Does God really love me?

Yes. God's love for his people in Christ does not rise and fall with their performance; it rests on his own eternal choice and on the finished work of Christ, and it cannot be lost. God’s love for His own is not based on your performance, but is an eternal, sovereign, and sovereignly-applied grace secured for you by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Root of All Love

The Scriptures testify that God’s love is the primary fountain of our salvation. It is not a reaction to our merit, for the apostle John writes, 'In this was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him' (). The assurance of this love is not found by looking inward at our own wavering hearts, but outward to the cross, where God sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins (). As theologians in the Reformed tradition emphasize, this love is gratuitous and eternal, existing before the foundation of the world, ensuring that those whom He loves are eternally held in His favor through Christ.

Love That Survives Our Sin

While our sin creates a barrier of objective guilt, the gospel announces that God has removed that enmity through the death of His Son. Reformed teaching, such as that found in the , reminds us that while we were enemies, God loved us with a love that prevents and anticipates our reconciliation. Christ unites us to the Father, ensuring that our sins, which once provoked the wrath of God, are no longer imputed to us because they were fully paid for by our Mediator. This is the comfort of the doctrines of grace: because God’s love is immutable, He does not love us one day and abandon us the next; He continues to hold His children through the persevering power of the Holy Spirit.

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