READ: LUKE 15:1-4; ROMANS 5:5; 1 JOHN 4:7-21

God loves you. If you’ve grown up in church, you’ve probably heard that a thousand times (I hope!), but it’s always worth repeating.

So what does it mean that God loves us? To get the most accurate picture of God’s love, we can look to Jesus, who is God. Love is, at its core, selflessly giving oneself to someone else. Jesus did this for us when He came and lived among us as a human, took our sins upon Himself, gave up His life through the excruciatingly painful death of the cross, and then rose from the dead so that everyone who trusts in Him can live with Him forever.

This truth is completely absurd. It makes no sense. Why would God do any of this for us? Maybe it would be slightly less crazy if we had done something amazing for God—if we had somehow earned even a tiny particle of the love He gives us. If we had something incredible to offer God in return for His love, then maybe, just maybe, we could start to wrap our minds around His reasons for loving us the way He does.

But, unless His Holy Spirit changes us, do you know what we have to offer God? Sin. Rebellion. Intentional disobedience. Hatred toward His goodness and love. The only thing we have to offer God is our incredible neediness. And you know what? Jesus went to the cross because God saw our neediness and reached out to help us. When we recognize how badly we need Jesus, and put our trust in Him, we are covered with Jesus’s righteousness. Though we’ll continue to struggle with sin until Jesus returns, God sees us as blameless. And as we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we experience God’s love more and more. His love is so good, it transforms us and overflows to others.

The Bible tells us God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). That doesn’t mean God is sentimental—it means He is self-sacrificing. He will do whatever it takes to bring us to Himself. That is the love He has for us. And that is the love He empowers us to show others. • Taylor Eising

• If someone were to ask you about God’s love, how could you describe it? How could you show it?

• When you have questions about Jesus’s love, who is a trusted Christian in your life you could talk to about it? (And for more about how God’s love can change our lives, see our "Know Jesus" page.)

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:10 (NLT)