God Just Loves Us

This is my spiritual hypothesis for the week: There are two ways to cheapen God’s grace. The more famous way is to think that because God’s grace has already covered all of our sins, we no longer need to concern ourselves with things like sin and obedience and ethics and God’s will. Or, as St. Paul wrote: “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?…Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:1-2, 15).

The second way to cheapen grace is this: to doubt that God’s grace does cover all our sins. To go on wallowing in guilt and shame. To believe ourselves to be unlovable or unforgivable. To think of ourselves as failures. As St. Paul also wrote: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

I hope you don’t mind if I get a little vulnerable here. 

A year or so ago, I was telling my therapist about some situation – I don’t remember exactly what, only that the same old doubts were playing in my head: that whatever I had just done or said had finally made people realize what an insufferable idiot I was, that they would finally give up on me. I thought I was showing psychological progress when I said: “But then I reminded myself that my friends have known me since I was 18. They’ve seen me do much stupider things. So they can probably handle this.”

This is when my therapist broke in: “But Katherine, what if they just love you?”

Pow. Such a simple question, but with so much power. What if they just love you? What if their care for you runs deeper than whatever you do from moment to moment? What if you’re safe with them? What if you don’t have to constantly keep a record of your own wrongs because that record doesn’t matter? What if they just love you?

Now here’s where it gets really good…

God just loves us.

In many places in our lives, we do need to prove ourselves. It becomes second-nature to us.  We build up our résumés; we apply for education and work; we put our best foot forward when we meet new people; we earn our keep. All that’s enough to train us to constantly keep tabs on our behavior, to keep comparing ourselves to others, to keep wondering if we’re measuring up, if we’re enough.

And then there’s more. Because even when we can prove ourselves, even if we can get close to “perfect” –  the chaos and the brokenness and the that’s-just-the-way-things-are of life can mess it all up. Hard-working people lose their jobs to budget cuts. Other humans love us the best they can, but they still hurt us. And– hopefully very, very rarely – we do really mess things up, and other people need to walk away. We need to face the painful consequences of our actions.

But through all things God just loves us. And that is real, too.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

These verses state it so clearly: Christ died for us not because we earned it, not because we felt bad enough about ourselves, not because of an agenda that this holy sacrifice would shock us back onto a more righteous path – but because God loves us. God just loves us.

How does that change how you see and experience yourself? Really think about it.

And then, don’t let anything – including your inner monologue – take that away from you.

Pr. Kate

Rev. Katherine Museus and Rev. James A. Wetzstein serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions.

October 2, 2024