“How Do I Know God Loves Me?” 10-30-22
Overview
How Do I Know God Loves Me?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning famously asked, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." It is a question many of us instinctively turn toward God: How do I love the Lord well enough? How do I prove my devotion? How do I approach the throne of the Almighty? This was the very anguish of Martin Luther, who spent hours confessing sins only to remember more, who could find no righteousness in himself sufficient to stand before a holy God. We know the feeling. We try to love the Lord, but we make idols of family, work, comfort, and pleasure. We harbor hateful thoughts against neighbors, covet what others have, dishonor those in authority, and fall short of the perfection God's law requires. Scripture is honest about our condition: we are "dead in our trespasses" and even born as enemies of God (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:1).
The great gift of the Reformation was not merely a stand for Scripture and grace—it was the inversion of the question. Luther, driven into God's Word by his struggle, discovered that the right question is not How do I love God? but How does God love me? The answer is found in John 3:16-17: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him." Notice the order: Jesus does not say that because the Son was given, God will love the world. God's love is the starting point. He gave His Son because He already loved the world—loved us in our grossness, our darkness, our unworthiness. Christ did not come to condemn but to save; condemnation comes only from despising and rejecting Him.
This means our works are not our saving grace. We cannot stand on our own two feet before the Lord, and God does not demand that we do. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, willingly entered humanity, went to the cross knowing what awaited Him there, tasted the death we deserved, and rose victorious over sin, the devil, and the grave. He has ransomed us, as Luther's catechism teaches, "with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death."
So how do we know God loves us? Because in the waters of baptism He came, claimed, and named you as His own beloved child. Because week after week He continues to come to His people in His own body and blood, the tangible grace where He says, "You are forgiven. Take and eat. You are mine." Because He seals you with His Holy Spirit who teaches, guides, and leads you into truth Ephesians 1:13-14. Because He gives us His living and active Word Hebrews 4:12. When we count the ways God loves us, we don't have to count very high. The answer is one Name: Jesus.
Transcript
How do I love the? 3s
Let me count the ways. 6s
We are all probably familiar with that most famous 10s
sonnet of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a 19th century poet. 14s
And she penned that sonnet in which she counts the ways, 20s
the depth and the breadth of her love for her beloved. 24s
How do I love the? 28s
Let me count the ways. 32s
Today is Reformation Sunday. 34s
We see a lot of red. 37s
We know that we celebrate or recognize Martin Luther and 38s
what God accomplished through him and the 43s
Reformation. 47s
And we celebrate that Martin Luther was taking a stand on the authority 48s
of God's word alone. 54s
And we appreciate that Martin Luther was standing for 57s
righteousness through Christ alone, not works and not 62s
one's own goodness. 67s
But the Reformation wasn't started with the idea of taking a stand. 70s
Martin Luther did not intend that he would be taking a stand. 78s
That's not where the Reformation was born. 84s
Instead it began with the angst of a man who no matter how hard he 88s
tried he could not stop sinning. 96s
He would continue to realize that he was a far cry from righteousness. 103s
He was a far cry from the perfection that is demanded by the Lord 110s
our God. 117s
How do I love the? 119s
How do I love the Lord? 123s
Martin Luther spent hours confessing his sins. 125s
In the moment he would stop confessing he would leave the room, 130s
remember another sin or sin again and turn right back around until 134s
he was wearing out his confessor. 140s
He could not find within himself the righteousness, 143s
the worthiness of coming before the Lord. 148s
How do I love the? 153s
How Lord do I approach the throne of the Almighty God? 156s
How do I approach the creator of all? 160s
How do I come before the holy one before whom the entire 164s
earth trembles? 170s
I try. 173s
I try to love the Lord. 175s
But I find idols instead. 180s
I make idols of my family, my friends, my job, my sports, 184s
alcohol. 191s
I find idols that I turn to instead of you Lord. 193s
I try to love the Lord. 197s
But I murder every single day. 202s
I think murder is hateful thoughts about my brother, my sister, 205s
my neighbor. 209s
I murder myself. 211s
I try to love the Lord. 215s
But I look upon another man, another woman with lust. 220s
I try to love the Lord. 226s
But I dishonor my parents. 229s
And anyone put an authority over me. 232s
I try to love the Lord. 236s
But I want what my neighbor has and I find myself coveting that. 241s
I try to love the Lord. 251s
Through the Reformation, Martin Luther came to God's word with the struggle. 252s
How do I love the? 261s
How do I love you, Lord? 264s
And through the inspiration of God, through his grace and mercy, 269s
he helped Martin Luther to invert that question. 276s
No longer asking how do I love the? 283s
But how do you love me, Lord? 287s
How do you love me? 291s
And this is the very question that every year, the Comforemands answer in their statements of faith. 293s
How do I know God loves me? 300s
And we spent two years, two years studying. 303s
God's words studying the small cataclysm studying about the Lord's prayer, the ten commandments, the apostles' creed, 308s
the sacraments of baptism and communion. 315s
The office of the keys that God gives to the church to forgive or retain sin. 320s
All trying to answer that question. 327s
How do I know God loves me? 331s
And that's the question that we're going to ask today. 335s
At this time, how do we know that God loves us? 339s
And we're going to begin with God's word. 343s
So if you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 3, 347s
if you're using a Pue edition of that Bible or of the Bible, 352s
you can find this on page 52 in the New Testament, 356s
we're in Gospel of John chapter 3, beginning in verse 16. 360s
So how do I know God loves me? 366s
Well, Jesus tells us that God so loved the world, 369s
that He gave His only son, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, 373s
but may have eternal life. 379s
We use that term world to mean a lot. 383s
And we know that when we talk about the world and its sinfulness, 389s
it's very, very broad. 394s
It expands over time. 397s
It spans over people, cultures, the world at large, 400s
is just a pile of grossness. 406s
But we also refer to the world in a more narrow sense, 411s
the world that is the individual, 417s
that we individually are a pile of grossness in our sin. 420s
There's not a person born, not a person born who is not 430s
born in a hopeless condition. 435s
Roman says, we are dead in our trespasses. 439s
We are dead in our sin. 444s
We are not born asking, how do I know I love the Lord? 448s
How do I love the Lord? 455s
Instead, Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 458s
that we are born enemies of God. 461s
We don't care how we should love God, 466s
because we are born as enemies of God. 469s
The gods of the ancient Near East, 473s
where Jesus would have been, or in the time, 476s
when Jesus would have been, 478s
the gods little, gee, God. 480s
They were fickle. 483s
They could be bribe. 484s
They could be cajold. 485s
They would turn on you on a dime. 487s
And so you'd have to plead with the little gee, 490s
gods. 494s
So at the very best, at the very best, 495s
one may ask, how do I save my own neck 499s
from the vengeful God? 503s
God so loved the world, 509s
that he gave his only son, 512s
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, 514s
but have eternal life. 518s
Notice, Jesus does not say, 522s
because God's son is given, 525s
God will love the world. 529s
He begins with God's love. 533s
That is the starting point. 537s
It is God's love, that is the starting point. 540s
It is God's love, that is the starting point of creation. 542s
And it's self. 546s
God loved the world. 548s
The world is given the son because God loved the world. 551s
The Reformation brought this reversal, 562s
or the realization of this reversal, 566s
that God loves us, the unlovable, 568s
the unworthy, the sinner, the world and the world. 573s
That is grossness. 581s
That is darkness. 585s
You cannot, I cannot stand on our own 590s
to feet before the Lord. 596s
But God does not demand that we stand 599s
on our own to feet. 602s
How do we know God loves us? 606s
Because He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him 610s
may not perish, but have eternal life. 617s
God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, 624s
He gave His only begotten Son, second person of the Trinity. 628s
As a sacrifice for our sin and not only did He send the Son, 636s
but the Son, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity entered into humanity 641s
and went to the cross willingly, knowing full well, 647s
what awaited Him there. 654s
The world, the world is exposed, 659s
is exposed to the wrath of the just Lord. 669s
And yet Jesus tasted the death that we deserve 677s
and tasted it for us so that we may have life. 683s
Let's continue in verse 17. 692s
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, 695s
but in order that the world might be saved through Him, 700s
God in His love did not enter into humanity 704s
in order to dam humanity. 708s
God entered into humanity in order to save. 712s
It is not Christ that condemns. 717s
It is despising Christ that is condemning. 720s
It is the thumbing the nose at Christ that condemns. 728s
It is the rejection of Christ that condemns. 736s
Christ is here for all. 742s
Christ was given for all. 744s
Christ is able to save all. 750s
Your works, your works are not your saving grace. 757s
How do I love thee? 764s
How do I prove to you, Lord, that I love thee? 766s
What do I have to do to be saved? 771s
It is the Lord who came. 781s
It is because of God's love that He saves. 784s
Your works don't save. 791s
My works are not my saving grace. 794s
It is God's own work on the cross. 796s
God's own work taking the sin of every man 800s
and woman of every day and age upon Himself. 803s
It is God's work in being resurrected from death, 807s
itself, victorious, over sin, 813s
victorious over the devil, victorious over the death 817s
that we deserve. 822s
It is God's work that He gives to us 826s
out of His own grace, out of His own goodness, 833s
that He saves us, not according to our worthiness, 837s
according to His love. 843s
How does God love me? 847s
How do I know God loves me? 850s
Because He has ransomed me. 856s
He has ransomed you, poor, unworthy sinners 861s
by His innocent suffering and precious blood. 867s
How do I know God loves me? 873s
Because in the waters of baptism, God came 878s
and called you and claimed you and named you as his own beloved child. 882s
In the waters of baptism, God came in and said, 888s
you are mine, you are part of my body, 892s
you are part of my people. 894s
How do I know God loves me? 900s
Because week after week, year after year, century, 906s
after century, God has continued to come to His people, 910s
feeding us with His own body and blood, 914s
His own person, the tangible grace, the tangible love, 918s
where He says, you are forgiven, have this, 923s
taste it, see and know that you are mine. 926s
How do I know God loves me? 932s
Because He seals you and He fills you with His very own, 936s
holy spirit that teaches you that guides you 942s
and leads you to truth. 946s
How do I know God loves me? 950s
Because He gives us His own word, living and active, 953s
transformative and performative. 959s
How do I know God loves me? 964s
How do I love thee? 973s
We don't have to count very high when we consider 977s
how to know that God loves us. 982s
How do we know God loves us? 987s
Jesus. 995s
Jesus. 999s