Pastor John D Jakes

Our final question that checks the reality of our faith is a different type of question.  The first questions all dealt with our attitudes and values: Is Heaven your home? Do you want godliness or painlessness from God? Are you willing to look childish to become childlike?  The last question is something about God.  The question is simple, but is also essential to develop God trusting faith: Does God love you or not? 

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” – Romans 8:31

Why is this question so important?  Isn’t it an, “of course He does!” type of question?  Not really.  What we truly believe about that question changes what we do.  It changed the apostle Paul.  The fact of God’s love in Jesus gave Paul confidence.  It gave him the confidence to stand before kings and religious leaders.  It gave him the confidence to stand before a Christian community that at first questioned his motives. The reality of the love of God for him gave a murdering sinner like him supreme and unshakable confidence as he stood before God!  Imagine that… You can see yourself in all your sin and know that God’s love invites you into His presence today.  You can call yourself the chief of sinners and still know that you are forgiven and loved without reservations.

Do you and I have that confidence?  Do we face each day knowing that God’s love for us does not fade or spoil or stop?  Do we know it because of what Jesus has done for us?  Read Paul’s thoughts about God’s love again in Romans 8.  He declares that God is for us.  He then asks who can be against us.

There could be many reasons that we struggle believing in the depth of God’s love.  Bad treatment by humans we are supposed to trust, our own sense of self doubt or self condemnation, or past moral or ethical failures can all contribute to a shaky view of His love. Yet throughout his letters, the apostle Paul keeps coming back to an unshakeable fact: God sent His Son to die for us.  He would not send His Son to die for us unless He has an unchangeable love. He says in verse 32 of Romans 8 that, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” The One who knows you best loves you most! God is certain: He loves you.  Are you as certain?

Something to think about,

Pastor John