God’s love for believers

Probably the best-loved verse in the Bible:

John 3:16-17 (NKJV) 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 did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

If God loves “the world” – the unbelievers, the non-Christians – then how much does He love us? Romans 8 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

There are quite a few believers out there that have the idea that when they sin, God stops loving them, or loves them less somehow. They think that when bad things happen to them, it’s God judging them for some failure. This is a very “old testament” (Before Christ) mindset, and comes from a “works” mentality – an attitude that we have to earn our salvation, or work for the grace that comes to us after salvation. There are people that are just not comfortable with the idea that salvation comes by and is maintained by grace through faith:

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV) For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

There is only one sacrifice for sin – the blood of Jesus Christ. Beating ourselves up over our failures is not atonement.

Recently I’d been asked to prophesy via e-mail over a person I don’t know. What I wrote fits well with what I’ve been thinking about writing for this post, so I’ll share a bit of it:

My Son told His disciples that I love them as much as I love Him [John 17:23]. I loved Peter, I loved Judas, I loved Thomas as much as I loved John. I did not love them because of weakness, but in spite of it, because my nature is love. My plans for you are intended to carry you forward in the midst of challenge, and to give you a future and a hope [Jeremiah 29:10-14].

That’s a good word!

Doug