Last night, as my son went to bed, he walked over to me with arms wide open for a hug. We embraced. He said, “I love you.” I said the same. And he went into his room.
A few minutes before, we were in the living room. He was watching tv; I was on my laptop. We were father and son, a few feet from each other. But when we embraced and exchanged words of love, something happened. I didn’t become more of a father, and he didn’t become more of a son. I didn’t have less love for him before that embrace. Nor did he. But our love for one another was reaffirmed and felt in a more visceral way.
Parental love is one of our most instinctual affections. Every parent feels it. As Jesus bluntly said, even evil fathers know how to give good gifts to their children (Luke 11:13). And a rebellious child all the more solidifies a parent’s love. That’s how strong it is.
So how great and pure a love must God have for us, “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2), that He would save us from those same sins committed against Him! And in saving us, He not only justifies us, but He adopts us into His family. We become God’s very own children.
God didn’t make us His children from afar. He did it personally, sacrificially. As Gal 3:4 says, He did it by sending forth His Son to take on human flesh, to fulfill the Law, and then to die on the cross for our sins. Christ’s life and death are the means by which we were adopted. That’s how great a love the Father has for us.
But it doesn’t end there. He then sends forth into our hearts the Spirit of His Son, who continually cries out, “Abba! Father! (Gal 3:6). The Spirit continually reassures our hearts that we are children of God, infinitely loved and accepted in Christ. He enables us to taste and see the glories of what Christ achieved for us on the cross, our sonship.
So, how do we get to place of feeling loved by our Father, of knowing the glories of our adoption in Christ – not just intellectually but experientially? We get there by believing what the Spirit is always already crying out in our hearts: God is our Father by the death of His Son. There is no greater love than that, and when I believe that, I will experience the Father embracing me in love, reassuring me that nothing will ever separate me from His love.
