Do you know how very much God loves you? There is a popular idea of God today, that He is happy with us when we perform well and angry with us when we fail. My friends, this idea of God is not based on the Bible, and it has kept people in bondage and fear for a very long time.

 

Today we will be dispelling this dark idea with the light of scripture. As we learn what the Bible actually says about God’s love for us, the fear of a mean judge will be broken, and we will have a free, wonderful and loving relationship with our Father God in Christ Jesus.

 

We will be looking at several verses of scripture that show us plainly the unconditional love that God has for us. I emphasize the word unconditional because it is the world’s general view (as stated previously) that God’s love is conditional… that His love is dependent on our performance or our ability to keep the laws of the Bible. Of course this is not the truth, and this theory has come about because of a lack of understanding of the purpose of the law to begin with.

 

It is very important that we understand this point. The Law was never given to us to make us holy. The law was actually given to show us two things:

 

1) That we are born into a fallen state (called sin) because of Adam and Eve.

 

2) That we can not make ourselves righteous by our own efforts, and we need a savior.

 

The law demonstrates this every single time it enters, because the law is perfect and we are not, therefore we can never succeed at keeping it by our own imperfect strength.

 

Romans 5:20-21 teaches this fact about the law quite clearly:

 

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

That as sin has reigned to death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

 

The law entered that the “offense might abound”, that our sinful state would be made plainly visible, overflowing to such a degree that we would not be able to deny it.

Notice though that the verses do not stop there but go right on to show us where our freedom really comes from. The grace of Jesus Christ reigns over sin through righteousness.

 

Jesus is our redemption, Jesus is our righteousness, and His grace for us is what we need to truly conquer sin.

 

Now this brings us to our next point, that the simplest definition of that word “grace” is “undeserved love”, and this is what God shows to us always because of Jesus Christ. Those who would argue that God’s love is conditional upon our behavior today are lacking a basic understanding of what Jesus has done for us. Let’s take a look at the most well known verses in the entire Bible, John 3:16-17:

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

 

A basic application of simple reasoning here will tell us this: We were in a sinful and fallen state before Jesus came to save us. So if God hated us because of our sin, then there would be no compelling reason to save us through the sacrifice of His beloved Son. It would’ve been easier and far less painful to simply destroy the fallen creation and start over. Yet something said “No, this creation is worth saving.”And my friends, that certain something is the love of God for you and for me.

 

For those of us who trust in Jesus, we are saved indeed, completely cleansed and removed from sin, and we can enjoy the love of God washing on us all the time.

 

Is this just the love of Jesus though? Is God the Father the mean judge while Jesus is constantly pleading for us to be spared from the Father’s wrath? No, my friends. Take a look at John 16:27:

 

“For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”

 

Today we can enjoy the undeserved love of God in every area of our lives because Jesus’ work and sacrifice for us is totally finished and nothing more needs to be done. We simply accept Jesus’ sacrifice in our place, and the stain of sin is removed.

 

The things that you have done are no longer a barrier between you and God. Nothing can hold back His love for you. Come to Him openly as you are and let Him wash you completely clean. Let Him remove your burdens and chains. Let Him give you His freedom and peace and joy that can only come from knowing that your sins are once-and-for-all put away.

 

This is a work that only Jesus could accomplish, and He chose to do it freely. He chose to come down and save us, suffering for us even while we were yet dirty in our sins. He was not forced to do this, He did it of His own free will for no other reason than that He loves us unconditionally.

 

My friends, don’t let anyone tell you that your sin is too great for God to love you. He is the only one who can clean you. No man can do it, no angel can do it. Only Jesus Christ alone can do it, and He has done it for you. The work is finished, simply accept His sacrifice for you and be free! Does this sound too good to be true? Let’s read Romans 8:38-39, and see it for ourselves:

 

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

Quite clearly we can see from these verses that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even death itself, or any powers of heaven or hell, no angels, no demons, no evil or any created thing, including ourselves or our own mistakes!

 

We have undeserved, and unreserved access to the love of God because of Jesus Christ. The love of God for us is the same as God’s love for Jesus Christ Himself. This gives us a glimpse into how very deeply loved we are because He gave Jesus in order to save us.

 

There is one final verse for us to look at today, and it is Romans 5:8:

 

“But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

My friends, this truth simply can not be overstated. Christ Jesus, who came down to save us while we were still doomed in our sin, still dirty and filthy, He came down and suffered the full wrath of our sins in His own body so that we would not have to suffer. He was the sacrifice in our place, He died for us, and as us, so that today we simply point to His sacrifice and we are spared all judgment.

 

We have the love and favor of God shining down on us always because of Jesus, and nothing can ever take that away!

 

Give Jesus the praise! No one can stop His love!