Dear Minister: Will God stop loving me if I continue to commit sins?
Answer: From a human perspective, we might imagine that God has a limit as to how much sin He is willing to tolerate from us before He finally cuts us off from His love. After all, we know that there is only so much that a person can take. Quite possibly there have been individuals who we have “written off” from our own lives due to their repeated offenses against us.
Fortunately, God has a much higher capacity for forgiveness than any of us. When God says in Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts,” He is reminding us of an important truth – that He is not limited to our earthly perspective.
When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive a brother who had offended him, he may have felt fairly generous in offering to forgive someone up to seven times. But Jesus replied with a higher, heavenly perspective that the depth of our forgiveness should extend as far as seventy times seven! (Matthew 18:22)
If God is asking us to extend our forgiveness towards others to such a degree, then surely His depth of forgiveness extends much farther beyond that.
In Romans 5:20 the Apostle Paul reminds us that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” That’s definitely reassuring. Then in chapter 6 he cautions us that this abundant grace is not a free pass to just keep on sinning. After all, Jesus died not only to pay for our sins, but to empower us to resist temptation.
So, do I need to worry that God will stop loving me if I continue struggling with sin? According to Romans 8:38-39 there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can separate us from the love of God which is found in Jesus Christ. As you move forward with your spiritual life, I would encourage you to choose to live a holy life, not because you fear losing God’s love, but rather because it is His love that is the ultimate source of your strength towards overwhelming victory.
Dr. Steve Rahter
Pastor
Praise Tabernacle
