“God decided in advance 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. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.” (Ephesians 1:5–6 NLT)

 

Some people come from homes in which their fathers never expressed love or showed any affection toward them. Therefore, they take that concept of their earthly fathers and place it on their heavenly Father. They spend the rest of their lives trying to earn the approval of God, who has already given His approval to them.

There are a lot of people who think they should keep the Ten Commandments because they are under the impression that God will punish them if they don’t. In a sense, they’re like Sisyphus, the character from Greek mythology who spent eternity pushing a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down again when he neared the top, forcing him to start over—again and again and again. These people work hard to earn God’s approval and be worthy of His love. But every time they slip up or do something to displease Him, they feel like they have to start over.

Their faulty understanding of God and His mercy keeps them from maturing in their Christian faith. The fact is that God loves us and accepts us as we are. We don’t have to do anything to earn His approval. We don’t have to do anything to merit His love. In spite of our shortcomings and in spite of our sins, God loves us.

He showed us how much He loves us by sending His Son to die in our place so that we might have eternal life. Romans 5:8 puts it this way: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (NLT).

Understanding how much God loves us is what inspires us to love Him and others. As 1 John 4:19 says, “We love each other because he loved us first” (NLT). Instead of wanting to keep God’s commandments to earn His love, we should want to keep them because of His love for us. We should want to keep His commandments because we know they are right. It all comes down to our motives.

We can’t do anything to earn God’s love or affection. His standards are too high. Because He is just, He demands perfect righteousness. And perfect righteousness is found only in Christ. That’s why Paul said in Ephesians 2:8–10: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (NLT).

We don’t live in a Christlike way so that God will love us; we live in a Christlike way because God loves us and because we want to honor our heavenly Father.

 

Reflection Question: How, if at all, does your relationship with your human father affect your relationship with your heavenly Father?

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