Does God love only good people? Do we have to be a certain kind of person for God to love us? Do I have to first get straightened up, attain some evasive high standard of character before He could love me? The answer is an emphatic “No!”
How can I make such a confident assertion? Because God’s own Word, the Bible (which some call “God’s loveletter to us”) states that: “God showed, and clearly proves His love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners Christ, the Messiah, the anointed One, died for us.” (Romans 5:8) God loves sinners. Being a sinner, I may feel unworthy of His love; but, His promised love and care is not based on my feelings. It is also written that: “God, who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, for His great love with which He loved us, has quickened us together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:5) In other words, because of His love for us (even when we were slain by our own trespasses), He made us alive in fellowship and union with Christ – He gave us the very life of Christ Jesus Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him from the dead. I dare not presume to doubt so great a promise - and demonstration - of love for needy sinners.
It is fear that makes me doubt that He could love me. I fear what He as a righteous Judge may do to me. I sense acutely what, as a sinner and rebel against Him, I deserve. Again, let us look to His “loveletter”. The apostle John wrote that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.’ (I John 4:18) We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly. God’s perfect love for us can eliminate all fear, all our dread of punishment from Him. If we still fear Him in this sense, it is because we do not yet accurately comprehend His love - nor know Him, not yet perceiving His true character.
Jesus revealed to us one of the most illuminating of all the names mentioned for God in the Bible - “Father”. God is much more than all that we think of as best in earthly fathers. He is the one, after all, who made fathers – and mothers! God is good - simply good, wholly good - so He must therefore be a good Father. He is a Father who is willing and able to supply all His children’s needs, who is tender in His love and full of compassion toward them, who will be on their side against the whole universe if necessary. Unrest of spirit and discomforting fear become impossible to souls who come to truly know God as their Father.
When Jesus ate with tax collectors and notorious sinners, He was severely criticized, by some of the people who considered themselves good, for befriending “such people”. Jesus said to His accusers, “Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick.” (Mark 2:17) Would we expect a doctor to refuse to treat the sick? It would be just as absurd for Jesus to refuse to deal with acknowledged sinners – with those erring ones, those not able to be free from the bondages of their sin and the destruction it wreaks in their lives. He continued, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Jesus likened Himself to a physician who goes where there is genuine need.
It is fear that makes me doubt that He could love me. I fear what He as a righteous Judge may do to me. I sense acutely what, as a sinner and rebel against Him, I deserve. Again, let us look to His “loveletter”. The apostle John wrote that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.’ (I John 4:18) We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly. God’s perfect love for us can eliminate all fear, all our dread of punishment from Him. If we still fear Him in this sense, it is because we do not yet accurately comprehend His love - nor know Him, not yet perceiving His true character.
Jesus revealed to us one of the most illuminating of all the names mentioned for God in the Bible - “Father”. God is much more than all that we think of as best in earthly fathers. He is the one, after all, who made fathers – and mothers! God is good - simply good, wholly good - so He must therefore be a good Father. He is a Father who is willing and able to supply all His children’s needs, who is tender in His love and full of compassion toward them, who will be on their side against the whole universe if necessary. Unrest of spirit and discomforting fear become impossible to souls who come to truly know God as their Father.
When Jesus ate with tax collectors and notorious sinners, He was severely criticized, by some of the people who considered themselves good, for befriending “such people”. Jesus said to His accusers, “Those who are strong and well have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick.” (Mark 2:17) Would we expect a doctor to refuse to treat the sick? It would be just as absurd for Jesus to refuse to deal with acknowledged sinners – with those erring ones, those not able to be free from the bondages of their sin and the destruction it wreaks in their lives. He continued, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Jesus likened Himself to a physician who goes where there is genuine need.
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