A Book on Reassurance Amidst a Deconstructing World

My friend, Dan Cruver, wrote a book called Loved Indeed:Reassurance for the Doubting and Suspicious. It's a simple and wonderful book that rehearses the truth of the Gospel, as preached in Ephesians, to those who doubt the Father's love. I need this book in my life as it helps reiterate the truth that God loves me--objecitvely, unconditionally, and eternally--in the face of the devil's lies and my own failings.

The Devil's Tactics

One of our enemy's main objectives (if not his main objective) is to get us believers to doubt and to dismiss God's love for us. Dan writes of the ways he achieves this objective when he comments on the devil's "schemes" in Ephesians 6: "The devil is a cunning adversary, always ready to exploit your weaknesses and sins to keep you from experiencing the fullness of the Father's love for you" (30). As I read this sentence, I can't help but think of the ways in which I tend to think I have less favor with God because of present temptations and struggles in my life. I can also think of ways in which the devil tempts me to glutonize on comforts and desires to stuff out the reality of God's love for me. And, when I give into temptation, he accuses me of the very thing he's tempted me to do, saying that God loves me less because of it. Indeed, he is a dreadful and cunning adversary.

Another tactic that the devil uses, as Dan draws out in his book, is his exploitation of our limitations to understand God's infinitude. Dan likens this experience to kayaking in the open ocean, fearful of the unknown of what lies beneath. He writes, "Since God is far beyond our searching and taming, the Evil One seeks to exploit our fears of the unknown. As we know all too well by now, he works tirelessly to make us fear God as our avenging judge than run to him as our loving Father" (71). Those who are "in Christ" no longer know God primarily as Judge, but as our Father. But so often, we're convinced that God can't be known, that he is far off and unfeeling in his dealings towards us. And a God who is far off and unfeeling is a God who is terrifying. It is this fear that the devil weaponizes against us. We fear because we have missed the realities of God's love for us.

An Objective and Everlasting Love

God's love, according to the Bible, is not subjective. It is not based on our feelings or our failures. It is not with us one moment and then gone another. No, God's love is objective. It is clear, visible, and has a fixed point, namely in God himself. God loves because God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). Here, we see the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity; for it is in the Trinity that we see the Father and the Son share in an eternal bond of love between each other, the Spirit being that love which they shared (St. Augustine writes extensively on this, 85).

And what has this eternal Triune God chosen to do with that eternal love? He's chosen to share. In John 17, Jesus asks the Father for his disciples to be welcomed into the love and fellowship that they share. Dan writes, "It is this love that is the ultimate ground of our assurance as Christians, for it is the unbreakable love between Father and Son that guaranteed our placement as children within the family of God before we even existed" (83-84). That's where the apostle Paul goes with it when he tells us that it is "in love [that] he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ" (Eph. 1:5). God demonstrated this love when he sent Christ to be the propitiation for our sins (Rom. 5:8; 1 Jn. 4:14).

God pours out his love on his children in immeasurable ways. It surprised me in no way that Dan compares it to the Niagra as that is one of his favorite illustrations (a good one too). He writes, "The sheer number of the Father's blessings infinitely dwarf the amount of water that has ever flowed, or ever will flow, over Niagra, and Jesus contains them all. So, like the man drinking from Niagra, you stand 'in Christ' and are free to enjoy every drop of the Father's blessings" (64-65). It's a powerful illustration as it demonstrates so clearly the amount of love and favor which God pours out on us. His love is an everlasting and everflowing stream whose dregs we will never drink. It's an ocean whose depths we will never reach. But it is given all for us.

I Recommend Loved Indeed

I'm persuaded that so many Christians simply need to be convinced of the immeasurable love that God has for them. They need to be told that God's love for them is not based on their actions; therefore, there is nothing they can do to impede it. Unfortunately, whether they were taught this directly or indirectly, it seems that many Christians believe that their relationship with God is largely dependent on what they do. After all, it seems that many come to Christ out of fear of punishment for what they've done. Therefore, their assurance of salvation is placed largely on what they've done for God rather than on what he has done for them.

But Paul makes it very clear that it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us (Rom. 5:4). To use words often contributed to Jonathan Edwards: We had nothing to contribute of our salvation than the very sin that made it necessary. Still, God loved us, with an infinite love that existed before Creation. Therefore, our assurance of salvation (or any other demonstration of grace for that matter) is not based on what we do but on what has been done for us and, ultimately, in He who did it. This is why I recommend Dan Cruver's Loved Indeed. It's a wonderful book that helps us behold the kind of love the Father has given to us.

Dan Cruver. Loved Indeed: Reassurance for the Doubting and Suspicious. Union Publishing: Bridgend, Wales, UK. 2024. You can purchase a copy of Dan's book here: https://www.unionpublishing.org/product/loved-indeed-dan-cruver/