What I find amazing about the gospel are the three words:" God Loves Me" We hear that phrase all the time. And people throw it around so flippantly you begin to think “uh… yeah ok… whatever” You can also think, Uh duh! God loves everyone and not think of it as that big of a deal. I don’t know about you, but the more I think about that statement, as cliché as it may seem, the more it starts to resonate in my soul.
First of all, why SHOULD God love you or me? If you try and think really hard, there is no reason why He should. Does He love me because I’m so awesome? Nope! Does he love me because I'm so good-looking? Nope! Does he love me because I'm so athletic? Nope! Does he love me because I'm so smart? Nope! Does He love me because I'm so artistic? Nope! Oh! I know! He must love me because I'm kind-hearted and obedient! Nope! Try again! I'm not even any of these things, but try and think REALLY hard why He should love you? You can't come up with an answer. God is not impressed with anything we do. Whatever accomplishments we find impressive, He doesn't. He doesn't look at Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points in a game and say "WHOA! You are sOoOo athletic! I now love you!" Or He doesn't look at how "good" you are and think "WOW! I love you!"
In fact, when I begin to think deeper I come to see that I am despicable. Despicable ME! If I TRULY looked and gazed into my own heart, it would shed light how unloveable I really am. Inside lies all my pride, all my insecurities, all my hate, all my lusts, all the wicked things I’ve committed in the past, and all the things I did and will continue to commit to directly offend God. You may also think... God can never love me!! I've done so many horrible things! I've raped, I've stole, I've killed, I've this, I've that!
The wonderful thing about God is that He doesn't see me when he looks at me, but sees Christ. His righteousness and beauty becomes my righteousness and beauty. Through faith, Christ takes my sins, I gain His righteousness. Unfair huh? Why should someone who did nothing wrong die for it? And why should someone who did EVERYTHING wrong gain? I don't get it either, and I'll spend my lifetime trying to understand it, but it leaves me at sense of extreme gratitude and a magnificent sense of self worth and humility! Tim Keller really put it well in that the gospel is the only thing that gives you a great sense of humility AND confidence! Nothing else can do that. I am humbled knowing that I did nothing to earn my righteousness and I am completely undeserving of it, but I am confident in knowing that all of my failures and sins (as great as they are) have been paid for! I no longer bear the guilt of my sins and I don't have to beat myself up because there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
It really doesn't get any better than the gospel! All glory and honor and praise be to our God!
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