The Father Himself loves you

^{by: carole l. haines}

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; ²⁷ for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. ²⁸ I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” (John 16 NASB)

Jesus is continually drawing us closer to His Father.  His Father draws us to Himself through the Holy Spirit and through the Love we have seen demonstrated through Christ here on earth.  I did a study once, through all four gospels and I marked out every single encounter Jesus had with other people.  I recorded in the margin of my Bible how he interacted with people physically, vocally, emotionally. Jesus says to us:

²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” (John 10 NASB)

When we watch Jesus in His Word, we see the Father’s heart for humanity.  Jesus was truthful and bold, yet kind.  He was corrective, yet gentle.  He broke cultural norms and boundaries by His inclusive interactions with women, touching lepers, eating with tax collectors and harlots.  He touched people who were not to be touched, spoke to people who were not to be spoken to, uplifted the lowly; while putting the proud and arrogant in their place.  Jesus never once cared what people thought of Him.  His purpose was to reveal the Father to us, and to do His Will on earth as it is in Heaven.

Jesus makes it very plain in the first Scripture above that the Father Himself loves us.  The Father loves us because we have believed His Son, Jesus, to be who He says He is.  We have placed our trust in the One and Only Mediator between God and Man, Jesus Christ, Messiah. (1 Timothy 2:5 NASB) The Father Himself loves us, Jesus Christ laid down His life for us because He loves us.  The Holy Spirit guides our every step, if we let Him, because He loves us.  O to be so loved.  How Precious, How privileged, How wondrous.  Let us bask in the reality of the Love of God, and shine this truth to the world by being with them, as God is with us.