True Christianity

FRESH Official Podcast

Spending your life pleasing others, working your way into their favour, is hard work because people are fickle. They can be with you one day … and against you the next. Doubtless you’ve been there too.

A dear friend of mine pastored a church for close on forty years. He and his wife poured their lives out for people, me included. And yet after all that time, two of his closest friends turned against him. It destroyed the church. It took him and his wife years to recover.

That sort of betrayal is a terrible thing, but it happens. It happens in every corner, every walk of life – which, in great part, is why so many people expend so much energy trying to please others, trying to dance to their fickle tune.

But in a good marriage, you don’t have to earn your soulmate’s love. They already love you. What you set about doing then is responding to their love. There’s a world of difference between those two.

And it’s very much the same thing with God. We don’t change our behaviour to earn His love. He already loves us. He already sent Jesus to die on a cross to pay for our sin. No, we change our behaviour to respond to His love.

Romans 6:1,2 So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin?

True Christianity is a response to God’s love, not an attempt to earn it. That’s grace.

And that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.