“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:21-23, ESV)
No matter what you have spoken, thought, or done that you may be ashamed of, Jesus loves you, regardless. You would not be reading this article if God was not pursuing you out of His love for you.
Many people feel unworthy of God’s love. That’s okay, as no one is worthy of God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love. That’s why it’s called amazing grace. Grace is the unmerited love that God has for the people He created.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV)
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 3:23-24, ESV)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, ESV)
What does it mean to be saved and justified? To be saved means to be saved from God’s wrath, forgiven of our sins, and reconciled with God. To be justified means to be made righteous in God’s eyes. For our sake God made Jesus to be sin, although He was sinless, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21)
What must a person do to be saved from God’s wrath? Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31, ESV). Turn from sin, place your faith in Jesus to save you, receive Him as your Savior and Lord, and you become a forgiven child of God. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12, ESV)
“But you don’t know what I have done”, you say. It doesn’t matter what you have done. God’s grace and mercy are greater than any sin you have ever committed.
To catch a glimpse of the patience, kindness, mercy, grace and compassion of God, consider His response to a few well-known sinners.
David
Because of David’s faith in God, God empowered him to slay Goliath with a slingshot. God anointed David as King of Israel. God made a covenant with David. He promised to establish David’s throne forever, the basis for the hope of a Messiah, Jesus Christ, the rightful King of the Jews. David was abundantly blessed by God. Then one evening, David forgets God and commits adultery with Bathsheba. If that’s not bad enough, he later contrives a plan to have her husband, Uriah murdered.
Here’s what God said about David in Acts 13:22, NIV: I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. God knew David would also do some things he did not want him to do, but God knew David’s heart. Yes, David was a sinner, but he loved God and had great faith and trust in God.
Although David later repented, he still experienced serious consequences for adultery and murder. Yet David’s sins did not alter the Lord’s steadfast love for him. From David’s offspring God would bring to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as He had promised. God does not save or bless people based on our performance or perfection, but on our faith in God.
Paul
Saul, later named Paul, persecuted Christians. He arrested and locked up many of the saints in prison and when they were put to death, he cast his vote against them. (See Acts 26:9-10)
What was Jesus’ response to Paul? He not only forgives Paul, He anoints him to share the gospel with the Gentiles. Paul went on to write almost half of the books in the New Testament. The following words come from the Apostle Paul:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39, ESV)
If God can forgive someone who gave his consent to murdering people who loved Jesus, will He not forgive you?
Woman caught in adultery
The hypocritical religious leaders of the day brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery. The law said she should be stoned but Jesus’ responds to them by saying, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7, ESV) They all left so no one remained to condemn her.
How does Jesus respond to the woman? Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11, NKJV). God is a kind and compassionate God who loves to forgive people.
Me
My dad died when I was nine years old. After his death, one of the first thoughts that came to my mind was, “I am now responsible for me.” I didn’t trust anyone, including God. Because I didn’t trust anyone, I wouldn’t listen to anyone. I wasn’t teachable. Adding to the confusion and wrong-thinking, my mom had us stop attending the Christ-centered, Bible-believing church my dad took us to. For the next fifteen years of my life, I made many poor choices, choices based on pleasing self, not on pleasing God. I lived a very sinful life.
I didn’t grasp the extent to which I was being conformed to this world and its sinful ways. I was oblivious to the fact that Satan, the devil is the god of this world who deceives people (See 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9). He makes what is bad and evil look good, with the goal of destroying lives.
I had no wisdom, direction, or guidance from the Bible as I stopped attending church and was not reading the Bible. I was blind to biblical truth and blind to my need for Christ. I only prayed after I had done something wrong, asking God to protect me from the consequences of some bad thing I had done. Quite often my prayers included the words, “If you get me out of this, I will never do it again.” What a lie I repeated to God way too many times! Yet, God was very kind and patient. He never gave up on me, and never stopped pursuing me with His grace, truth, mercy, and compassion.
I didn’t know God, nor did I know His Son, Jesus. I had no real comprehension of how much God hates sin (disobedience to God). I lacked any real understanding of how much God loves people, even me.
I’m now writing this article to you to give testimony to the steadfast love of God. I was a person who thought my sins well exceeded God’s patience, but God proved me wrong. His grace and mercy are far greater than any sin you or I have ever committed.
Apart from Christ, we are all bad people.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV)
“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.” (Titus 3:3, ESV)
A merciful God rescues bad people.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved…” (Ephesians 2:4-5, ESV)
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” (Titus 3:4-5, ESV)
What must a person do to be saved from God’s wrath? Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31, ESV). Don’t let Satan deceive you. Replace lies and deceit with biblical truth. God’s grace and mercy are greater than your sin. Jesus loves you, regardless of any sin you have ever committed. To believe otherwise, is to believe a lie.
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:21-23, ESV)
April 1, 2025
by Jeff Rosenau, Founder and President of Christlike Dialogue