You Don’t Have To Prove Your Love For God

In some religions, to prove their love for God and to earn God's blessings, people die for God. In Christianity, it is the very opposite. God, in Jesus, has proven his love for us and has blessed us freely and fully with every spiritual blessing through his death for us and his resurrection...this is called grace.

Check out the following verses from the Bible.

For God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (The Bible - John 3:16)

But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (The Bible - Romans 5:8)

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures... (The Bible - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

...to the praise of his glorious GRACE, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s GRACE that he lavished on us. (The Bible - Ephesians 1:6-8)

In some religions, to cleanse themselves of their sins, people perform endless rituals, hoping their rituals are performed perfectly, but fearing they aren't. In Christianity, the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sins and has forgiven us of all sins, making us perfect forever in God's sight.

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (The Bible - Hebrews 9:14)

...the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (The Bible - 1 John 1:7)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (The Bible - 1 John 2:1-2)

...God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins... (The Bible - Colossians 2:13

For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. (The Bible - Hebrews 10:14)

In some religions, their gods are impersonal, distant, and angry. In Christianity, God is a loving Father who wants to call you his loved child.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (The Bible - 1 John 3:1-2)

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved... (The Bible - Colossians 3:12)

In some religions, people must earn salvation through works. In Christianity, God fully and freely gives salvation to us as a gift of grace that is received through faith in Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (The Bible - Ephesians 2:8-9).

If your religion forces you to prove your love for God and to earn his blessings by dying for him...

If your religion dictates certain rules and rituals for you to follow to cleanse yourself from sin...

If your religion makes you feel distant from God and afraid of him...

If your religion makes you earn salvation through good works...

If your religion has left you empty...

...then what you are truly hungering and thirsting for is the grace of God freely given and found only in Jesus.

Jesus says in the Bible (Matthew 5:3-6),

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Who are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness?

They are those who humbly admit they have no righteousness before God and that there is nothing they can do to make themselves righteous before him.

They realize righteousness is required to enter God's eternal Kingdom, but they humbly admit they do not have the righteousness required to enter his Kingdom.

The Bible says it is this group of people who will be filled with righteousness so they can enter God's eternal Kingdom.

So how can you be filled with righteousness?

In the Bible, Romans 3:20-26 says,

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Romans 5:17 says righteousness is a gift from God to you!

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

How do you receive God's gift of righteousness? By trusting God...by faith...by believing in Jesus who died and was raised to life for you! Romans 4:4-5 says,

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

Romans 4:24 says,

...God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Today is your day to stop trying to earn God's righteousness.

Today is your day to stop trying to earn your way into God's Kingdom.

Today is your day to stop trying to earn your salvation.

Today is your day to stop striving for God's love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Today is your day to rest in God's love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

Today is your day to receive God's grace by placing your faith in Jesus.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2:

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favor [grace] I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor [grace], now is the day of salvation."

Jesus...Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:11-12)

Would you place your faith in Jesus today? He loves you. He died for you. He rose from the grave for you. He is coming back to earth to establish his eternal Kingdom and he wants you to live in his Kingdom.