Have you heard that God is a God of wrath?  Have you heard the rumor that God can’t stand to be in your presence because you’re a sinner?  Have you heard you’re worthless?  That the only way God can stand to look at you is when Christ covers you so God doesn’t really see you, but rather Jesus instead?  Is this some kind of ruse?  Is Christ trying to fool God the Creator into letting you into heaven?  Is God so repulsed by us that God can’t stand to look at us and must, instead, see Christ to want anything to do with us? Is God’s love for us conditional?  I’ve heard that rumor, but that’s not the story I hear from God.  If it’s the story you have heard, let me help you to re-write it.

God created YOU.  God declared God’s creation GOOD. (Genesis 1) God loves you just as you are, and God’s love makes you worthy.  While you were still a sinner, God left the glory of heaven and humbled God’s self to save you from sin and to become a mortal man and walk among us.  Why?  Because God loves us.  Because God knew that we were fearful and overwhelmed by God’s almighty and holy presence.  Why?  Because we didn’t get it.  We thought we knew God, but we got it wrong.  We feared God, not in a reverent way, but rather were scared of God’s presence and judgment.  Why?  Because God wants to spend eternity with us.  Why?  To conquer sin and death FOR US and to give us the gift of eternal life…  while we were still sinners…  John 12:47b says, “for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”

Romans 5:8 says: ^“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  Does this sound like a God who can’t stand us?  A God who is repulsed by us?  I don’t think so.  This is the action of a loving and merciful God.  True: God does not like sin and sin is serious.  That’s why Christ came and died on the cross FOR US– to defeat sin, death, and the devil, once and for all.  Not to defeat us, but to SAVE us.  To save us from God?  No!  To save us from sin, death, and the devil, and to give us an eternity to live with God.  If you are baptized into the family of God, you are a new creation. Jesus is not trying to fool God the Father into anything.  Rather, Jesus is God; Jesus and the Father are one.  John 12:44-45 says, “Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”

Read Ephesians 2:1-10, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally!

Annie

Rumor has it there’s a gavel in my hand
I’m only here to condemn
But let me tell you secrets you would’ve never known
I think of you as my best friend

So much has been said
Even done in my name
But I’m showing you now
Who I really am *

View and listen to the entire song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea-TRh5RYCY

*Lyric from “More Than You Think I Am” by Danny Gokey. Copyright © 2014.