The Cost of Love

The love that redeems the world is not sentimental or abstract. It is the costly love revealed in the self-giving sacrifice of Christ.

Few words in the Christian vocabulary are used more frequently than the word love. It appears in sermons, prayers, hymns, and everyday conversations about faith. Scripture itself places love at the center of the Christian life. Jesus names it as the greatest commandment: to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37–39). But the meaning of love is often misunderstood. In many places today, love is described primarily as affirmation, emotional warmth, or personal fulfillment. It is associated with comfort, acceptance, and positive feelings. While these things can certainly accompany love, they do not capture its full depth. The love revealed in Scripture is far more demanding. Biblical love is not merely a feeling but an action. It involves sacrifice, patience, endurance, and a willingness to bear burdens for the sake of another. It is not defined by convenience but by commitment.

Nowhere is this more clearly revealed than in the life of Jesus Christ. As Lent moves toward its final weeks, the Gospels increasingly focus on the path that Jesus deliberately walks toward Jerusalem. He knows what awaits Him there. Again and again, He tells His disciples that the Son of Man will be betrayed, rejected, and killed (Matthew 16:21; Mark 10:33–34). Yet He continues forward. This movement toward the cross is not forced upon Him by circumstance. It is the expression of His love. Jesus willingly embraces the suffering that lies ahead because it is the means by which the world will be redeemed. The Gospel of John captures this truth with striking clarity: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). That phrase, to the end, carries enormous weight. It does not simply mean that Jesus loved His disciples until the final moment of His life. It means that His love reached its fullest expression in the sacrifice He was about to make. The cross is therefore the ultimate revelation of divine love.

This is why the apostle Paul writes, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The love of God is not demonstrated in abstract declarations but in the concrete act of Christ bearing our sin. Martin Luther often reflected on this dimension of the Gospel. For him, the cross reveals the heart of God in a way nothing else can. It shows that God does not merely speak about mercy. He enacts it through the self-giving sacrifice of His Son. The theology of the cross teaches us that divine love does not avoid suffering. Instead, it enters into suffering for the sake of redemption.

This truth reshapes how Christians understand love in their own lives. If the love of Christ is sacrificial, then the love we show toward others will often carry a cost as well. Loving our neighbor may involve patience when we feel frustrated, forgiveness when we feel wounded, or service when we would rather remain comfortable. Loving our spouse and children will require us to be willing to sacrifice everything up to and including our very lives. Love means being willing to be and accepting when we are uncomfortable for the sake of others, if only because the Christian life understands love, not as a pleasant sentiment, but as a participation in the pattern of Christ’s own life.

Jesus speaks about this when He tells His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). This isn’t an invitation to seek suffering for its own sake. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that genuine love frequently requires self-giving. Following Christ means learning to place the needs of others before our own comfort. Following Christ means dying to ourselves.

This calling would absolutely be overwhelming if it depended entirely on our strength. I can feel my own shoulders tense up even as I write this. How can I love perfectly? How much suffering do I have to endure to love someone else? Am I really willing to suffer even unto death for someone else? What happens if I can’t do this? Will God cast me aside? I’m sure that many of you are probably asking similar questions in your hearts just as I am now.

This is where the Gospel comes in. The good news of the Gospel is that the love Christ commands is the same love He continually provides. Through the Word of God we are reminded again and again of the mercy that has been shown to us. Through confession and absolution we hear that our failures to love are forgiven for the sake of Christ Jesus. Through the Lord’s Supper Christ gives us His own body and blood, strengthening our faith and renewing our lives as He provides us the forgiveness of our sins anew. These gifts are not symbolic reminders alone. They are the means through which Christ continues to sustain His people.

“The love that saves the world is a love that goes all the way to the cross.”

The Lutheran Confessions emphasize that these means of grace are the place where God’s promises are delivered to us. The Augsburg Confession teaches that through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments, the Holy Spirit is given, creating faith where and when it pleases God (AC V). In other words, the love that flows into our lives through Christ becomes the very love that begins to shape how we live.

As Holy Week approaches, the Church invites us to reflect more deeply on the cost of that love. The suffering of Christ was not a tragic accident or an unfortunate interruption in His mission. It was the very means by which God reconciled the world to Himself. Every step Jesus takes toward the cross reveals the depth of His commitment to redeem His people, the unlimited love that He has for us as His creation. Soon the crowds will gather in Jerusalem, welcoming Him with shouts of praise. Palm branches will wave, and the city will echo with celebration. Yet even in that moment of apparent triumph, the shadow of the cross will already be present, because the love that saves the world is not a love that stops at celebration. It is a love that continues all the way to the cross. And through that costly love, Christ accomplishes the salvation of sinners and the redemption of the world.