First Loved

I often hear people toss Christianity into a list of religions. With those people, I respectfully disagree. Christianity preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ; salvation through grace, by faith. He is the only man to profess being the way to salvation. Contrary to the major religions, where you see the founders showing the way to salvation.

Religion is legalism. It teaches you that salvation is achieved through good works and by following an extensive list of rules. Both moral and spiritual standards are set extremely high, far out of reach by any human. Already, you're set up for failure. Why follow something or pursue anything you know for a guaranteed fact, you'll fail at? I sure hope it's not to get yourself out of bed in the morning.

The Gospel preaches the exact opposite of religion. It states that all have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Which is exactly the reason He sent His Son, Christ Jesus, to die on the cross. He was the perfect sacrifice, the one that tore the vail connecting us directly to the Father, and allows us to bare witness to His glory, and unfailing love.

In Matthew 22, Jesus tells the pharisees that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. He continues by stating the second commandment; love your neighbor as yourself. All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

In a nutshell, Jesus is saying that if you follow these two commandments, abiding by the rest of the Law will only be natural. The more you love God and the people around you, the less likely you're going to do evil acts against Him or them. However, it is inevitable that we all sin. No person is perfect, which is where the goodness and everlasting mercy of our Lord comes in.

Romans 5:8 says, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He knows we have sinned; that everyone has sinned. But the beauty is that He meets us where we're at and we don't have to fail in attempting to live up to His glory.

It is because God first loved us that we love Him. This is why His followers do good works. Not because we have to, but because we want to obey Him and reflect the unconditional love and mercy He shows us, to others. Would you be more apt to work hard for a boss whose approval you had to earn? Or for a boss who promptly treats you with fairness and respect? The answer is the latter. And with that, you won't be able to help but talk good things about that boss.

The point of picking up someone's books, or buying a cup of coffee for the man standing out in the cold, or showing compassion to the single mom with two kids blocking your car door isn't to get us any closer to heaven. It's to be an example to others of what Christ is to us. If it were an attempt to gain access to heaven we'd be moving backwards because for every good work we do, there are at least two bad thoughts or actions that follow.

Being a Christian, I have come to understand all this. Because I want the same for you, the next time you're looking into a religion for truth, understanding, acceptance, anything to fill that void, I want you to ask yourself...

"Was I first loved by this?"