October 23

John 3:16-18

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

I am currently reading the book East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Even though Steinbeck was not a Christian author, I can't help but be amazed at how accurately he portrayed human nature in this book. At one point in the story there was a character named Adam who lost a lot of money in a foolish business deal. Adam's son Cal loved his father very much. He wanted to make a lot of money on his own so he could then give it to his father. Here is an excerpt where Cal's business partner Will asked him why he wanted to do this:

   "Now, you say you want to give back the money your father lost. Why?"

   Ordinarily Cal's eyes were squinted and cautious, but now they were so wide that they seemed to look around and through Will. Cal was as close to his own soul as it is possible to get.

   "My father is good," he said. "I want to make it up to him because I am not good."

   "If you do that, wouldn't you be good?"

   "No," said Cal. "I think bad."

Cal knew that there was nothing he could do in his own power to be "good." Yet, it didn't stop him from trying to earn the right to be "good" and to earn his father's love. Don't we do the same thing when we think we can earn God's favor by being good enough? When we do the right thing and obey God, somehow we tend to feel that we are more deserving of His love. When we sin, we have a hard time believing that our Heavenly Father still loves us.

Read John 3:16-18 again. Does it say anywhere in these verses that God loves only the people who are good? That we can earn His love by being good? That we can lose His favor by being bad or sinful? That He stops loving us because we are not good enough? Absolutely not!!! God loves the whole world and all the people in it. God knows that there is nothing we can do on our own to earn a right relationship with Him. So He gave His Son so that through Him we can have eternal life. All we are excepted to do is believe in Him and He will do the rest. I am so thankful for this, because there is no possible way that we could do it on our own!