Would He Do It For You?

I’ve wondered sometimes if part of people’s hesitation in moving toward a relationship with Jesus is this question tumbling around in their heads:

“If God did exist, would He love me? Could He love me?”

Of course there are some, atheists to a person, who feel insulted by the mere suggestion that God might not be completely enthralled with them. Most people however do have some questions about the quality of their character.

I’ve been doing a series called “Because . . .”. For almost four weeks, every single day I’ve been describing ways in which Jesus, because of His love for me, has brought about significant character changes in me. I wonder if some people read about these changes and think to themselves,

“If God existed, I bet He wouldn’t love me enough to do that for me.”

The thing is, your Creator can’t NOT love you, and that’s because Creator God IS love.
He doesn’t pick and choose this one and not that one to love.
. He loves you as much as He loved the Christian killer Paul.
. He loves you as much as He loved the adulterer and murderer King David
. He loves you as much as He loved the murderer Moses
. He loves you as much as He loved the chronic liar Abraham
. He loves you as much as He loved the woman caught in adultery
. He loves you as much as He loved the prostitute who anointed Him with costly perfume
. He loves you as much as He loved the criminal on the cross to whom Jesus said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”
. He loves you as much as He loved the criminal on the cross who rejected Jesus and remained hostile to Him to the bitter end.
. God loves you as much as He loves His own Son Jesus who loves you so much He gave His earthly life for you so that you could live forever in His presence.

There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who would say to you, “If God could love me enough to save my soul, He will certainly love you.” Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set free those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). Jesus said, “I did not come for those who think they are healthy. I came for those who know they need help.” If you ever felt as though you don’t really fit, as though you’re unlovable and unacceptable, Jesus has come especially for you. In fact, God loves you so much that He gave of Himself for you. (John 3:16) - That’s what love does - it gives of itself.

You don’t have to earn His love.
You don’t have to work for His love.
You don’t have to worry about losing His love.
God loved you as much as anyone can be loved even before He created you (Psalm 139)

“Oh but my sin,” people think. “God is furious at me because of all my sin. He could never accept me after all the stuff that I’ve done.”

That’s just the thing! It is SIN that draws the wrath of God - not you.
“God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to condemn people. He came to help put people right again.” John 3:17


That’s why we need to separate ourselves from our sin nature.
We need to get some serious distance between ourselves and our sin nature.
We need to let Jesus get between us and our sin nature.

We can’t do anything about the fact that we are “born in sin.” On the other hand, if we do nothing to change our “default setting,” it is this “sin nature” with which we are born - to which we are connected - that will ensure our eternal separation from God.
“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already . . ..” John 3:18


At this point some people say, “But how could a loving God . . .?”

Yes God is love but He is equally Just. Real love and real Justice never exist in isolation from each other.

Sin MUST be punished and sin WILL be punished.

Just as there are physical laws in the physical universe, there are spiritual laws in the spiritual realm. The law that applies to this situation is, “Sin cannot come into the presence of Creator God.”

Remember? We are born attached to a sinful nature. Unless something is done to separate us from our sin nature, we are doomed. That’s a huge problem because there is nothing that we can do to remedy the situation.

And it doesn’t do any good, like my three-year-old, to say, “But I don’t liiiiike it this way!!!” Pretending or wishing life was different than it is, is a waste of time. Adapting to reality is much more profitable.

So what’s to be done?

Praying won’t work
Washing won’t work
Getting Baptised won’t work
Going to Church won’t work
Reading the Bible won’t work
Going on missions trips won’t work
Doing good things for others won’t work
Nothing that we DO can repair our damaged and broken relationship with our Creator.

The good news is, Jesus has already prepared a way to fix the damage that we caused.
“But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still His enemies,” Romans 5:8


You don’t have to understand this principle or spiritual law in order to accept it. Satan wants you to get all obsessed over stuff like:
“But how could a God die?” Or,
“How could sin exist,” Or,
“I don’t get the concept of eternity.” Or -
“But some Christians do really bad stuff,” Or - Or - Or - Or -

You know the stuff you’re obsessing over.

Forget about it.

Your most immediate problem is that you are on your way to hell.

Jesus has offered to save you from hell.

What are you going to do about that?


God WILL explain the other stuff to you, but not until AFTER you have come to God on His terms. And once you have come to God on His terms, once you have reached out and taken hold of this offer of salvation, it’s yours for the keeping.

“Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39.

Those of us in a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus have found this verse from Jeremiah to be true.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jeremiah 31:3 (see also John 6:44)

In the parable of the Prodigal son we see God’s amazing attitude toward us. In this parable we see a Father who, when His wayward son finally decides to come home, goes out to receive His child with open arms.

Nothing that the son has done matters.
Nothing!

All is forgiven.
Everything!

Creator God - your Creator and mine is shamelessly in love with you and He longs to have a forgiven relationship with you.

“I take no delight in the death of the wicked. So turn from your sin and live.”


If you’ve ever asked the question, ““If God did exist, would He love me?” the answer is an emphatic and resounding yes. God can’t not love you.

There is nothing that you can DO to make God love you more.
There is nothing that you can DO to make God love you less.

That’s why God hates sin with such Holy passion. God hates sins with such a violent wrath because sin destroys and threatens to separate from Him that which God loves most - you.

We can reject His love - and suffer the consequence of our action.
But any separation from God will always and only be based on our decision.

As I’ve said before, if you wind up in hell, you’ll have had to step over the dead body of Jesus to get there.

Until your dying breath, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart and knocking, waiting for you to let Him in.