“Do I do enough for God to love me?” - Whether you want to admit it or not you have asked yourself that question or a variation of it. Or, you have said “God, have I done enough for you to accept me today? or have I done enough to be saved? or did I pray that prayer of salvation right? or was I sincere enough? I could go on but I have a feeling that you know what I am talking about because I just mentioned what we struggle with: “The Performance Based Love of God”.
You know, the pastor that preaches “God will save you but you have to maintain your salvation through perfect obedience to God’s law.” That message (or any “works” based message for that matter) always leads to the air quote questions that I mentioned above. A message of “Jesus and your works” will always lead to death.
A few days ago I told my wife “I feel like I didn’t do enough today for God to love me.” I’ve been in ministry for over 20 years, I’ve read my Bible a zillion times, I graduated from Liberty University (If I could insert a laughter emoji here I would, I graduated before all the recent chaos.) I preach on Sundays and lead Bible studies midweek, I pray for my family and my church and I pray for my enemies (You mean a pastor has enemies?? Yep, it’s how we roll in the SBC.). I DO A LOT. Do you know who I do not look to who has done it all and declared before His death on the cross “It is finished”? Jesus. I concentrate on my performance, my obedience, my, my, my, my… I need to perform for God and jump through the Christian hoops in order for God to love me or to continue to love me or to stay saved. And if you are honest you’ve been there or you’re there now.
You and I will never do enough to earn God’s love or favor. Read that again because I have a sneaking suspicion they’re might be some self-righteous trolls lurking in the woods, peaking around the trees and declaring that I am an “antinomian”. Whatever, you keep on keeping on while ignoring 1st John 1:5-10 at your own peril.
I have been meditating on Zephaniah 3:17 the past few days: “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
That brings me comfort that my “performance” before God does not matter in order for Him to love me. He is with me, He is mighty to save me, He takes delight in me, He quiets me with His love, He rejoices over me with singing.
Who does all the work? Who said “It is finished?” - Not me and not you. Quit relying on your performance and start trusting in the finished work of Christ for your salvation and your hope.