A Love Letter from God to You

There is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who, by the power of God's Word, trust in Christ.

Dear Friend,
God's command to us all is that we love God wholeheartedly (as He loves us) and love others (as we love ourselves). This command appears in different forms in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

This command—love God and love others—is the basic requirement for entry into His Kingdom.

But none of us love like this and so are, by inborn inclination and daily action, condemned to hell. (Yes, by our lovelessness, we condemn ourselves to hell.)

This is why Jesus, God the Son, took on human flesh and, as both true man and true God, loved both God and human beings precisely as God's command requires. Jesus obeyed God's Law of love perfectly for us.

Sinless though He was, Jesus then, at the cross, offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. By His sinless death, He tore down the dividing wall between God and us.

That’s because Jesus covers all who, by the power of this true Word about Jesus, receive God's gifts of repentance (which is turning away from sin and death) and faith in Jesus, with HIS righteousness, His perfect love for God and others.

If, by the power of the Word about Jesus' death and resurrection, you're empowered to turn from sin and turn with faith to Christ for life, forgiveness, and the power to love God and others, you can rest easy knowing you belong to God forever. (Even when your love for God and others remains imperfect, marred by your humanity.) You have what Martin Luther called "saving faith." In John 6, Jesus says that the sole work that saves us is not our feigned goodness as human beings and the good works we try to do what wonderful people we are, but solely believing in, trusting in, God the Son—Jesus Himself—Who was sent to save us from condemnation and separation from God by God the Father.

God's Word tells us: "Therefore, since we have been justified [that is, declared innocent of our failure to love God, which is idolatry, and of our failure to love others, which is murder, despite the overwhelming evidence against us] BY FAITH [in Jesus], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)

And another place in God's Word says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) NO CONDEMNATION!

Christ has set you free from the power of sin to condemn you and eternally separate you from God.

Christ has also set you free from the condemnation of the world, the devil, and even our sinful, hyper-critical, insecure selves.

You can trust in what Christ has accomplished for you through His innocent suffering and death, certain that He has done all that's necessary to reconcile you to God and cover you with the very innocence of Christ Himself.

You can trust too that by His resurrection, Christ has broken open eternity for all who trust, not in their own goodness or righteousness, but in Christ and His righteousness alone.

You can trust in the completed salvation work Jesus has already done for you.

To help you continue to have saving faith and to receive the Word of God that saves you given to you in preaching, teaching, Holy Baptism, and Holy Communion, God gives you the church. Be sure to regularly gather in worship with God's people at a church near you. There’s nothing magical about church attendance. But the power of God comes to us as we gather with God’s people for worship each week. God’s Word tells us that “…faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) In churches where the focus is on sharing God’s Word in preaching, teaching, and the giving of the sacraments, you will receive the Word that brings saving faith in Christ to you in multiple ways each Sunday.

Be warned though, the world wants to take your saving faith in Christ away from you. Find a church where the sacraments (Holy Baptism and Holy Communion) are rightly administered and the saving Good News--or Gospel--about Jesus is rightly proclaimed so that the gift of faith in Christ will remain yours and grow in you until, after you die, Christ raises you from the dead, and calls out to you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

God bless you.