Jesus Likes You
Read Time: 12 Mins
“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”
Revelation 4:11 NLT
One of the central ideas of the Bible is that Jesus loves you. Your world can be revolutionized when you recognize that Jesus loves you. While it is a transformative concept that is full of depth, I doubt it is new to you. Regardless of how transformational the idea of God loving us is, the problem with language is that words spoken in abundance can often lose their meaning. The concept of love is so vast and deep that it encompasses many ideas. I can love my mom and I can love mashed potatoes. I can love my fianceé and I can love LeBron James. The concept of love is so broad that our situational usage and perception of the word is often missing aspects that should not be abandoned.
This is why I want to share the good news of the gospel from a different angle. I don't want to just tell you that Jesus loves you. I believe true revolution can take place for some if we acknowledge that Jesus also likes you. While some may believe that like is less than love, I believe that the idea of God liking us is an aspect of the love of God that we often miss.
While love often denotes important concepts of responsibility and sacrifice, like brings out ideas of desire and pleasure. I can go out on a limb and assume that there are some family members you love but don't necessarily like. You may claim them as family but you don't get excited when the thought of hanging out with them is brought up. You may even sigh and whine when you know you have to be near them but out of obligation or a desire to keep the peace you put on a mask, suck it up, and play the part. It’s not just with family. We do this with many relationships and obligations. You do just enough to get through the encounter but will never feel comfortable, compelled, or safe enough to show your true colors. It's almost like a summer job. You’re there for the moment but know that you would not choose this long term. You will help them out and show up for them out of a sense of obligation or courtesy but not true desire. That type of tolerating sacrifice can be seen as loving someone but not taking pleasure in them. You may say you love them but you may not desire intimacy with them. That is how some of us believe God views us. We believe that He loves us but doesn't necessarily like us. He may look out for us and provide, but He is dragging His feet and complaining behind closed doors because of how much of a burden we really are.
We would almost never argue whether or not God loves us but can you accept that He also likes you? He wants to be with you. He is excited to see you. He doesn't choose you out of obligation or hold small talk conversations just to stop it from being awkward. He genuinely desires to be with you. He desires to be close to you. He desires to know you and how you feel. He is choosing friendship with you. He wants a real relationship and personal intimacy with you. He likes you.
I love how Revelation chapter 4 describes it. John is whisked away into a vision of heaven. He sees the throne of God and the brilliance radiating off of Him. He describes His glory and the glow of precious stones circling the sacred space. He describes beings and beauty as He articulates the 24/7 display of worship and honor. Those in the presence of God day after day and night after night keep on saying “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty.” They magnify the One whose greatness cannot be bound to one dimension of time. They continually honor the One who always was, who is, and who is still to come. As this worship fills all possible space and time, others continue in their infinite display of worship. They continually fall to their faces and worship the One who sits on the throne forever. As they lay their crowns they cry “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things and they exist because You created what You pleased.” “You created what you wanted.” You created what you desired.”
As they fall down in worship they exclaim that everything that was and is was designed by the master architect. Paul in the letter to Colosse reminds us that all things were made through Jesus, the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus, the head of the church and One who is supreme over the living and the dead. Jesus, the One who God in His fullness was pleased to live in and reconcile us to Himself. The angels are infinitely describing the elegance and decadence of our Savior throughout all conceivable time and history and through all lanes of matter and media. His indescribable glory that is written on all creation is consistently being admired and adored. But what if I told you that the infinite affirmation of Christ's identity flowing out in heaven and on earth as we speak was also an infinite reminder of yours? This declaration of Christ’s identity says something about yours.
The text doesn't just say that Christ created all things. It says that He created what He liked. He created what He desired. He created what He wanted. He created what He willed. He created what He pleased. So If He created you, it's because He wanted you. He desired you. He was pleased with you. The worship we see in heaven is a consistent reminder that the word “desired” is stamped across your countenance. It's an affirmation that your value cannot be denied. Jesus doesn't just love you. He likes you.
Some of us struggle with this concept for many reasons. One of those being that our human lack makes it hard for us to conceptualize a desire that isn't action-based. The best of the love we have on earth is tilted towards transactional at best. Listen to our wedding vows and you’ll notice that even the best word smiths have a hard time describing love without acknowledging what the other person does for or to them. It’s conditional no matter how pure we try to make it. We desire connection and intimacy with people who make us feel good. We desire proximity with those who are safe and steward our complex emotions well. It would not make sense to fight for closeness with someone who constantly criticizes or crucifies you. It doesn't make sense for someone to desire closeness with someone who actively hurts them with no desire to change. It doesn't make sense to desire intimacy with someone who abuses or assaults you. It may be hard to imagine liking someone who doesn't do anything for you, but can you imagine liking someone who actively rebels against you? As humans, we are too affected by the actions of others to not take them into account when determining if we desire intimacy with them or not. How could God like people as sinful, hurtful, broken, and beaten up as us? Could it be that God's decision to like you has nothing to do with what you do and everything to do with who He is? It's hard to conceptualize but could it be that if your works can't earn God's favor, then they also can't diminish His desire for you? God likes you and it has nothing to do with you.
We often argue that God can love us but not like us. We logically induce that He could possibly choose us out of some sense of responsibility, or moral obligation but hold back intimacy until we are safe enough to handle it. We assume that we would have to do something to earn His attention, desire, and unconditional longing for us. We understandably believe God treats us like we would treat each other. We believe that He is holding Himself back and taking baby steps as He allows closeness equal to the level of safety and reliability we have proven to offer Him. We believe that God can only pour Himself out for those who have been deemed as good stewards of His resources. But here is the kicker. God isn't like us. He doesn't need to protect Himself from toxic relationships and those who would mismanage His love. He is strong enough to not be destroyed when He pours His complete self out for us and we don't reciprocate.
Jesus doesn't have to wait for you to get yourself together before desiring intimacy. Jesus’ relationship with us is one we'd call toxic and abusive in any other context. Jesus is actively choosing what we would call an unpredictable, serial cheater and gold digger who's full of STDs, pride, unrepentance, selfishness, baby-mama drama, trauma responses, and baggage. Jesus is actively choosing someone Kevin Samuels would say isn't worthy of a high-value man like Himself. Jesus is choosing people we would tell our children not to choose. Jesus knows we would not be good candidates for a relationship and chooses us anyway. Jesus showed us by how he treated contaminated sinners that He isn't afraid of the sicknesses we think are contagious or the actions we believe are toxic. Our brokenness doesn't scare Him. Many of us don't think God can like us because we can't see past what we do. We don't think God would desire closeness with us as we are because we couldn't desire closeness with someone like us. But a part of the gospel that we are forgetting is that your identity isn't tied to what you do, it's tied to who He is. God chose you knowing how messed up you would become. God had Hosea marry a prostitute named Gomer to illustrate how He chooses us knowing we've been around the block and will likely go back. Before you could do or not do anything, during your active sin, He already desired intimacy with you. His desire for you has nothing to do with what you do. His desire for you cannot be lost or changed. His desire for you is based on His identity and not your action and He will never change. Jesus is described as the God who made what He wanted so if you ever existed, you are something He wanted. Can I take this gospel of desire further?
Paul says this in Ephesians 1:3-6, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to He dear Son.”
I want you to catch what is being said here. God decided in advance to adopt you. He had a plan to bring you into His family. He isn't embarrassed by you. He is ok with you being a representation of Him. He's ok with His last name on your jersey. It goes on to say that this is what He wanted to do and it gave Him great pleasure. Can you imagine God excitedly giggling and telling His friends about how happy He is for you to be in His family? The idea of you having His last name made Him smile. God wanted you. He desired you. He wasn't forced or coerced. This isn't out of obligation, courtesy, or tradition. He knew you and still wanted you. He decided to adopt you simply because He wanted to and the idea of you made Him happy. That's crazy but I haven't even hit on my favorite part of the passage.
The Bible says that we were chosen to be holy and without fault in His eyes before He made the world. His first act of business wasn't making the world, inventing physics, or birthing the planets. He decided how He was going to look at you. He decided that no matter what you do or become, He will see you as clean and faultless. That means that He made up His mind that regardless of how far you go, He wants to see you as holy. What? Imagine going to a class and the teacher says that regardless of how little you study, how much you cheat, and how little you come to class, I already made up my mind that I would see you as an A+ student. Imagine a teacher telling you that before you enrolled they already made a decision to see you through the lens of their son who was a perfect student. Before you even signed up for class, the perfect student's test grades were applied to your records. You aren't thrown away by what you do. You're desired and that's who you are. Your identity isn't based on you, it's based on Him. This is so crazy that you may have to read that twice. Jesus wants you. He's not afraid of you. And He made up His mind to see you not as your sins deserve but through the lens of His perfect Son. Jesus likes you, desires you, and sets you up for a life of safety and belonging. You have a new identity and birthright. You have been provided with a new way of living life. I wish you could get how revolutionary this is.
You don't have to hide because you are already seen and still safe. You don't have to run because you're already known and still desired. Before you could do anything, God chose you. It wasn't based on what you could accomplish so nothing you can do can take the deal off the table. It's not based on you. It's based on Him. He freely gave you the opportunity to live life with a new identity and I promise you that sitting and meditating on this truth will completely change your life. Jesus doesn't just love you, He likes you.
So what's our response? What's our reaction to being wanted, desired, liked, adopted, and viewed as holy and faultless? Paul ends this section by simply saying, “So we praise Him.” There's not much more you can do. He gave it all so our response is to throw up our hands in surrender. Our response is to accept our reality and stop running from it. I wish I could have one-on-one conversations with all of you to drill this home in a personalized way. Do you understand? God already made up His mind. The job is already done. The gift has already been purchased and it's non-refundable. The only thing you should do now is accept it and be thankful. God likes you. He thought life with you around would be better.
He made you, not out of obligation or because it was the right thing to do. He made you because He liked you and wanted you close to Him. If you are thankful, your response is to praise. Give your life as an act of worship. Surrender your all for the God who already gave His all for you. Paul tells us that surrendering and dedicating our lives back to God is the best way to worship. Like the angels who cry “holy” day in and day out, our lives can be a constant shout of His goodness. He wants to be close to us and by surrendering we can allow Him. Our response can be opening the door of our deepest and darkest emotions, thoughts, fears, and desires and letting Him sit with us. Our response can be finding our identity in reaction to His. He just wants to be close to you. He wants to be a part of your day. Our response to being liked is to ask Him to help us like Him back.
I want to be clear that any response to the goodness of God is just that, a response. Any act of obedience, repentance, ritual, or religion is simply us responding to a God who already made up His mind about us. You cannot earn proximity with God, but you can accept it. Like a middle school crush, He has already made up His mind, passed the note, and is waiting for your response. He chose you now you have the choice to choose Him. What do you say? Do you want to like Him too?
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If you want to further celebrate the fact that Jesus likes you, join us for ROAR in Cincinnati on November 9th. If you have not yet been to a ROAR Experience, you are truly missing out on a move of God. Get tickets and more information through the button below.
