God's Amazing Love for YouSample

Unconditional Love

Throughout the Bible, we see many times that those who disobey God have trouble in their life. God will still love them, but disobedience has a cost. 

It’s like when a child disobeys -- he is still a son; he is still in a relationship with his parents, with all the rights and privileges of sonship. But disobedience can jeopardize his fellowship with his parents, and can also cause consequences. He’ll have to be corrected. Through it all, however, his parents still love him and count him as their son. 

It’s the same with God and His children. God doesn’t love you based on what you do (or don’t do) – His love for you is unconditional. 

You don’t do good to be good. Mankind tried that approach under the old covenant, and it didn’t work. Now as a Christian, you’re good because of the price that was paid for you. It was Jesus’s blood, not your perfect behavior, that cleansed you of your sin (Hebrews 9:26). Now you’re the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21), not because of what you’ve done but because of what Jesus has done! 

You couldn’t save yourself. You couldn’t earn or deserve salvation—you simply received it by faith, believing what Jesus did for you. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

When you received Jesus as Lord, you received the forgiveness of sin and moved into right standing with God (Colossians 1:14; Romans 3:21–24). Now you’re to walk a holy, disciplined life worthy of the calling you have been given (Ephesians 4:1). But if you goof up, God never stops loving you. He loves you unconditionally.

Natural human love always has conditions attached to it. It says, “I love you if you love me.” “I love you if you do the right thing.” “I love you if you make me happy.” But once someone stops making you happy, you might stop loving them. 

That’s not the same as agape love, the God-kind of love. His love is not based on what you do. It’s unconditional. God loves you because He is love and here’s the big truth I want you to know and remember: you are the object of that love!

Did this plan help you? It’s an excerpt from Chapter 9 of my book “Why God Why: What to Do When Life Doesn’t Make Sense.” You can read the first part here.