One of the things I’ve encountered while traveling and speaking throughout Mexico this week has been a deeply ingrained religion in the minds of many of the people. Now this is nothing new. The US has the exact same thing, we just hide it under cooler language.
The religious pattern I’ve picked up in many conversations with my new Mexican friends is this idea that somehow God withholds His love and you must submit to the “system” to earn that love.
By the thousands and thousands they buy into this idea because there are two things that are true, not only for them but for you:
1) We crave love.
2) We’re quite sure that all love has stipulations and conditions.
Ultimately this is why religion can so magnificently manipulate people, right? However, listen to how Romans 3 contradicts this idea.
Romans 3:22-26
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
This is huge because my new friends in Mexico have the same dilemma I do. As long as my heart is beating, I CRAVE love.
It’s true. We’ll do almost anything to belong to someone or to belong to something including, but certainly not limited to, committing to a tired old list of legalistic rules and laws.
I know you guys know this, but just pause to think about the implications of Romans 3.
What if today I walked in the truth that God is not in fact waiting for us to earn his love, but that he is passionately pursing us with His Love.
So how about you?
Do you think there can be such a thing as unconditional love? And if so, why do we always revert back to trying to earn God’s love?
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