Many people hate to hear those words. To them it seems illogical God would love someone who is undeserving, sinful, selfish, someone with a horrible past. That is for those who actually know what it is to be unfaithful to God–a sinner–a person humbled and aware that we hurt God and dishonored Him.
Others who are equally sinful are totally ignorant of their sin. They thank God they are not as bad as the robber, the molester, the murderer, the terrorist, the drug pusher, the alcoholic, the adulterer. They’re happy to hear God loves them because they feel worthy. But, to hear that God loves the really bad sinner is offensive to them. So they rule their churches with the iron fist of hypocrisy bullying their pastors and ministers into compliance. They’re modern day Pharisees, and one may wonder if they ever will be saved from their ignorance, their arrogance, or their sin.
But nothing we ever did has ever surprised God.
Every sin we ever committed is big. We may feel justified. We may demand others not judge us. We may sue others into poverty demanding that they admit we are right, but the whole universe and God will unite against us on judgment day and we will most surely perish into hell forever if that is the direction we choose to go.
But, if that’s so, how can you say God loves us?
He created us knowing we would betray Him. He knew we would betray an
- infinitely loving,
- righteous,
- wise, and
- powerful God,
- the one and only Almighty God
- who had given us such a precious gift of life,
a God who has given us every blessing we would ever have in life.
He knew that betraying such a loving God would be an infinitely heinous crime in the eyes of the whole universe and that there would be no way to pay for that crime other than to suffer infinite pain in hell for all eternity.
God could have decided never to create us
He could have decided that there is no point in creating a human race that would only betray Him and be worthy of hell forever. Think of the situation that God has to face. If He runs a universe where anyone can violate the greatest good of God and the universe for selfish reasons, then
He created us knowing He would either have to let us pay for our sins by going to hell to suffer infinite pain forever, or else He would have to come down in the form of Jesus Christ and pay for our sins to satisfy the demands of justice.
And that after all that, God knew that some would still rather perish into hell forever than to surrender to God’s love and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But, He created us anyway, and He sacrificed Himself for us anyway knowing that many would perish, but some would be saved.
What about you?
If you are still living in sin, God feels deeply hurt by your continual rejection. Every time someone chooses to put God off until later, it’s a lie. It’s a way of saying to God, “I will hurt you and betray you now, but I’ll surrender and be faithful to you sometime later when I feel like it.”
To be saved from sin and from eternal separation from God into the place where we deserve to go forever, we have to make that decision immediately and give up the sin. To say no now is to get onto a fast moving train to hell just moments before the train plunges off the cliff forever into the lake of fire.
This is the day of salvation. Will you ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins right now and give you the grace to dethrone and turn away from every other lord that has ruled your life and enslaved you into disobedience and betrayal to God? Will you surrender you sin and your weapons of dishonor toward so great and loving a God?
If Jesus Christ had not paid the price for sin on the cross, you and I would have no chance to be saved. And if you perish, you will have to trample on the grace of God and storm through all the roadblocks that God has put before you to do it. But many people do that.
What about you?
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