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Did you know that God loves you?

The Bible says so. That is His word, and God doesn’t lie.

Where does the Bible say that God loves you? The most famous verse, John 3:16, says:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Did you catch that? It says God loves YOU because YOU are part of the World. Try to put your name in John 3:16:

“For God so loved ______________________________ that He gave His only Son, so that if __________ __________________________ believes in Him ______________________________ will not perish but ______________________________ will have eternal life.”

Maybe it is a strange thought that someone would love you by giving His only Son for you. What does that mean? It means we needed a Savior, and that is Jesus Christ.

Why did we need a Savior?

Most of us have no idea we need to be saved. Saved from what? It turns out all of us need a Savior from our SINS.

Yes, He loves you, and yes He wants a relationship with you, but His righteousness will not tolerate our sin. The first human beings became sinners in the Garden of Eden, and we are all sinners ever since. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” The Bible says that we sin because we are born sinners from Adam—the first human being.

If you’re struggling with that thought, think about the world we live in. People are TROUBLED. Everywhere you turn, in every life you might examine, people are fallen and need HELP. Why the brokenness? The Bible tells us—Adam fell, and we all fell with Him.

Sin has made a barrier between God and you.

It’s a pretty bleak picture. We can do nothing to atone for our sins. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.” In the Bible, death always means separation. And the worst kind of death is separation from God, the Source of life and blessing and all good things.

The Bible describes the “second death” for those “in their sins” as eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire. This is why we need a Savior! We need a Savior from our sins and the just penalty on sin. We need a Savior to break down the sin barrier and reconcile us to God.

But remember, God loves you, right?

He doesn’t want you to spend eternity separated from Him. He wants you to be with Him, and that’s why He “gave His only Son.” The only begotten Son of God—God the Son—became one of us, a human being, to die for our sins on the Cross. This is what the Cross is all about—paying our debt of sin. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus is our Savior because Jesus came to be our substitute by paying for our sins.

On the Cross, Jesus took on Himself the penalty of God’s wrath on all your sins.

There’s another verse about God’s love for you in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus died for your sins as a demonstration of God’s love for you.

OUR RESPONSE TO THAT WORK: Simple Faith

What will you do with this information? The work of Jesus Christ on the Cross for you is the most loving act ever done for anyone in all of human history. And it was FOR YOU!! Will you receive that love by putting your faith in Him? The only thing we can do to receive the benefit of the Cross is believe in Jesus as our Savior.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

“These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’” (John 14:6).

Acts 4:12 says, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Do You Have this Life?

“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12-13).

Can you say it now?

“For God so loved ME that He gave His only Son so that if I believe in Him I will not perish but I will have eternal life.”

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