Never Forget How Loved You Are

April 23, 2025

Max Lucado, in his book, He Chose the Nails, writes:

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much?  We could exist on far less.  He could have left the world flat and gray; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t.  He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue.  And if you love to see geese as they gather…chances are you’ll see that too.  Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry?  Was he obliged to make the birds sing?  And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings?  Why give a flower fragrance?  Why give food its taste?  Could it be He loves to see that look upon your face?” 

The Bible tells us the story of God’s love for humanity despite our sin, despite our turning away.  Throughout history God’s dealings with humankind show that God constantly offers us a relationship. God constantly reaches out to us even when we go astray.

After the building of the ark and the great flood, God says to Noah and his sons, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth.  I establish my covenant with you…”

God promises life. God sets a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of His love, His everlasting love and promise of life to each person, to every living creature. God continues to call us to relationship, offering us intimacy and closeness with Him.

A little later in Genesis, we read where God says to Abraham, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.  I will make you a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

In Exodus, God says to Moses, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, than out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

In 2 Samuel, David says, “Is not my house right with God?  Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part?  Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire?”

Let’s pull out a few words and phrases from these passages:

“I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you”

“a covenant for all generations to come”

“I will bless you”

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse…”

“I carried you on eagles’ wings”’

“brought you to myself”

“you will be my treasured possession”

“made with me an everlasting covenant”

Even after the world was so overwhelmed by sin that it had to be cleansed by a flood…Even after Abraham laughed at the promise of a son in his old age…Even after the Israelites grumbled, complained, and longed to return to slavery in Egypt…Even after David committed both murder and adultery…

God still offered a covenant—an intimate and personal relationship. He still drew Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David close to Himself. And just as He did with them, He continues to reach out to each of us, inviting us into that same deep, faithful relationship.

Then in Jeremiah 31: 3, God goes even further.  God reminds Jeremiah of His love for His people: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”  And in verse 33, “This is the covenant I will make with [my people]…I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.”

To make His grace and love even more evident, God wrote His covenant on our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

Remember what Max Lucado wrote, “Have you ever wondered why God gives so much?”  Even after speaking to Noah, Abraham, Moses and David about His love for us, even after speaking directly to our hearts, even after all that, God did even more:

“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” (John 3:16-17).

God’s Word tells us:“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us;” “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (Romans 5:8; I John 2:2).

Reflect for a moment on what Jesus did for us. Read a medical doctor’s physical description of the crucifixion:

The first part of the crucifixion process usually began with the person being stripped of their clothing so that they may be physically weakened by intense beatings and whippings.  These whippings were often done with a scourge, a whip made of leather with chips of bone woven into its end.  With every lashing, every strike, the flesh of the victim is literally torn away.  Special attention is paid to the victims back and shoulders.

After this viciously agonizing punishment, the victim is either led to the cross or is forced to drag or carry the cross to the designated crucifixion location.  The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood.  The legionnaire feels the depression at the front of the wrist.  He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood.  Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement.  The cross is then lifted into place.  The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed.  The victim is now crucified.  As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain–the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.  As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet.  Again, he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.

As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain.  With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breath.  Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled.  He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath.  Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside.  Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.  Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. 

Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in his chest as the pericardium slowly fills with fluid and begins to compress the heart.  It is now almost over – the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level – the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues – the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air.  He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues…Finally, he can allow his body to die.

All this the Bible records in Mark 15:24 with these four simple words: “And they crucified Him.” 

The night before His crucifixion, Jesus knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed. He knew what lay ahead—the pain, the suffering, the gasps for breath, the cold grip of death inching through His body. He knew.

For a moment, Jesus was afraid. He turned to His Father and asked, “Is there another way?”“Father, if You are willing, take this cup of suffering from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

And God answered—not with thunder, but with a quiet, resolute “No…No, there is no other way…”

Jesus accepts the answer. He knows He could still turn away, walk away—but doing so would mean leaving us, leaving you and me, trapped in our sin forever.

So, in that moment, He releases His grip, opens His hand, and willingly chooses the cross.

Max Lucado describes that moment in the garden:

The battle is won.  You may have thought it was won on Golgotha.  It wasn’t.  You may have thought the sign of victory is the empty tomb.  It isn’t.  The final battle is won in Gethsemane.  And sign of conquest is Jesus at peace in the olive trees.  For it was in the garden that he made the decision.  He would rather go to hell for you than go to heaven without you.

Jesus went to the cross, “And they crucified Him.”  And having been beaten, having carried his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, having had nails hammered through his hands and feet, feeling excruciating pain, his first words were, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

What wondrous love is this?

Paul writes, in Ephesians 1:7-8, “For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.  How great is the grace of God, which he gave to us in such large measure.”

Later, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, to that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

NEVER FORGET… ALWAYS REMEMBER…

HOW LOVED YOU ARE!!!