The Grace of God and Learning to Walk

There are a couple of myths that are common when it comes to our relationship with God. Here’s one:  “I have to straighten out my life before I can ask God to forgive me.” I’ve heard this response several times when talking to people about salvation. They recognize both their sin and God’s holiness, but they can’t see how they could have a relationship with God when they still struggle with sin. 

We’ve addressed the truth that opposes this myth in the previous three posts. Grace means that God meets us where we are, when we are still sinners, still his enemies. Grace is, as John Stott defines it, “love for the undeserved.” We don’t have to straighten ourselves out. We can’t straighten ourselves out. That’s why Paul wrote:

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)

God doesn’t save us because we do acts of righteousness. We can’t earn our way to God. All we can do is receive his gift of forgiveness, a gift he offers because of his love and mercy. That’s why we don’t have to spend our lives trying to make up for breaking God’s rules. We can’t make up for them. We simply trust in God’s gift of mercy.

Another myth is just as popular today and just as wrong. It goes like this: “The better I am as a person, the more God loves me.” The logic behind this is that if I commit a lot of sins, if I mess up often, then God loves me less. But if I straighten myself, do a lot of good things, and avoid bad things, then God loves me more. 

If this is how you view God, you’ll tend to be either very arrogant or very afraid. If you feel good about how you live, then you know God loves you. You feel pity toward those who can’t live up to your standards since God obviously doesn’t love them very much.

On the other hand, if you’re very aware of your sins, then you feel that God doesn’t love you as much. You’re filled with guilt and afraid that God will withdraw his forgiveness at any moment. At what point will God stop loving you?

That’s why this myth is so insidious. It’s a lie, and it’s harmful. The truth is that how you live doesn’t determine how much God loves you. God loves you, you, just the way you are, and he will never stop loving you. His love for you is perfect, complete, and unchanging no matter how you live your life. It’s true that God wants to transform your life, he calls you to holiness, but if you don’t allow him to grow you, he will still love you. 

If you’ve experienced God’s forgiveness, then accept the truth that the forgiveness he gave you is permanent. 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

There is no condemnation. None. There is no condemnation for the sins you committed before you came to Christ. There is no condemnation for the sins you’ve yet to commit.

No matter what you’ve done and what you will do, if you’re a believer, you are not condemned, and never will be. People may condemn you, and you may condemn yourself, but the only person that matters, your Heavenly Father, does not condemn you. You are not guilty! You are forgiven for all eternity.

Since your forgiveness is for eternity, you don’t have to go through life afraid that God may turn you loose at any moment, that at some point he’ll wash his hands of you and kick you out of heaven. You don’t have to pray every night and try to think of every single sin you committed that day, afraid that if you don’t mention each one or forget one or don’t even know about one, God will be angry with you, that he’ll love you less. That is not God.

I have three children, and it was so much fun when they began to walk. You know how it goes, they start by pulling themselves up, and then they begin to take some steps, maybe just one step. They look like they’ve had a little too much to drink. And they fall. Oh, they fall a lot. 

If you’re a parent, you’re remembering this right now. When your child was learning to walk, you didn’t stare down at him or her and say, “You just can’t do it, can you? I knew you’d fail.” Of course not! I love my children more than life itself, and when they’d fall, Kim and I would be right there to pick them up. We’d applaud what they’d done and encourage them to keep trying. 

That’s how God feels about you. His love for you never wavers just because you fall. He’s your perfect Father, and he’s right there to pick you up, to applaud your attempt, and to encourage you to keep growing.

How you live doesn’t determine how much God loves you. If you’ve believed the lie that the better you are the more God loves you, then please know this:

There’s nothing you can do to make God love you more. 

There’s nothing you can do to make God love you less. 

Let that sink in. If you struggle with accepting that you are loved deeply by your Heavenly Father, then I leave you with my prayer for you:

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. (Ephesians 3:18)

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