“God’s Love Cannot Be Earned!”

Daily Devotional – Monday, November 1, 2021

"8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NLT)

Why is it so hard for the human race to accept that God loves each one and nothing we do can cause Him to love us more or less? I think it is because, in our humanity, we cannot fully grasp the concept of God’s incredible grace. At times we might be tempted to think that God’s grace is even unwarranted…that some people have earned His wrath rather than His grace. We judge God as not acting fairly by holding off deserved retribution when we deem it warranted for another.
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If this is our response, we need to ask ourselves this question, “If God is in the wrong by showing grace to those we think are beyond God’s grace when they repent, what right do we have to expect to be the recipients of God’s grace when we similarly repent of our disobedience?” “Yes, but look at how bad he was!” might be the retort. Or, “God has to love me more than them because I try to be good and they don’t try at all!” But the truth of the matter is that, if we think we’re any better from God’s perspective, we really don’t have a complete understanding of how repugnant all sin is to God or of His incredible love that He is so willing to lavish on every single one of us. He has no favourites…ever!

God created humanity as His loved children and no amount of sin will ever cause Him to love us less. However, as much as He loves us, He will not force a relationship or obedience to Him on us…we are free to make bad choices and suffer the natural consequence of eternal separation from Him. However, don’t ever think that God wants people to suffer in hell…neither those we deem as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ He Himself, in the form of Jesus, made a way for us to receive His grace. All we need do is repent, grow in a restored relationship with the Father and allow the Holy Spirit to transform us from being naturally disobedient to gratefully obedient…and we have much to be grateful for! It cannot be earned, just as a greater degree of His love cannot be either…or lost for that matter.
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Pastor Jane