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I AM LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY – Romans 5:8. Is that really what Romans 5:8 says? The stated verse in the photo illustration is an inaccurate twisting of Scripture.

ROMANS 5:8 (NKJV):
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Messiah (Christ) died for us.

Romans 5:8 does not proclaim that God loves us unconditionally, but rather that God loved us so, that Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) died in our place to satisfy God’s CONDITION that sin be punished by death – so that we could be saved. If God loved us unconditionally, there would have been no need for Yeshua (Jesus) to die on the cross to atone for our sins. All sinners would go to heaven if God loved us unconditionally and Yeshua (Jesus) dying for us on the cross would have been unnecessary.

UNCONDITIONAL = WITHOUT CONDITIONS

God does not love us unconditionally. This poisonous doctrine known as “God’s Unconditional Love” is what many believers proclaim. The word “unconditional,” or the phrase, “unconditional love,” do not appear anywhere in Scripture.

When God created Adam and Eve, they were not loved unconditionally. YHWH (the Lord) God gave Adam and Eve just one command (a condition): to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if they did, they would surely die (Genesis 2:16). Adam and Eve broke God’s command (condition) (Genesis 3:6), and YHWH (the Lord), being righteous and a keeper of His word, did not unconditionally love and forgive Adam and Eve. God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:22-24) and they died, as He promised they would (Genesis 5:5).

DEUTERONOMY 11:26-28 (NKJV):
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God…

There are three basic conditions for us to be accepted and loved by God: repentance, obeying God’s Commandments, and accepting Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) as our personal Lord and Savior. Repentance is a condition. Commandments are conditions. Accepting Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) as Lord and Savior is a condition. To say that God loves us unconditionally is scripturally inaccurate and is an emotionally driven false doctrine.

DOES RECEIVING GOD’S GRACE REQUIRE ANY ACTION ON OUR PART?

HEBREWS 10:26-29 (NKJV):
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Believers are deceiving themselves if, after receiving grace, they think that God will continue to unconditionally love them if they willfully sin after receiving the knowledge of God’s truths (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 6:7-8).

JOHN 14:15 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

GOD LOVES THE SINNER, BUT HATES SIN. . .

Some may say that God loves the sinner, but hates sin. Without repentance, God cannot separate the sin from the sinner. Yeshua (Jesus) died to atone for our sins with the condition that we first repent and then accept His free salvation gift. One needs to repent or otherwise the message that you are telling God is that you enjoy sin and that you reject God’s ways. Sinners, along with their unrepentant sins, will be cast into hell. God will only forgive the sins of those who repent, not the sins of those who refuse to repent. God will not force anyone to repent and one must repent and obey God of his or her own free will.

God loves us and is not permissive concerning sin. God wouldn’t properly love us if He were an enabler of sin. If God did not correct our sin, but allowed us to sin freely and then enter His kingdom without conditions, this would not be love, but enabling.

Believers are deceiving themselves if, after receiving grace, they think that God will continue to unconditionally love them if they willfully sin after receiving the knowledge of God’s truths (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 6:7-8)

“God is love.” In the same manner in which people take a verse out-of-context, so too do many believers take this verse out of the entirety of the Scriptures. Many believers preach, “God is love,” and refuse to proclaim the rest of the Scriptures concerning God. The Scriptures say that God is love, but this is only a partial description of God’s nature.

God is described by many adjectives besides love:
-God is holy (Joshua 24:19)
-God is gracious and merciful (2 Chronicles 30:9; Psalm 116:5; Joel 2:13)
-God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5, 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15; Joshua 24:19; Ezekiel 39:25; Nahum 1:2)
-God is love (1 John 4:8)
-God is righteous (Deuteronomy 32:4; Ezra 9:15; Psalm 116:5; Daniel 9:14)
-And is many other wonderful things…

Want unconditional love? Get a puppy. Yet even a dog will not unconditionally love if it is physically abused. A mistreated dog will not love, but fear its owner.

PROVERBS 13:24-25 (NKJV):
He who spared his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

Should a father unconditionally love his child? Those who say that they should are proclaiming that they should accept, allow, enable, and love sin. God commands us to rebuke sinners, not love them unconditionally (Leviticus 19:17). Unrepentant sinners will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

There is nothing more repulsive than to hear a ‘believer’ say, “I love my gay son / daughter.” That is an enabling, no need to repent, remain just as you are, unconditional love statement. It is like saying, “I love my adulterous, physically abusive husband.” A sane person doesn’t say that. It would be proper to say, “I love my son / daughter, but I do not accept or condone his / her abominable homosexual lifestyle.”

“Unconditional love” of a person with sexually depraved behavior, or any other egregious sin – close relative or not, is not what God would have us proclaim. God calls upon us to rebuke sin, not accept and condone it. When a person accepts and condones the sins of others, instead of righteously rebuking them, they share in their sin.

LEVITICUS 19:17 (NKJV):
You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:20 (NKJV):
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

God’s love for mankind is not unconditional or free. For God to be able to love us, we had to be purchased, at a great cost. Yeshua (Jesus) paid a terrible price to redeem us, and through His sacrifice we are healed and reconciled to God (Isaiah 53).