God Is on Your SideSample

BELOVED

Toward the end of his life, theologian Karl Barth was asked to sum up his theological work in a sentence. His answer was shockingly simple: “Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

After decades of study, when asked about the central truth of his theology, Barth joined the apostle John in saying nothing mattered more than being God’s beloved.

In closing his gospel, John describes himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” not in terms of all he’d accomplished, but as “the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper” (John 21:20 NIV). He’s referring to the Last Supper. On the eve of Jesus’s crucifixion, “one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table in the bosom of Jesus” (John 13:23 KJV). In that culture, the bosom was a place of security, vulnerability, and intimacy.

Like John, you are the beloved of Jesus: born from above, through blood and water; born of the Father, through Word and Spirit; born of Christ’s power, through cross and resurrection. You were made for security and vulnerability with God. This intimacy isn’t dependent on what you’ve done or haven’t done, how good you’ve been or haven’t been. It’s depen­dent on how good he is toward you and what he’s done for you.

Choosing to believe and receive God’s love for you keeps you from two dangers. First, it keeps you from the danger of legalism: trying to earn God’s affection. Second, it keeps you from lawlessness: trying to find such love elsewhere.

When you know you’re loved, you can be confident that the One in charge of your future is the One who is for you with a love that nothing—“neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation”—could ever separate you from (Romans 8:38-39 NIV).

Even when everything seems against you, God is for you. He is the Word be­come flesh, who is in it with you. He is the Lamb once slain, who fights for you. He is the Resurrection and the Life, who brings heaven to earth in you and works through you for your good. You can know yourself as his beloved.

For he is the God on your side.

Picture yourself at the table with Jesus, leaning back against him as John did. What emotions or thoughts does that image stir in you?

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