Food for Thought –

Concerning God's Love

     For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) This verse from John’s Gospel account is often called “the heart of the Bible.” It reflects what God has done for man and why He has done it. God has provided salvation through the death of His beloved Son because God loves us all.

     For some people, love has strings attached. It might go something like this: “If he’d just grow up, I could really show him how much I love him.” Or, “If she’d quit bad-mouthing people…” Or, “If you’d clean up your room…” How we treat people is so often dependent upon how they first treat us. That’s not how it is with God. The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome about the kind of love God has for us. Listen to His words: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) God didn’t wait until we improved ourselves. Christ died for us while we are still sinners. That verse takes on special significance when we read verse 7 with it. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. We didn’t have to be righteous (doing everything right according to God’s standard), nor did we have to be good (show ourselves kind, caring, truthful, and such) before God would act. It was while we were still unrighteous, still bad, still sinners that Jesus died for us.

     God did all this to enable us to be on friendly terms with Him again. The sins we committed broke the friendly terms we had with God. The Bible declares the wages, or just due, from our sins to be death. (Romans 6:23) They have made a barrier or a separation between God and us. (Isaiah 59:1,2) They prevented us from being close to God. But God loved us anyway – in spite of our sinfulness.

     God has not attached any strings to His love for us. Rather, He has chosen to make salvation available for all of us through Jesus Christ. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

     God loves you, too. Jesus died for you so that you can be on friendly terms with God. Do you believe that Jesus is God’s Son, and that He died for your sins? Then acknowledge your belief in Jesus, seek to be born again of the water and the blood as Jesus said so that you can enter the kingdom of heaven. (John 3:5) Then follow the examples you can read about in the Book of Acts to become a part of the people of God. As the apostle Paul was told long ago, we urge you today, Arise, and be baptized to wash away your sins, calling on His name. (Acts 22:16) 

     Click here to read more about faith, or here for a more in depth look at baptism.