I recently had a conversation with someone who believes in God, but doesn’t follow Him. She told me that she believes we are being punished as a result of The Fall.

She doesn’t understand what it is like to have a relationship with God. She doesn’t realize that is even possible. She doesn’t have a comprehension of Grace or Mercy.

A preacher once defined the two as:

Grace- Getting what you don’t deserve

Mercy- Not getting what you do deserve

She doesn’t understand Jesus, why He came, who He is, and what He has done for us. The Fall did bring sin into the world, yes. Sin did cause a separation between us and God, yes.

Enter Jesus.

God sent His son down to live a life on earth. He felt pain (John 4:6). He felt emotions (Hebrews 5:7). He was tempted (Hebrews 2:18). He is God in human form (John 1:14).

God sent His son to die for us. We, as humans, are full of sin; we sin every day. Jesus is free of sin (Hebrews 4:15), and yet He paid the price for our sins. A perfect man, a man that lived a perfect, sin-free life, died crucified on a cross, and defeated sin. He paid the price so we don’t have to. As a sin-free man, Jesus didn’t deserve the punishment he received, the punishment we deserve. Because of this, we can spend eternity with God. Because of this, we don’t have to fear sin.

This is Grace. This is Mercy.

Sin entered the world. Jesus defeated sin. Because God loves us, Jesus received the punishment we deserve because of our sin. Because of this, the separation between us and God is gone. The veil has been torn (Matthew 27:51). We can have a personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (John 14:16).

And He wants us to.

God loves you more than you can possibly imagine. He wants what is best for you. He wants a relationship with you. He is waiting with open arms for you to accept Him as your Savior.

A lot of people believe God exists, but don’t accept Him as their savior. They think, “I have time for that, I’ll look into it later. Right now I am just going to keep living my life this way, and think about the rest another time.” They say, “I’ll accept God tomorrow,” but die today.

If God wants what is best for us, why would we wait? Why have a good time now and a great time later, when you can have a great time now and later? Because following Jesus is the best time.

Accepting Jesus is life changing in the best ways imaginable. God loves us in a way that we don’t deserve, and can never deserve.

We are undeserving of God’s love and Grace. But the good news is, God’s love and Grace isn’t conditional.

It’s unconditional. It’s unending. It’s an everlasting love. It’s an unrelenting Grace.

It’s Jesus.