Ephesians 1:3-6: All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son.

Are you a Christian? Have you experienced the love of God in your heart and life? It’s one thing for someone to say they love you, but when they show their love for you, it takes the relationship to a whole new level. Now, I’m going to ask you the same questions, but this time it will be with a different word. Are you a Christian? Have you experienced the “acceptance” of God in your heart and life? When someone tells you that they love you, do you feel as though you’ve been accepted by that person? If you don’t, it could cause you to want to earn that person’s love and respect. As humans, we will struggle with relationships if we struggle with acceptance. This one word “acceptance” could be the root cause of so many relationship issues both in and outside the body of Christ.

In John 3, we’re told that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Even though God has loved the world since the fall of man, man has not always felt God’s love because of the consciousness of sin in our hearts. It’s because of sin and God’s rejection of sin that man feels the need to earn God’s love. The only way for a sinner to experience the love and the acceptance of God, is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Through our faith in Christ as our personal Savior, we find grace or acceptance in God’s sight. Once we’re accepted through faith in Christ, then God gives us His Holy Spirit, and He gives us the grace to experience the love of God in our hearts.

When the Jews were under the Law, they felt the need to earn “a place” with God through their own works. Did God love the Jews? Absolutely, He did, but the only way for the Jews to come out from the Law and be in a right-relationship with God was through faith in Jesus as the Christ. This is why the Lord had Paul write Ephesians 2:8-9: God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Through His love, God has made a way for fallen man to be accepted in His sight apart from the works of the Law. Remember what John said: For God so loved that he gave His Son, Jesus. God demonstrated His love by offering His Son as the ransom payment for our sin debt. Through this one act of love, the grace of God has been extended to all. If you struggle to experience the love of God or to feel as though you measure up to God’s high standards, then simply accept His love gift, and God will accept you.

Here’s a word of caution: when you accept the free gift of eternal life by accepting Jesus into your heart, it doesn’t mean that you won’t feel the need to want to earn God’s love anymore. Why? It’s hard for the mind of fallen man to accept God’s love without earning it. There’s good news though: the old man who was rejected by God because of sin is dead in Christ, and you are no longer enslaved to his shortcomings, faults, and failures. If you’ve accepted Christ and still fight the feelings of rejection or you can’t seem to grasp that you have been accepted by the Lord, then you must stand on the truth “by faith” that God loves and has accepted you in the Beloved, Christ Jesus.  —submitted by Pastor Asa Dockery, US