Do you ever feel as though God’s love for you fluctuates based on your conduct?
Christians need to live with the assurance that God loves us. Our soul needs this in order to have peace, joy, and security.
One obstacle we face when trying to live with the assurance of God’s love is our daily failures. When we fall short of God’s perfect will, when we are carnal and worldly, when we fail to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, when we are selfish, we feel less worthy of love. We feel God must therefore love us less.
God’s love and our sin
The battering ram that breaks that obstacle into teeny pieces is this truth: God loved you first, before you ever loved him or wanted him, while you were still a wayward, rebellious sinner at your worst. God does not restrict his massive love to holy people; he also loves sinners—even Christian sinners. He is always calling Christian sinners to repentance and holiness, but he loves them even before they get things right.
This love should not make us complacent in our sin, for that would be to trample underfoot the Son of God and insult the Spirit of grace (see Hebrews 10:29). But the knowledge of God’s love should draw us back to him, giving the assurance that he wants us.
Romans 5:6–10 teaches this:
“6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
The point of these verses is that God loved us before we were worthy of love, before we were justified (v. 9), before we were reconciled to him (v. 10), while we were his enemies (v. 10). This proves that his love does not depend on our perfection.
God’s love and wrath
Verse 9 draws an inescapable conclusion. If we are a Christian, if we have been justified by his bloody death, then we are saved, saved from our sins, and thus saved from the status of being God’s enemies, and thus—this is all-important—we are also saved by Jesus from the wrath of God. A Christian does not live under the wrath of God, as God’s enemies do. Jesus has removed God’s wrath from us, at the cross, with his blood.
If you are a Christian, God’s wrath against you is history, in the sense that, now if you commit a more serious sin, incurring his displeasure and even righteous anger, he does not come to you bringing condemnation (Romans 8:1), but rather fatherly discipline (Hebrews 12:5–13; Revelation 3:19). He is still your judge (1 Peter 1:17), but he now judges you as a member of his household (1 Peter 4:17). He now judges you not vengefully as your enemy but redemptively as your Savior (1 Corinthians 5:1–5, especially v. 5).
Now, for the true Christian, we experience God’s faithful, covenant love. Jesus is alive, beloved of God the Father, and we are in Christ, and thus we are also beloved of God the Father. His is not a soft love, or a love that indulges our sins. As we will see in future posts, it is a strong, fatherly love that rebukes and disciplines as necessary, that judges as necessary, that never compromises the truth. But it is still the love of your Father who accepts you in Christ as you repent daily of rebellion.
So, Christian, did you have a bad day yesterday in which you failed God? Or a bad week or month? The one thing you should not do is assume God no longer loves you with infinite, faithful, covenant love and as a result doubt your relationship with him, grow discouraged, and stray even further. Talk to your Father and make things right. Ask for his help in overcoming sin, for he never expects you to overcome sin on your own. Ask mature Christians and pastors to help you.
God’s love and comfortable sinners
Have you had a bad year or two, following the ways of our sinful world consistently? You should not doubt that God loves you, but you should question whether you are a true Christian. A true follower of Jesus cannot go on sinning and sinning in a major way without deep distress and a tormented conscience. See 1 John, especially chapter 3. God loves you and calls you to repent, or condemnation likely awaits you. Presently you are deceiving yourself. If you are living comfortably in sin, you almost certainly are not a child of God, not justified by the blood, not reconciled to God, but rather still God’s enemy—whom he loves and for whom he gave his Son. (Again, read 1 John carefully.)
God loves his enemies before they love him back. If you are comfortable in sin (such as those listed in Romans 1:18–32; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21; 2 Timothy 3:1–5), God loves even you, but give him the sincere repentance he requires and save yourself while there is yet time.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: We feel God’s love fluctuates based on our conduct.
God’s way: God’s love for his true children is unwavering.