How Much Does God Love Us?

Rom 5:8" But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 

Most religions in the world are about us getting our act together so that we can please God and somehow attain oneness with Him.  It is a futile effort.  The very best effort that we can put together will invariably fall short.  No matter how much we separate ourselves from the world, as some monks do, and no matter how much we meditate and try to purge ourselves of worldly thoughts and focus on the divine we are bound to fail.  Oh, we might sustain some measure of it for short periods of time.  We might even get quite proficient at it and be able to focus the purity of our thoughts for extended periods of time.  It still would not be enough.

Other religions teach that you can earn your way into heaven.  They paint this mental image of an old man at the pearly gates with a set of scales and if your good deeds exceed you bad ones then you get a pass and you get to enter heaven.  Too bad that in God's economy even one solitary sin would be enough to outweigh all our good deeds.

What if we became super- religious and put together some world-wide ministry that did all sorts of incredible things in the name of the Lord?  We would prophesy in His name, perform miracles and cast out demons in His Name; would that get us into heaven? Sorry, not enough.

Matt 7:22-23  "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name , and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

Sadly, there is nothing we can do that will gain for us communion with God.

Except, God knows the futility of our efforts.  He knows our fallen nature. While He is disgusted by our sin which brings enmity between us and while He is a just God and has to have justice and payment for our sins, He loves us. Even in our fallen state He provides a way for us to have fellowship with Him. Only it doesn't start with us, it starts with Him and comes from Him.

What an incredibly generous gift that while we were still acting out our rebellion against Him, He loved us so much that he provided the way for us to be reconciled.

How much love is that? Well, we know that we are all a mess.  When we get together and talk about what our lives were like before we met Christ we start to get a picture of His love.  Think of all the things that you did that sinned against God and should have earned you eternity in Hell.  Are you starting to get a picture?

Now think of the most evil person that you can imagine. Maybe someone who has betrayed you or maybe someone who has abused you.  Now think of a rapist or a child molester or a serial killer that delights in torturing his victims for days on end.  Does God's love extend to them?

While we may be surprised at who isn't in heaven when judgment day comes, I think we may be even more surprised by who is there.

You see God's love is available to everyone.

John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son".

Whoever believes in Him is instantly a new creation.

2 Cor 5:17-19 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them."

Whoever believes in Him will have their sins forgiven and they will be reconciled with God.

That is how big God's love is.

A little hard to swallow isn't it.  It's ok when we're talking about our sins, but it is a different story when we think that some monster could gain access to the Father just by believing in the Son.

When I say "just by believing" I want to clarify that I am not talking about some formulaic prayer that if someone says it they are instantly transformed.  Believing is not just a matter of praying some magical prayer; no, it is a complete surrender and yielding to the Father through the sacrifice and Gospel of the Son by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.  It is when we get to the end of ourselves and we say, "I've made a mess of things Father, I believe that you are indeed God and I'm handing over control of my life to You".

You're probably thinking, "Jay, that last line sounds suspiciously like the sinner's prayer".  Of course it does.  What I am trying to say is that just saying the words isn't enough.  It is when the words reflect what is going on the inside that it is effective.  I've know a lot of people who have said those words and kept on living no different than before they said them.  In fact, working with the homeless I've seen the same people say those words every week before they get a meal.  For them it is the price of a meal.  It has no meaning for eternity to them.  No, the prayer is effective, just like baptism, when it is an outward expression of an inward change.  Just saying the prayer does not get anyone saved.  There is no magic in the words themselves.

 It is when those words reflect a broken and contrite heart, when those words are the declaration of complete surrender; that is when those words reflect the power of the Holy Spirit to change our citizenship from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.  That is when those words access God's immeasurable love and brings us into right relationship with Him.

That is how much God loves us.