Jesus Didn’t Rescue You Because You are Good

He Rescued You Because He Loved You

I am reading a book, that while helpful, periodically states things in not just a provocative way but in unguarded and biblically unbounded ways. Writing of the apostle Paul’s conversion, the author is beyond the bounds of orthodox belief when he states:

“Of course, Paul has the freedom to reject ‘the offer he can’t refuse,’ just like all of us. God is rolling the dice on him, counting on something he sees in Paul’s heart that lurks underneath all his blustering self-righteousness.”

I read those words and immediately thought, “That is not the gospel.” That is heresy.

The gospel is not God seeing something in us that is praise worthy or valuable for the Kingdom and saving us on the basis of that foresight. The gospel is God’s declaration that

though all of us have sinned and fallen short of his glory,
though each of us has turned our own way,
though none of us naturally seeks after God,
and all of our righteousness is as a filthy rag in his sight, and
though he does not need us for he is perfectly capable of making rocks cry out to his glory—

the gospel is God’s declaration that he wants us—

that we are beloved of God,
that we are chosen by God,
that we are sealed for the day of redemption,
that we have been loved from before the foundations of the earth were laid.

It is that we are utterly unworthy, and yet

the greatest lover in the universe,
the most holy being in the universe,
the one who knows all of our darkest secrets and yet,

wonder of wonders,

this One,
this Holy Creator

has determined to love us and rescue us and announces to us that His Kingdom is near. Life with Him is near. He calls us to repent and believe in the gospel, to believe that we need a Savior and Christ Himself has volunteered to perform the rescue operation.

You are beloved of God, not because you deserve His love but because “out of the kind intention of His will, in love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4).

Bask in that truth and it will progressively drive arrogance and pride from your heart.