Riff's Christian Journal

I can hear you now. Of course God loves me. Isn’t that what the Bible says? Seriously, does it really?

This will be one of the shorter essays I have done because the verse that I will quote says it all. It’s found in the Gospel of John and it is in chapter 16. In verses 26 and 27 we read:

In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

So, let me ask you one question. Do you love Jesus and believe that He came forth from God the Father?

Before you answer here’s what Jesus said in John 14: 21 about those who say they love Jesus:

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.

Do you follow Jesus and obey Him? Not looking good is it? Well, here’s one more thing that Jesus said about following him. In Luke 14: 33 we read:

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

In short, unless you are a born again follower of Jesus, God does not love you. In fact, well, here’s what we read in John 3: 36:

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Do you really want to face the wrath of God? I can understand that you do not want to come to Jesus. You see, it is because of your sinfulness that you don’t want to come to Him. In John 3: 18 – 20 we read:

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

Basically you are ashamed of the person you are. You do not want to give up your sin and you would rather stay in your sinfulness than come to Jesus and be cleansed and forgiven. The problem is, if you do not come to Jesus and submit to Him as Lord and believe that God has raised Him from the dead you will stay condemned to face the wrath of God.

And you will “never” know the Love of God.

God knows that you are a sinful person and in this sinfulness you can do nothing to be worthy of receiving forgiveness of your sins. That is why God, as Jesus, came to earth to do for us what man cannot do for himself.

Jesus has satisfied all of the demands of God the Father for receiving salvation and it is the work of God that you believe on Jesus and to come to Him for forgiveness. When you do, when you confess your sinfulness and submit to Jesus as Lord, you will then know the full love of God. The love that He has for those who love Jesus. There is no other way.

for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me,

You can stay in you sinfulness and never know the love of God or you can come to Jesus, be forgiven and cleansed of your sin, and experience the greatest love that man will ever know. Now, in this life, and for eternity.

Why would you not do so now? If you want to be loved by God, if you want to know what true love really is, then you must love Jesus. Come to Him now, submit to His Lordship over you and be saved.

Then you can answer the question, “So You Think That God Loves You?”, with a resounding… YES!