As the Allah of Islam and the Quran love the pious people, why does the God of the Bible love the Sinners?
- 1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Summary Answer: God is perfect love as well as perfect in all of His attributes. God perfectly loves His human creation because He is perfect! Because of Adam’s sin, all humanity is born with the sin virus of death from Adam’s sin and from the sins they individually commit.
God CANNOT love His human creation WITHOUT LOVING SINNERS for ALL of humanity, men, women, boys and girls are sinners.
- Romans 3:10-12 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
God loves us EVEN THOUGH WE ENTER THE WORLD AS HIS ENEMIES. We remain HIs enemies UNTIL we come to believe, trust, love and follow His Son, Jesus. At the instant we have a complete change in relationship to Holy God, we are changed from His enemies into His eternal children and the recipient of His perfect love. We are transformed to become as dear to God the Father as Jesus, God the Son, is perfectly dear to Him.
- Romans 5:6-10 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Truth: Christianity is unique among the world religions because it is the ONLY RELIGION where God is served by LOVE and NOT FEAR. The Creator God of Christianity is the ONLY GOD who died, through His perfect Son Jesus, to save His people from their sin. Perfect God DOES NOT NEED, REQUIRE, NOR ACCEPT any type of human works, merit or achievement to appease His wrath and GAIN HIS LOVE.
All false gods require sacrifice and human works/achievement to earn their favor. Not so with the Creator God of Christianity. God loves us . . because He loves us!
- Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our [eternal] image, according to Our likeness.
God has a special unique love for His human creation “made in His own image”. God loves us because He created us. God did NOT create us because He needed anything for that would indicate some type of incompletion. He is completely perfect in all things, including owning, possessing and controlling all of His creation.
God loves His human creation, not for what we can contribute to Him, but He loves us for His own pleasure. It pleases God to love and, it seems clear that God is most pleased to love humanity because we are the only creatures made “in His likeness.”
Potential Life-changing Truth: When we truly come to understand that God DOES NOT LOVE US FOR WHAT WE DO OR ACCOMPLISH, but that He loves us for WHO WE ARE, His children made in His own image, we will enter into the clearest understanding of the answer to your question: Why does God love sinners?
God WANTS US TO BE A PART OF HIS ETERNAL FAMILY and to RESIDE IN HEAVEN WITH HIM FOREVER IN PERFECT LOVE, JOY and PEACE!
Yes, God is grieved over the fact that we individually copy Adam’s rebellion. God is grieved that we have individually chosen to disobey Him and want to “leave the Father’s house”. By choosing to follow our self-centered fallen emotions to “direct our own lives as we think best” we leave the Father’s house and choose a “pig pen environment” of lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life. We trash the incredible potential we have been given to want to be near our Father and to love Him and our neighbors as we were created to do.
But, God never loses His heart of love for us, His human creation, even though we enter this world as sons of fallen Adam and immediately begin rejecting Holy God as we choose self- centered independence apart from God.
Your Great Question: As the Allah of Islam and the Quran love the pious people, why does the God of the Bible love the Sinners?
Commentary Answer: God loves sinners because sinners represent the sum total of humanity. Sinners are the only ones God can love because ONLY ONE MAN, Jesus, was sinless.
- Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
If God only loved “the pious or righteous”, He would NOT have any human creation to love at all.
This is the vast difference between a false Religion of Works as opposed to the eternally true Religion of Love and Grace.
False religion teaches that men and women can [have the ability to] make themselves acceptable to Holy God by making themselves “better” through religious activities of praying, giving alms, restraining themselves from doing heinous sins, etc., but this false teaching ignores the CORE OF MANKIND’s problem:
We are ALL GUILTY! All of us have sinned and rebelled against Holy God. Once a sin has been committed it can NEVER be uncommitted. All sin is fixed once it has been committed. The ONLY THING that can cover sin is FORGIVENESS.
The false Religion of Works declares / teaches men/women are, indeed, able to atone for their sins by doing sufficient works, thus becoming more pious.
God declares this false teaching to be impossible!
Despite what God has declared, a teacher of a Religion of Works declares the opposite in stating the worshipper MUST DO something to earn affection or credit from God. Now this fear-filled worshipper is in terrible constant bondage attempting to do some “good deeds” which at judgment day might be credited against his/her “bad deeds” and thus gain heaven at last.
- Ephesians 2:4-9 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Pure and True religion teaches the above Grace-filled truth and the true worshipper believes every word of God to be true.
We are all Guilty! This is why the Greatest Love Story Ever Told tells of Jesus Christ, the perfect Innocent One, who came to earth to live a perfect, righteous life and die in our place as our substitute for our sins. Holy Righteous God credits us with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The sins of all Christ-lovers and Christ-followers have been judged and wiped from the record while the very righteousness of Jesus has been placed in the record and credited to our account. That is EXACTLY how we “sinners” are loved and welcomed back into God the Father’s arms and into His house in heaven.
It is ALL OF GOD’s GRACE and it has nothing at all to do with our own works or the number of bad sins vs. good deeds. The only thing that matters is if we “have been spiritually born again” by believing, trusting and following Jesus Christ as our Savior, Lord, Substitute and Friend.
- John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
True worshippers are given the spiritual understanding that it is the RELATIONSHIP of the worshipper to God that makes all the difference because a person can NEVER do enough righteous acts to “become pious enough” to wipe away his/her guilt and sin before a perfect holy and righteous God.
The example we like best in the Bible in this regard of the love of a father for his child is found in the following passage spoken by Jesus:
- Luke 15:11-32 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’ “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’
Our next favorite example of the absolute truth that it is NOT OUR WORKS that earn God’s favor and a place in His eternal home would be the record of one of the two criminals crucified with Jesus on that fateful day some 2000 years ago.
We are told of a murderer and thief who was convicted and sentenced by the government to be crucified next to Jesus. This man had no good works, commendable deeds, or money to “somehow purchase favor” with God on Judgment Day.
This criminal had only one thing to offer and this he offered to Jesus: The criminal gave back to Jesus, HIs Creator and Owner, all that he had power to give. What did he give? The criminal gave his will. He acknowledged his sin-filled lost condition, trusted in Jesus as his Lord and Savior and asked to spend eternity with Jesus.
Jesus gladly accepted the criminal’s faith, worship and love while assuring the criminal of his place in the Father’s eternal home.
- Luke 23:40-43 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Do these clear teachings by Jesus give you new understanding and appreciation that the ONLY THING YOU AND I CAN CONTRIBUTE to HOLY GOD is the desire to be with Him in His heavenly home and our trust that He will take us to be with Him when we die?
In these illustrations given by Jesus, what was the ONE REQUIREMENT necessary for the lost son to come into a place of loving embrace and fellowship with the father?
- Luke 15:18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”
- Luke 23:40-43 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man [Jesus] has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
We must recognize our “lost condition”, repent from our terrible independent sin-filled choices which separates us from God. Then, by an act of our will, we “arise and run” into the Father’s arms trusting that Jesus Christ opened the way home by dying in our place for our sins.
-John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
All people born into this world will die either as Criminal No.1 or Criminal No. 2 who died next to Jesus on crucifixion crosses some 2000 years ago outside of Jerusalem.
Upon our death on earth we will immediately be taken to our eternal destiny place: 1.) Heaven, the Father’s Home to be with Him forever as His perfectly loved children, or, 2.) Hell where the person will forever exist in pain, torment and regret separated from the perfect love of God.
It is critical for each of us to understand that in this lifetime we will choose our eternal destiny.
Where will it be for you? Will it be Heaven or Hell? Your eternal destiny is determined by what you believe to be true about Jesus Christ, who as Perfect Man, God the Son, died to pay the death price for your sins and be reconciled to Perfect Loving God.
As we wrote this answer to your question, we prayed for you. Do you understand that, if you have not come to the Father through belief and trust in Jesus, you are still in the “pig pen” of sin, pain and separation from God?
If you have not had the welcome embrace of the Father’s arms through being ‘born again into His spiritual family’, will you rise up, leave everything and ask Jesus to take you into the Father’s embrace and home today?
If you have been born again as a child of God, if you have a moment, we would be encouraged to hear of that completed transaction. If you would like us to continue to pray for you, please also note that in your reply.
All our love to All, In Christ –
Jon + Philis
