The Depth of God’s Love

The Word for Today – Thurday, Jan. 23

In one of my devotions for today, I read a portion of Jesus’ prayer from John 17 (see image for a portion of that passage). The first two reflection questions asked were:
“How much does God the Father love you? What does that truth mean to you?”
As I pondered these two questions, I began thinking of Jesus’ crucifixion, the ultimate statement of God’s love.

33At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 34Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Mark 15:33-34 NLT

I realized in a new way that when God removed His presence from Jesus on the cross, so He could experience in our place not only the weight of our sins, the punishment of death for our sins, but even a taste of the eternal separation from God that hell holds for those that do not receive Him.

God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 BSB

I always knew God had to turn away from Jesus because at that moment He became sin, the sin of all mankind, and God the Father could not stay connected to Him in that state. But today Holy Spirit revealed this to me that Jesus experienced separation from God, so we (all who receive Him – John 1:12) never have to experience true separation from God ourselves! That is true love! Thank You, Jesus!

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us – Joy Williams
https://youtu.be/FLDLU2QnFjM

No Longer a Slave – Zach Williams
https://youtu.be/3r2djNvPe9o

Blessings of hope and joy,

Julia

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