Do you love me more that these?

 

Do You Love Me More Than These?

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
— John 21:15

This is the question we all need to answer.

Although the Lord Jesus posed it to Peter on the shore after the resurrection, there is still room for every one of us to hear that same question as if the Lord were directing it personally to us:

Do you love Me more than these?

Do we love anything more than the Lord?

The immediate reflex is obviously no. Our minds rush to the right answer: Of course I love the Lord above all else. But let’s be real. If we place anything in our lives as a priority — anything — over the Lord Jesus, that is where our treasure lies.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
— Matthew 6:21

And the more I reflect on my own heart, the more work it needs.

Not patchwork. Not religious effort. Not moral polishing.

Because the greatest of all miracles has already been accomplished on Calvary.

“It is finished.”
— John 19:30

The Lord Jesus has paid the price for the repentant sinner. Fully. Completely. Eternally.

My mind sometimes wants to drag me back to a place where I earn salvation, where I contribute to the cross, where I patch together righteousness with effort. But Scripture calls that what it is: dead work.

“…let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity… not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works…”
— Hebrews 6:1

Any attempt to add to what Christ finished is futile. Salvation is not a collaboration; it is a rescue.

I want the penny to drop on the magnitude of the Lord Jesus’ victory on Calvary. We say we understand it, but to what extent?

Regardless of how we slip and fall, that sin has already been accounted for. The Lord Jesus has the authority to forgive, thereby silencing the accuser of the believer.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
— Romans 8:1

It has already been judged. The sentence has been passed. The punishment has been served.

When I slow down long enough to digest this truth, it blows my mind.

Our sin — the very thing we sometimes allow to live comfortably within our domain — caused the Lord Jesus to suffer separation and judgement in our place.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:21

God made a way out for sinners by sending His own Son.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8

I’ve already written about “Jesus in my place,” but this truth has no bottom. It is eternal, continual, and inexhaustible.

Satan, the accuser, has no claim over the believer’s failures because the price has been paid.

“…the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”
— Revelation 12:10

With that established — and it should already be foundational to every believer — the Apostle Paul devotes much of Romans to unpacking what this means.

Which brings us back to the question.

“Do you love Me more than these?”

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!”
— Romans 6:1–2

Grace is not permission to drift. Grace is the power to live differently.

Love is the issue.

Not fear. Not an obligation. Not a religious performance.

Love.

If Christ has done all of this, if the cross truly stands where Scripture says it stands, then the question is unavoidable:

Do we love Him more than these?

More than comfort.
More than reputation.
More than habit.
More than sin, we refuse to bury.
More than the small kingdoms we build for ourselves.

Final thought:

Do you love Me more than these?

Signing off,
Tyrone