Self-Love or God’s Love

“…who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” (Galatians 2: 20 - 21)

Paul is emphatic that there is no middle ground. There are only two possibilities. One either pleases God by working a little harder with what he has, or he depends on the death of Christ. Our faith is not about helping people to live more morally. We do not want to tell people to live by the Ten Commandments. You can do really well at being good and living by the Ten Commandments or the Five Pillars or whatever moral code you can imagine and you will not please God. God will still be very angry with you. We simply do not have the ability to please him.

There are only two basic approaches to God. Either you believe that he is a little miffed at you and you can make it better by doing little things to make him happy, or you believe that your moral debt is so massive that only the death of Jesus will save you. All world religions can be understood in one of these two categories.

The verse above is powerful because it says that if a person were able to work hard enough to please God and make it into heaven on his own then it was a waste for Christ to die. Jesus Christ did not die because we are just a little too lazy to save ourselves. He did not die for people who have the ability to please God if only they find the right mix of rules to keep and kept them. No, he died for sinners because that is the only way they could get right with God.

This is why the Bible is so insistent that there is only one way of salvation. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

(Acts 4:12) Anyone who is not trusting in Christ is trying to save himself, and since that is impossible they are going to be unsaved when all is said and done.

But here is the rub when talking about this to our culture: most Americans are not really trying to work hard to save themselves. We are pretty convinced that we’re in pretty good shape already. We are not at all worried about the wrath of God. Christ’s death does not make sense to us, really. Thanks but no thanks. It seems to me that we are pretty convinced that we just need to show up and it will be OK. Our religion is self-love. When you really love yourself, why do you need God’s potent love? One popular song of our culture was sung by Whitney Houston in 1985 and written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed:

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows

If I fail, if I succeed

At least I'll live as I believe

No matter what they take from me

They can't take away my dignity

Because the greatest love of all

Is happening to me

I found the greatest love of all

Inside of me

The greatest love of all

Is easy to achieve

Learning to love yourself

It is the greatest love of all

Our moral standards are pretty low. I saw a bumper sticker that said “Born OK the first time.” Later I saw that the car had been totaled in an accident. Hmmm. Maybe there is hope.

So how do we go about convincing our neighbors that Christ died for a very important reason: their salvation? That, thankfully, is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit of God. We are called to preach Christ, and him crucified. Most people think it is foolishness, but that is our call. The more you think about Christ’s death the more you can understand your problem.