When someone recognises that... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:8-10.

When someone recognises that God loves him or her without any pre-condition, it is an overwhelming experience. Previously, thinking about God caused uneasiness. Our conscience reminds us of our faults, which God will hold against us when we meet Him, as we thought. How many people therefore imagined they must carry out a number of good deeds to make God gracious.

That is, however, not the case. We do not have to do anything to deserve God's love or to prove worthy of it. That would be impossible in any case. The truth is otherwise: God loves us, although we are not lovable according to His standards; He loves us because He is love in Himself.

Although it is correct to say that God loves unconditionally, we should not misunderstand things. The fact that God is love does not mean that "the God of love", as He is often called, will condone our continuing to lead a sinful life.

Because God is love, He offers salvation to sinners and the lost without pre-conditions; and because He is light and love, He does not wish to leave us in this sinful, lost condition. Therefore Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, died as "the propitiation for our sins". And therefore people are commanded to repent, i.e. change their attitude, turn to God and accept God's grace in Christ by faith in all sincerity.

Today's reading: Jeremiah 23:1-15 · Romans 1:1-7