A demonstration of true love

Can I sit with you?

When I was in school there was this one kid who’d only let me sit with him if I promised not to mess around.

I wasn’t particularly naughty but sometimes I might make the odd silly noise or gesture. So in order to sit with this person I had to promise to be, well, just a bit more normal I guess.

You might know people who only really accept you if you fit in to their standards.

You may even be a bit like that yourself!

But thankfully for us, God is totally the opposite. He loves us as we are, not as we should be. Which is a good thing, because none of us are as we should be. We saw that in my first post in this series. All of us have sinned.

But God demonstrates his own love for us this way – while we were still sinners, Christ died for us:

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus Christ died for us. He went through the bloody torture of an unjust crucifixion to take the punishment for our sins – a punishment that would have taken us a literal eternity to pay off. And this verse tells us why he did it. It’s because he loved us. He loved us first, before we were even aware of him. He loves you enough to die for you.

God loves you.

Receive that information into your heart. God loves you as you are, not as you should be.

You don’t have to clean up your act first to make yourself acceptable to him. In fact however much you try, you’ll never make yourself good enough for God on your own. You need Jesus. And you need him to take you in as you are. And thank God he loves you enough, as you are, to have died for you. Once you have accepted that, he can help you clean things up that you know are wrong about your life. But you must understand that it is he who makes the first move. He loved us first, he died for us while we were still sinners. He loves us however messed up we are. And he loves us enough to provide a solution.

Receive his love today.

Accept his death for you as the most loving act in all humanity. Give him your heart. Ask him to make you new, because Jesus didn’t just die. He rose again and ascended back to heaven and is waiting for your response. If you choose to follow him, he will welcome you into his presence when you die and you will be with him forever.

Why not pray this prayer right now:

Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for me, just as I am. Please come into my life and make me new. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, do get in touch with us and we’ll be delighted to help you on this new-life journey.

Next time, on the Romans Road to salvation, we will be looking at our hearts and our mouths. Be sure to join me for the last two steps!