You Can Stop Trying To Be Good Enough: You Don’t Have To Earn Real Love

This is Day 1 of a five day devotional series called “Loved First” from The Jesus Table. To access days 2-5, visit The Jesus Table on YouVersion here.

This study isn’t about how to love God better.
It’s about discovering how deeply God already loves you.

Today’s passage centers on a powerful word: hope.
But the Bible means something different by “hope” than we usually do.

For us, hope often means a wish, a desire, or a feeling of expectation.
But in Scripture, hope means confidence: confident expectation.
It’s the assurance that what God has promised, He will complete.

Romans 5:6–11 (NLT)
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

When we study the Bible, it helps to ask three simple questions:

• What does this teach us about God?
• About ourselves?
• And about the world we live in?

Let’s start with what this teaches us about God.

The focus here is how God expresses His love toward humanity.
His timing is perfect. His love goes beyond what even the most loving person would do.

The greatest expression of His love is this: He gave His life for us.

And by doing that, He didn’t just forgive us, He changed our relationship with Him.
Verse 10 says, “Our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son.”

That leads us to the second question:

What does this passage teach us about ourselves?

Look at how we’re described in these verses. Depending on the translation, the words may vary, but the meaning is the same. We are called: weak, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God.

Those aren’t flattering words. But they matter.

Because most people live as if God’s love is a response to their behavior that if they do enough good, try hard enough, or clean themselves up enough, then God will love them.

But these verses say the opposite.

Verse 8 tells us that Jesus loved us knowing all of this was true about us.
His love didn’t come after we changed.
His love is what made change possible.

Christ’s death is the demonstration of God’s love and not the reward for our goodness.

That’s why this matters.

So many of us live like God’s love is something we have to earn.
But real love doesn’t work that way.

The Bible says this was a decision God made before you ever knew His name.

When you hear thoughts like,
I’m not good enough. I’m not godly enough. I’m not pure enough.
Those don’t come from God.

Jesus loves the weak.
Jesus loves the ungodly.
Jesus loves sinners.
Jesus even loves His enemies.

1 John 3:16 says, “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up His life for us.”

And 1 John 4:10 says it even more clearly:

“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

Something to think about:

Where in your life do you still feel like you have to earn love—God’s or someone else’s?

Pastor Chad
Director of Discipleship | The Jesus Table

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