Tuff question!

I had someone who is an agnostic recently ask, “Knowing your track record as a sinner of the worst sort before you came to know the Lord, why would Jesus have wanted to save someone like you?”

Wow, that is a tough question; trying to figure out God and grace is far too complex for my pea brain, but I think the answer is four letters long, L-O-V-E. We tend to think in human terms and it is difficult to understand how someone could love someone who wronged us or society, but God is pure love.

I have been disappointed with my sons at times and I have been angry at them for various offenses, but I can assure you that I have never quit loving them for even one minute. I can say that if they were to partake in certain heinous behavior, I would separate from them; however I cannot envision ever not loving them.

My love for my sons is hardly comparable to God’s love for all of mankind, but gives me an inkling of why God wanted to save me. He created me and He loves me with all of His heart and He wants to save me from my sins. He is compassionate beyond comprehension.

At times I disappoint Him, frustrate Him, and no doubt anger Him with my foolish behavior, but He always loves me, even when He is forced to punish me for my stupid sins.

God also looks at what we “could be” and not what we currently are. This is foreign to a society that vets someone and rejects them for the slightest fault or skeleton in the dusty closet. If God were to vet us with the same standards that we use, none would be saved, because God does not miss anything. He knows our every thought and every deed and misses nothing with His penetrating eyes.

To an agnostic, “an eye for an eye” makes perfect sense, but God sent His Son to die for our sins in order that we might be forgiven and saved. As a parent who loves his sons with all my heart, I can honestly say that I could not do it. My answer to my agnostic friend’s question, “Why would Jesus want to save you?” Because He loves me, that’s why.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that
whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him
might be saved.