Is Loving Jesus a Requirement for Salvation?
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 3 we are clearly told that we must be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of God. In the same chapter we find verse 16, which is arguably one of the most famous verses in the Bible. It assures us that if we believe in Jesus, we will have everlasting life. It clearly tells us that that believing on Jesus; taking Him at His word is the key to everlasting life. Everlasting life will be in the Kingdom of God. We must be born again in order to enter this Kingdom. We are therefore born again; we receive the second birth, when we put our trust in Jesus; when we take Him at His word. This is the Gospel (the good news); the plain and simple biblical requirement for salvation. In other words, we need to simply believe/trust that the price for our sin has been paid in full by Jesus (by His death), that He rose from the dead, and in doing so, He provided us the gift of salvation. When we believe it, we accept it and receive it. So where does our love for Jesus fit in? Is loving Jesus therefore a requirement for for salvation, as is often at least seemingly asserted to be?
First of all, when we trust Jesus as Savior and receive the gift of eternal life, we are born again; born the second time. The first time we are born, we are born of water (of flesh; of our parents) and the second time, when we believe the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), we are born of the Spirit; as in the Holy Spirit and we are sealed by Him (Ephesians 1:13). I know that when I was born of my earthly parents, I didn’t know much and I couldn’t do much. I seriously doubt that I had the capacity to love anyone at that point…much less even comprehend what love was. I did indeed grow to love my parents fairly quickly as I developed, nonetheless, I was no more their son after I grew to love them than I had been before I grew to love them.
The second birth is similar in many ways to the first. One of them is that we are first unborn and then we are born. Another is the fact that we are born immature and become more mature over time.
There of course some differences as well. My first birth was not at all by my choice. My second birth happened when I made the choice to trust Christ as Savior. I was indeed a very immature spiritual newborn, yet I had Indeed made a choice and thus received the promised blessing as a result of my choice (Ephesians 1:13, etc.).
As I have already mentioned, the second birth is sinless. There are 2 major categories of sins: sins of commission, where you do things that you shouldn’t do, and sins of omission (James 4:17), where you fail to do things that you should do. James 2:10 makes it clear that if we commit one sin; break one law, we are guilty of breaking them all. Being sinless, the spiritual birth is guilty of no sin, either of commission or omission (1 John 3:9). Jesus is asked in Matthew chapter 22 what the greatest commandment of the Law is. His response is as follows:
Mat 22:37 ….Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Sin is transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). This means that the Spiritual birth does not leave anything out that is in full obedience to our Matthew 22 passage, including verse 37. Jesus is indeed God. The born-again man, the man of the second birth therefore loves Jesus.
This second birth is indeed the reason that the saved person can and must indeed enter into the Kingdom of God, and why Jesus makes it so clear that no one can enter the Kingdom without it. Sin cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. The second birth that must enter God’s kingdom is sinless and cannot sin (1 John 3:9). Being born of the perfect and sinless Holy Spirit, it cannot exist any other way. Because at it is sinless, it is completely incapable of earning the wage of sin, which is of course death (Romans 6:23). If doesn't die, it lives forever. It cannot become “unborn” either, anymore than a physical baby can become “unborn.”
The love that we have for Jesus is a gift that we get when we are born of the Spirit; whom the believer is admonished to walk in (Gal. 5:16). So, must an unsaved person choose to love Jesus before they are saved? No, because they are incapable of it (Galatians 5:17-21, etc.). Does a saved person love Jesus? Yes; he or she cannot help but to do so (Matthew 22:37-40, Galatians 5:22-23, etc.), however he or she must choose to live in; to walk in that love, in order to show it and reap the blessing of it, both in this life and the next (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Please never fail to remember and proclaim that our salvation is accomplished in full by Jesus’ love for us, what He did for us, and His promises to us that He is incapable of breaking, and in no way by our love for Him, what we may do for Him, or promises that we make to Him that we are certain to break. To Him be all the glory.
God bless.
JJR
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