See How Much God Loves You

God does not hate you. Though you are a sinner to your very core, still He loves you.

Whether your thoughts and desires are consumed by lust, pride, greed, envy, hatred, anger, resentment, covetousness, or any number of other sins, still He loves you.

Whether your words and speech are sprinkled with curses, false oaths, gossip, little white lies, unkind words, or any number of other improper words, still He loves you.

Whether your deeds and actions include physical harm, abortion, taking what isn’t yours, fornication, adultery, homosexual activity, pornography, or any number of other outward sins, still He loves you.

“God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

That is the Gospel. The good news of salvation. That “in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Today Jesus Christ dies for you. To take the punishment you, by your sin, deserve. To die your death. He dies, and rises to new life on the Third Day, to give you the blood-bought gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. What’s more, what He won for all on the cross He gives to you personally in the waters of Holy Baptism. For it is into His death and resurrection that you have been baptized. There, at the font, He washed away your sins and clothed you with His perfect righteousness. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).

Empowered by Christ’s word of absolution, live your baptism daily. Live as Easter people, as people who bear Christ’s name, as saints washed clean in His precious blood. As one of the redeemed, it is your joy daily to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and ... put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

See how much God loves you. He gives you His most precious treasure—His own Son—to redeem you, to buy you back, to bring you home. Yes, God loves you dearly!

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).