Grace

“The law came to make people have more sin. But when people had more sin, God gave them more of his grace.” (Romans 5:20, ICB)

Would you love God if He didn’t love you? Thankfully, you’ll never have to answer that question because God will always love you. A better question is why does God continue to love us despite our sinfulness? Our God is incredibly merciful. His heart is consumed by His love for us.  Just as He holds up the world with His love, we hold Him up in our hearts with the very same love. The Heavenly Father hates the sin (not the sinner). One question almost every Christian struggles with is "How can God use someone like me? I messed up when I did…"

Throughout life we all deal with the guilt and shame that comes with our sin. We feel like we need to earn His love because that's how it works with relationships of the world. We don't need to do anything to earn it. God already did everything for us by paying our debt, and He did it because He loves us and wants a relationship with us, and absolutely nothing that we do will change that. God understands that we're imperfect people and knew our sins before we even committed them. He just wants us to repent for them, and then continue to do our best in trying to become more like Jesus.  God uses broken people to minister to a broken world. We all need to remember that…

1.   Your sins are far worse than you could ever know.

“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags.  Like autumn leaves we fade, wither, and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6, TLB)

2.   Your Heavenly Father’s grace is far greater than you can imagine.

“But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done.”  (1 John 1:9, VOICE)

“When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun.^” (2 Corinthians 5:17, TLB)[i]

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[i] Inspired by the sermon “Amazing Grace: Saved a Wretch Like Me” (installment two) Sunday October 14, 2018 Pastor Dave Jansen CenterPoint Gahanna Church Gahanna, OH.

Additional sources used:

·        ‘Why Would God Ever Want to Love a Sinner Like Me?” by Ani Ma'amin

·        “How Can God Use A Sinner Like Me?” by Lauren Hutchinson