Does God's Love Cost?

Dear Beloved,

God's love is ABSOLUTELY FREE. 

How do I know this? He says it in His word: I will heal their backsliding and love them FREELY for my anger is turned away (Hosea 14:4). It's not a hoax. God's love is absolutely free and any teaching that tells you otherwise is full of lies. Whether it's lies we've heard from other people, other religions, or the enemy speaking to our own minds, many of us hold the assumption that God's love costs something. Some may say in order to access God's love you have to accept Christ, well technically not really because the Hosea verse above was written long before the birth and sacrifice of Christ. God said He will love the children of Israel FREELY before they could ever accept Christ. It's actually BECAUSE of God's love that Christ came in the first place, as we read in John 3:16 For God so LOVED THE WORLD that He sent His only begotten son, and whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It was God's FREE love that sent His son to be sacrificed for our sins. It's the reality of our sin that makes us feel like we owe God. We feel our sin has created a long tab with God and in order to really receive His love, we have to pay off the tab. False. 

God's love isn't a "thing" to posses, it's God's VERY BEING. That's why it's free, it's WHO HE IS. 1 John 4:16 says And we have known and believed the love that God has toward us. God IS love.. We can look at the sun as an analogy. The sun doesn't just give light, it IS light and because it is light it gives light. Similarly, because God IS love, therefore He gives love and gives it freely to all mankind. I didn't understand this when I was diagnosed with herpes in 2011. I believed I had to work for God's love and that I had to pay off that tab before I could REALLY experience His love. Although I lived a life of sin, I felt like I wasn't as "bad as other people".  I thought I may not have God's love, but I'm at least in His "good graces". I believed I was in "good graces" because I worked to stay away from the "extreme sins". With this belief system, it was easy for the devil to lie to me and tell me I was cut off from God when I contracted herpes. I believed God's love was dependent upon me, so when I contracted herpes, I believed I lost the "good graces" and I had no chance at His love. ALL LIES!

As we see in God's word, HE LOVES FREELY and these words were written LONG before any of us were born. Just as the sun won't stop shining based on what we do, God's love won't stop because it's who HE IS. Wherever you are in life, if you believe God's love costs you, I'd like to denounce that false belief right now. You can't pay for the character of God. Even if God's love did have a price, it'd be one that no human being could ever afford. 

God's love is completely free, however experiencing a full relationship with God in this earth and in eternity after we die does cost. To be in relationship with God is to become ONE with Him. God is love because God is HOLY. That's what make His love so special and out of this world, it's actually perfect through His holy character that has never been tainted. The bible says we are born into sin (Psalm 51:5). This means every human being on the earth is a sinner from birth, our sins make look different, but we ALL have sinned. This sin is a violation of holiness, perfect goodness. In order for God to become one with us in relationship, we too must be holy so we don't violate God's perfect holiness. There's a cost to becoming holy, but guess what? Because of God's FREE love, He paid that cost for us!! That's why He sent Jesus to die on the cross. God wanted a relationship with us more than we did with Him. He wanted one so bad, that rather than placing the responsibility on us to pay the cost of holiness and attempting to rid ourselves of sin, He came from heaven in the form of Jesus and paid the cost for us! Every payment of our sin, every penny that you could ever owe God was paid through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah! God's free love means anyone can enter a relationship with Him once they accept the payment Jesus did on their behalf.   

Beloved, you are not cut off from God's love. God will always continue to be who He is to you. If you desire to enter that glorious relationship with Lord and ensure your soul will spend eternity with Him all you have to do to ask for forgiveness of your sin. No, not every single individual sin you've ever committed since you were born. God is so gracious, if we just ask Him to forgive us of ALL our sin, one time, His word says HE WILL FORGIVE US (1 John 1:9). Once you receive that forgiveness, that indebted feeling you had will go away because Jesus paid the entire price for your sin. You and God will be one through Jesus Christ and your life will never be the same. I know this because that's what the Lord did for me January 2, 2012. God's love is free my dear. He loved you yesterday, He loves you today, and He'll love you tomorrow. 

May your hope be in Jesus Christ,

Anreka 

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