The Love of God!

“God loves you, and is willing to accept you wherever you are at!” This is the Christian mantra of our day. “What does that mean”, I often ask myself as a Christian minister? The Bible says that God is love, but the Bible also says that God is holy, pure, just, and righteous. God’s love and righteousness, at first sight, don’t appear compatible with each other. One is striving to uphold the holiness and justice of God’s character, while the other is defacing the character of God by forgiving and shirking the crime of sin. But when one follows the trail of these two Divine characteristics they gloriously and compatibly unite at the cross of Jesus Christ. It is through the passion of the Christ that we see the love of God for mankind in offering up His Son as a sacrifice for the nations. The prophet Isaiah said, “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him”- the “Him” being His Son! “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16), the apostle John penned, referring to a qualitative, not a quantitative action. It is the quality of God’s love that is impressive! He set forth His own Son! And it pleased Him to do so for the people of His love. Yet at the same time the suffering of Christ on the cross removes all suspicions about God’s righteous character too. He delivers a verdict upon sin and sentences His Son to bear the iniquities of many. Yes, His love is demonstrated and His righteousness upheld in the sufferings of His own Son. God will not accept you wherever you are at today, and He does not love you for who you are. But He will accept anyone at the cross of Christ—anyone who is willing to trust in the righteous loving sufferings of Jesus for their sin. And He will love you as He sees the reflection of His Son in you—clothed in the holy merits of Christ!