God-loves-you-for-who-you-are Error! PART I

Guys, let's stop using this cliche! If your are using it.. stop it... if your believing it, don't...


Why should we stop using this famous but erroneous cliche?


1. It distorts the character of God.



                How does it distort the character of God?

                                        -We can only know that when we first learn from God's word who we are and who God is, our true identity and God's identity. God does not look at outward appearance but God looks directly at the heart(Sam 16:7). So, the Bible  says "who-we-are" is not what our mere eyes see, but what our hearts is. There our identity is found...


              Thus,

 Human Heart = Who We Truly Are

                What is our identity as a human?

                                        - God originally created man as good and virtuous, but mankind turned their backs on the Creator - on whom they ought to love - and was led astray by the deceitfulness of sin and wickedness. After the fall, each one of us - as a natural man - have turned to follow our own downward paths(Gen1:31,Ecc7:29). Each of us is completely accountable and responsible. We are not the victims, we are the culprits - the guilty ones!(Rom1:20).


                                  - Now, the human heart is desperately wicked(Jer.17:9), and the Lord observed that everything we thought or imagined is totally and consistently evil(Gen.6:5), we are haters of God(Rom1:30), we are sinners even before birth, sinners even at the womb(Pslms51:5,Isa48:8), we find evil more pleasurable than good(2Th2:12), we are lovers of darkness rather light(John3:19), we deliberately ignore God and His laws(Rom3:10-12). Every human being, including you and me, are guilty. Nobody is innocent and we are called the guilty ones.(Rom3:23)


                     What is God's identity?
                      (This is the aspect of God's character that many hate and deny... do you?)

                                        - God is the God of Justice(Isaiah5:16), He is angry with the wicked everyday(Pslms7:11), He hates people who do evil(Pslms5:5), He is too pure that He can't stand the sight of evil(Hab1:16), He turns away from sinners(Isaiah59:2), He never tolerates sinners in their sin, and He does not forgive the guilty ones(Prov17:15,Plsms5:4).

                                         A. His love is based on HIS justice.
                                                 God is the God of love and mercy but He is also the God of Justice... His love is BASED on His Justice and His Justice is based on His love. His love for justice is PERFECT and His hatred for evil is PERFECT!(Heb1:9a) 

                                                 Because of God's holiness and justice, He must hate that which is wicked, and not only that, he must hate the person who does wickedness!<-- this is what we see in scriptures (Pslsms5:4-5,Pslsms7:11,Isa59:2).

                 Illustration:

If you love life, you must hate murder.

 If you love babies, you must hate abortion.

 If you love righteousness, you must hate evil.

If God loves holiness, then God must not love you for who you are, for you are the opposite of holy, as the scripture says(Rom3.23). 

God's Nature = Perfectly Holy, Holy, Holy!

Man's Nature = Desperately Wicked.(Jer17:9)

(this is man apart from God's common restraining grace)

*we might see society prosper, but the real reason behind is because God is restraining man's corruption... it's all only because of grace. 

                                  In view of God's terrifying holiness, how can HE possibly love and forgive corrupted and depraved people such as us? For if HE would love us "as-we-are" - that is, in our natural state - then HE would be compromising HIS justice and HE Himself will be corrupt. How? Consider this, what would you call a judge that would declare the person who massacred your family, NOT GUILTY? At the least you would call that judge an-evil-stupid and corrupt judge! <-- Is God like this? NO! That certainly is not the character of our Righteous God of Justice. 

                                 How can He possibly love and forgive a "person-in-the-nature-of-his-corruption"? The scripture says: NO HE CANT!(Prov17:15). The Holy,Holy,Holy God can't simply forgive. The punishment for sin must be enforced, there must be death, and blood must be shed! There must be blood and death before there can be forgiveness.(Heb9:22)

                        

                                          B. His justice is based on HIS LOVE.

                                                Of course Yes!, God does love us, and He severely does, you must not be deprived or be starved of that truth. But to say that God loves us "for-who-we-are" - that is, God loves our corrupted nature - is a gross misrepresentation of God's holiness and a clear display of ignorance regarding our true condition apart from God's grace.

                                                Then, God's love for us must have another source of motivation other than "for-who-we-are". His love must have another reason, a reason that is not found on anything in us. 

As the scripture says:   

"Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ, to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure." (Eph1:4-5)

What does this passage teach us? It teaches this: 

                   1. God loves us because loving us brings Him great PLEASURE.

                   2. God loves us because He decided to love us, NOT because of our sinfulness but IN SPITE of our sinfulness.

                   3. The motivation or source of God's love for us is not found in us but is only found in Him!

                 Before the foundation of the world, God loved us IN Christ and He united us IN His Eternal Beloved Son(Eph1:4-11). Christ became our federal representative. As our representative, He became our substitute, and because He is our substitute, this is what God the Father did......... :

* God poured His horrifying wrath on us by pouring it on Christ on the cross.(Isa53:6)

*He enforced the punishment of sin on us - which is death - through the death of Christ.(1John4:10,Isa53:5,Gal2:20)

*We are raised from the dead by raising Christ from the dead.(Eph2:5)

*We are loved by God through the love He has for Christ.

                   There is only one on whom the Father is pleased, there is only one source of His joy and Love. The Only-Eternal-God-The-Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt3:17,John17:26)...... certainly not us!....
                   That is why our identity should be in Christ, not on who we are... let's stop saying: "be who you are sister!" and instead let's say: "Be like Christ sister!", because we are not destined to be conformed on our own image, for we are destined to make Christ's identity to be our identity(Rom8:29-30). Let's take off our identity and cloth it in Christ!

                   So we are loved NOT "for-who-we-are", but for who Christ is! So guys, let's stop using the term "God-loved-you-for-who-you-are", instead let's use this term: "GOD LOVES YOU FOR WHO CHRIST IS"!!!

TO ACCESS PART II, PLEASE CLICK IN THE IMAGE LINK...

Link to Part II