Does God really love me?
Last updated: 2026-07-23
You are more sinful than you ever dared believe, yet more deeply and immutably loved in Christ than you ever dared hope. 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' (1 John 4:9, ASV). 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 (1 John 4:10, ASV). 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.
Sources: 1 John 4:9, ASV 1 John 4:10, ASV
❤️ 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 Institutes of the Christian Religion, 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.
Sources: Institutes of the Christian Religion
Want to explore more?
Ask a question