Gospel Love

I remember years ago, Ed Clowney was expounding Deuteronomy 7, where God is saying to the children of Israel, "I love you, not because you are the greatest of all nations, in fact you are the least of all nations, but it is because I love you that I brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand." Now let's think about this for a second. It's circular reasoning. He says, I didn't love you because you were one of the great nations, in fact, you were the least of nations, but it was because I loved you that I brought you out of Egypt.

Here is what God is saying to you: I love you just because I love you just because I love you just because I love you.

When you get married, your spouse will come to you and say, "Honey, do you love me?" and you'll say, "Of course I love you, honey." Then she'll say, "Why? Why do you love me?" Now be very careful, because you might say, "Well, honey, you were the smartest of the girls, you were the prettiest of the girls, I love how we play tennis so well together, we have so many common interests, you're very sophisticated. You make me feel good about myself because when someone like you is at my arm, then other people say he must be pretty cool." In other words, don't tell her the truth. The only proper answer on which you can build a life of love is to say, "Honey, I love you just because I love you."

That is not just pillow talk rhetoric. Because if you say to another human being, I love you because of this factor or that factor, then all the identity shifts to that factor because that's the basis for my love. "I better keep my figure, stay smart, stay sophisticated, etc." Do you see what happens? What has happened is the basis of your identity, your loveliness, your value is shifted to the factor and now you are a slave to the factor. But God, through the cross, says, "I love you just because I love you. I'm coming and I'm saving you, not because you're great or cool or moral. I'm saving you because of sheer grace." Then you're free because He loves you for you. He loves you. He loves you for His sake, and therefore, He loves you for your sake. Finally you're free. It's not the figure, it's not the tennis, it's not the money, it's none of those things anymore. And to the degree that you understand the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it takes a long time to sink in, you will experience that freedom.

-Tim Keller, How the Cross Changes Us