This post is written by Shaq Hardy as a companion for Unit 25, Session 2 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 9: From Death to Resurrection (Fall 2023).
The love of Jesus is not only the foundation that the Christian faith is built on, it’s also the material that we build from. The love of Jesus permeates our culture so much so that it is widely sought after and avoided all at the same time.
The love of Jesus is known as agape love. It’s the type of love that we see in John 3:16, which says, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
The word “love” here comes from the Greek word agape, which is the highest form of love. It’s a love that’s not contingent on feelings. It’s action, no matter how you feel. The very same love that sent Jesus to the cross is the kind of love that we’re called to have for both God and those around us. Those are the two greatest commands in all of the Bible: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39). Seeking Jesus leads to that kind of love.
Again, love is both the foundation and the building blocks of our faith.
Here are a few verses that show us what agape love is all about:
“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” –1 John 4:16
As the Son of God, the very essence of who Jesus is is love. It’s what He’s made of! Agape love is a part of the fabric of the nature of Jesus. If you’ve surrendered your life to Jesus, you are called to remain in Jesus through the same kind of love, a love that is not based on circumstances or feelings. This type of love should always lead to the same love for people.
“Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” –1 John 4:10
Jesus loved us before we ever considered loving Him. The love of Jesus takes the initiative because without it we would never seek it. Knowing that we would never seek God’s love without first being sought by it should spark a sense of urgency within us to tell others about the love of Jesus. How can they ever pursue God’s love if they never hear about it?
“But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:8
Jesus loved us in such a way that even though we had rebelled and were still rebelling against Him, He died for us. Because He couldn’t stand to not have us.
“What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Romans 8:31-39
Because of the promises of God being fulfilled in the love of Jesus, there is nothing on this earth or in heaven or under the earth that can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8 should give us confidence that nothing can stand in our way in pursuit of the mission of God. Nothing on earth can take away the salvation that Jesus freely gifted to us through His life, death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore, we should take the good news of the gospel with all confidence that, like George Whitfield once said, “we are immortal until our work on earth is done.”
As you seek to love as Jesus loved, pray Paul’s prayer to the Ephesian church over yourself:
“I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” –Ephesians 3:17-19
Shaq Hardy is the president of the Orphan No More Foundation and has dedicated himself to working toward helping kids without families become orphans no more. Shaq has served as an itinerant preacher for the past ten years and served as a full-time student pastor for six years.
