Does God love you just as you are?

Does God love you just as you are? “God loves me as I am,” is a fairly common sentiment nowadays. In what way is this true?

First of all, I’m neither a theologian nor a teacher. So take care of anything I write. The issue has been addressed by gifted teachers and in God’s Word. It seems to me that there may be two parts to this: Does God love the non-elect, and does He love Christians even while they’re sinning?

There’s the difficult question of whether God loves those He doesn’t save. John MacArthur attempts to address it HERE. See also Does God love everyone or just Christians?

During a recent sermon a pastor mentioned the hypothetical example of a professing Christian who wanted to have an affair with the lady up the road (no doubt from actual experiences). The man would say that it would pan out OK because God would always love him.

Then there’s the United Methodist Church entrance and signs plastered with the LGBTQ colors. “You are loved as you are.” Most readers know that this isn’t a rarity.

To my mind, the question isn’t really about whether God loves the sinner—we should ask why it is considered in the first place. Here are some thoughts…

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

In “Spiritual Depression” Lloyd-Jones goes out of his way to invite readers to run to Christ just as they are, sins and all. Some say they aren’t good enough to be accepted by Christ. He responds, “But you will never be good enough; nobody has ever been good enough.”

He adds that, “Conviction of sin is an essential preliminary to a true experience of salvation.”

Recall the person above who sought an illicit affair with a woman. What happened to his conviction? Does the notion that God still loves him grant him a license to willfully sin?

Richard Sibbes

Sibbes cites 2 Tim 2:22. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Richard Sibbes observes that God abhors those who give liberty and license to their thoughts, more than one who falls into grievous sin through strong temptation. He notes that sin contains a punishment in that it hinders the Spirit of God, and keeps us from Him,

Let men profess what they will, but when they go to lewd company and filthy places, where corruptions are shot into them by all their senses, they can neither take delight in drawing near to God, nor can God take delight in nearing to them. (The Saint’s Happiness)

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. Psalm 66:18

John’s Epistle

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3:4

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:9-10

We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18 (See also 1 John 2:15-17)

God invites us to come as we are, but He does not want us to stay as we are. We cannot help but sin prior to glory, but what is our condition if we continue to willfully do so?

…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ Phil 1:6

Maranatha!