God is Love

Do you believe that God is love, and that He loves you just exactly as you are? Did you know that His unconditional love for you will save your soul, simply by placing your faith in His finished work on the cross on our behalf? No conditions, just recieve, and believe. He does the rest.

The Bible simply says “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. It does not require us to repent of all our sins, for we can never fully do that. We will no sooner conquer one sin, and we will have another sinful area in our lives revealed to us. There are many false teachers however, that have gone out into the world who are teaching a different gospel.

Here is the lie of these false teachers. They say ” you’re not saved if you’re not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ.” Then they proceed to define ” surrender”. It is living life according to their “list”. This list is made up of rules of do’s and dont’s according to their ideas of holiness and how a Christian should live. Some of the list is Biblical and good but they make the mistake of requiring adherence to this list to be saved. They do not accept the concept of ” faith alone.” You either see truth as they see it, live life as they do, or you are still lost. Once in their opinion you have sufficiently surrendered and are saved, you run the risk of losing this salvation if you fail in your faith walk. There are no guarantees with their gospel. You must do your part, or you salvation is null and void.

Your part is to repent of your sins, all of them, become a spiritual man or woman, become in essence, like them. A Holy person. If you fail to do this, your faith has failed. Your salvation is forfeited.

Sadly, as a result of these false teachings, many fall away, give up, and go back to the world. It reminds me of Peter, after failing the Lord and betraying Him, he went back to being a fisherman. But the Lord didn’t let him go. Nor does he let anyone go, because they fail in their faith walk. This is the truth, but unfortunately these false teachers neglect to tell you that. They reject eternal security. The salvation they preach is ultimately left up to the individual, not God. It’s dependent on the convert’s success at changing their behavior sufficiently to merit so great a salvation. Few can bare this burden, and eventually give up. Salvation becomes nebulous, and a wish rather than a certainty. A vain hope actually and one which ultimately will damn. Why is this so? Because on some level our input, according to them, is required to complete the salvivic transaction. Our works, they say, factor in, so if they’re not there, or there not good enough, or enough enough, we’re lost.

These teachings rob the believer of rest and cause them to doubt. There is no security or real peace. Their gospel is not designed to give you peace, except in your own accomplishments which is a false peace. Often it rather drives you on in fear. There is no real love because how can you love someone who requires good works out of you that you cannot perform perfectly or fail to perform at all for eternal life? There’s no freedom and no real joy. How can there be, its all works! It’s a job! You are earning your keep. There is no unconditional love or acceptance. It’s a contract not a covenant, in which God does His part, and you agree to do your part. If you fail, the contract is nullified.

What these false teachers are offering is a work your way to heaven process veiled in the finished work. What they don’t tell you is that the work isn’t finished until you finish it, with works in keeping with repentance. Its a lie. A lie that gets bigger the longer you are in these groups and churches. A very subtle lie at first. But a lethal lie. A little leven levels the whole lump.

Many believe this lie. It comes in so many forms, and so many denominations. There is a smorgasbord of churches and faiths where this lie is taught. Just pick one, they’re all out there. Just different varieties, but the same lie. All so convincing as they cater to man’s wisdom, and man is so impressed with it. Man loves religion!

Young people today don’t want this, a list of do’s and dont’s. They want love. They reject Jesus Christ because to them He represents rules! Rules they cannot keep, nor want to keep. We as parents have so often gravely misrepresented Christ to them. An introduction to Jesus Christ must start with love. But so often we don’t even have that love ourselves. We don’t know of it, haven’t experienced it. Why? It is due to our own unbelief! We don’t believe God’s word deeply or truly. We are just passing on what we do know, rules and religion. But it is hollow, empty, and cannot save. We ourselves must experience God’s unconditional love, forgiveness and grace. That word unconditional is HUGE. For if we must merit it in our own estimation, we will fail of it. God loved Lot and was faithful and merciful to Lot even when he lived in filthy Sodom. Lot was a just and righteous man per Jesus Christ! This was due to Lot’s faith in Him, period!

We must see God’s faithfulness to us in the same vein. If we believe on Him, we’re His! Plus nothing! He then becomes our Father. He will forever love us. He is committed to us! He is in a covenant with us that He will never break, though we may break it. He may not reward our works in this life at the Bemis seat, but He will give us eternal life and forever love us. This truth must be separated out from all works on our part in order to be truly touched by the gospel. We will never know who Jesus Christ is until we understand this, we will never truly embrace Him. Many would rather embrace a ” list”.

God gives His love unconditionally and we must accept it and spread it unconditionally. For if we wait until we or those around us deserve His love to embrace or share His love, we will never experience it in this life.