Faith Matters: Understanding the relentless love of God

Pastor Mark Ellis at the Shutesbury Community Church in Shutesbury. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ
Published: 06-13-2025 10:05 AM |
One of my favorite books is a novel by Wm. Paul Young called “Cross Roads.” It is about a man whose life is the embodiment of evil and self-centeredness. He is so evil that after he divorced his wife, he decided he hadn’t hurt her enough. So, he wooed her and married her again so he could divorce her again and inflict more pain and damage on her.
This man ends up having a brain hemorrhage and going into a coma where he is suddenly in another reality where he meets Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and eventually God the Father. During a discussion with the Holy Spirit, who has taken the form of an old Native American woman called “Grandmother,” the man wonders why he would be given a second chance when he has lived his life so badly. Grandmother says to him, “Papa God cares for you with relentless affection.”
Consider that word, relentless – never stopping, never ending, incessant, unyielding. Merriam-Webster defines the word as “showing or promising no abatement of severity, intensity, strength, or pace.” If God’s love is like that, then no matter what we do, God still loves us. But is God’s love really relentless?
When you want to test the truth of something about God, you go to the Holy Bible. Psalm 36:5-7a says: “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God.” The psalmist is describing a love that is infinite in its depth and breadth, that is never failing, that preserves and protects all living creatures – a truly relentless love.
Who in my life has ever loved me so relentlessly? The one I think of first is my great-grandmother. Gram was the only person I would stay with when I was very young. I think that was because even as a baby I could tell how much she loved me. I don’t remember her ever doing anything except loving me. Whether I made a mess or I damaged something in her house or I broke something she cared about, she still loved me. Yes, she disciplined me, but always in love.
The way Gram cared about me was the way Zephaniah said God cares about all His children. Zephaniah 3:17 says: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” Isn’t that beautiful? That’s the way I felt when I was with Gram. She rejoiced over me because she loved me so much. She sang special songs to me, cuddled with me, shared secrets with me, played the games I liked to play. She let me into her life and she came happily into mine.
Imagine God loving us that much, rejoicing over us with gladness and singing. In Romans 8:38-39 the apostle Paul tells us: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing, not anything, ever. Not even our own miserable actions, our own lousy attitudes, our unbelief. Nothing.
Paul places the love of God in Christ Jesus, the Son of God and Second Person of the Trinity, who became our Savior when He was crucified on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. John 3:16 states: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
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Imagine how difficult that was for God the Father, to watch His son die. But He permitted it. Indeed, He orchestrated it. Imagine how God suffered as He watched Jesus suffer on the cross. Imagine watching your own child being falsely accused, humiliated, beaten, then brutally killed. Imagine hearing him beg for His life as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion. But then Jesus said, “But not my will but yours” (Luke 22:42). And it was God’s will, so it was done.
Could you let it happen to your child? What if it would save the world? Could you let it happen even then? God could have stopped it, but He loves us too much. Us! Jesus’ death on the cross was our only chance.
If God loves us so much that He was willing to let His Son die on a cross to save us, how can we not love Him back? How can we not serve Him in everything we do? How can we not glorify Him with every word we speak and every action we take? Psalm 31:23a says, “Love the Lord, all his faithful people!” How can we not?
Mark Ellis is pastor of Shutesbury Community Church on the Shutesbury town common. We are a Bible-based, mission-oriented church committed to making a positive contribution in our community and the world. Our services are at 10 a.m. Sundays with a prayer meeting at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesdays, followed at 7 p.m. by Bible study. Bible study is also available on Zoom by emailing us a link request. Sunday services can be seen live and recorded on our YouTube. Visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/shutesburychurch or contact us at 413-349-8444, shutesburychurch@gmail.com or P.O. Box 679, 6 Town Common Rd., Shutesbury, MA 01072.