our own. The Son entered humanity and went willingly to the cross, tasting the death we deserve so that we might have life. "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" John 3:17. Christ does not condemn; it is the rejection of Christ that condemns. Your works are not your saving grace. The cross is.
So how do we know God loves us? He has ransomed us, poor unworthy sinners, by His innocent suffering and precious blood. In the waters of Baptism He came, called, claimed, and named you as His own beloved child. Week after week, century after century, He continues to come in His Supper, feeding His people with His own body and blood—tangible grace that says, "you are forgiven, you are mine." He seals you with His Holy Spirit, who teaches and leads you into truth. He gives His living and active Word that does what it says.
How do I love thee? We do not have to count very high to know how God loves us. The answer is one word, and one Person: Jesus.
Video citations
- “How Do I Know God Loves Me?” 10-30-22 — How do I love the? Let me count the ways. We are all probably familiar with that most famous sonnet of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a 19th century poet. And she penned that sonnet in which she counts…