Everlasting Love

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

Those words of Jeremiah 31:3 stood out for me when I read Jeremiah 31:1-30 this morning.  Jeremiah is telling the Hebrew exiles to Babylon that God will one day redeem them.  In spite of the sin that led to their exile, and the fact that their exile is a punishment for their ongoing sin and disbelief, God has continued to love them.  They are a suffering people, taken from their homeland and forced to serve a foreign people, and yet Jeremiah’s words remind them of the central fact of their identity.  Even in exile they remain God’s chosen people.  Their faithlessness has not had any effect on His faithfulness.

As a Christian these words have rich meaning to me today.  They are not just old words from an old prophecy, spoken to a people and set of circumstances thousands of years ago and with no relevance to my daily life.  These words are quite the opposite.  They are not just meaningful to me now, to my daily life, but they point me to the future of eternal life. 

Much like Jeremiah’s original audience, I stray from God’s ways, and I know full well that I am doing so.  But in His mercy He grants forgiveness without limit.  I don’t have license, or “freedom to sin,” because I know that God will forgive.  In truth, misery is often the companion of awareness of my sin. 

This morning God’s word reminds me of the truth as clearly as Jeremiah spoke it to the Hebrews. God’s love is everlasting.  God’s faithfulness endures my wayward heart.

Everlasting love isn’t just a phrase, or an idea.  Everlasting love is a person, the person of Christ Jesus, who laid down His life and was raised from the dead. 

Because of the everlasting love and the faithfulness of Christ we can believe the promise written in Romans 10:13,

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

May you know, today, the mercy and everlasting love, of Christ.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.