Christian Atheist - Session 3 - When You Believe In God But Don't Think He Loves You

The Church of Divine Guidance Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study Group is going through the book The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel.  A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God but lives as if He doesn't exist.  If you are courageous enough to admit that sometimes you act like a Christian Atheist maybe along with us we can shed some of our hypocrisy and live a life that truly brings glory to Christ.  To here the audio of the study group session click on the YouTube Thumbnail 

To get your copy of the book click this LINK or the image of the book at the end of my notes for the study.  

What Makes for an "Authentic" Christian?
Greg Laurie

Let's take a look at five earmarks of authentic christianity.

First, an authentic Christian confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

1 John 4:15 NIV

Christianity must begin with a verbal acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.

True Christians should be able to say that Jesus Christ is their Lord.

Second, if you are a true Christian, you will be unhappy or miserable when you're sinning.

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
1 John 3:9‭-‬10 NIV

This doesn't mean you will never sin if you are a Christian, but there is a difference between recognizing that we will fail in some way, shape, or form in the future and going on a willful, continual track of sin. If you really are a child of God, you will have a sense of discomfort when you sin, because you know in your heart of hearts that what you are doing is wrong.

Third, an authentic Christian enjoys fellowship with other believers.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
1 John 5:1 NIV

A true Christian will want to be around other Christians. Those who isolate themselves from other believers do so at their own peril, because the Bible tells us that it is important to get together, encourage one another, and correct one another.  

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24‭-‬25 NIV

After all, why should God go to your house if you won't go to His? A lot of us want all of the fringe benefits of Christianity without applying ourselves.

Fourth, an authentic Christian obeys the commands of Jesus Christ. If you are a true believer, then you will obey the commands of Jesus Christ

In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1 John 5:3‭-‬5 NIV

I will not deny that the Bible is filled with so-called rules, but their purpose is not to make our lives miserable. Rather, they protect us from potential harm. The person who blatantly and continually breaks the commandments of God simply does not know Him.

Finally, an authentic Christian loves and obeys the Word of God

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:5‭-‬6 NIV

You cannot effectively live the Christian life without a love for, and obedience to, God's Word. All true disciples of Jesus Christ will be students of scripture and will walk according to its teaching. This is vital to authentic Christian living, because the Bible is indeed the very textbook of life.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16‭-‬17 NIV

Yet so many believers will not read the Bible. They don't realize that success or failure in the Christian life depends on how much of the Bible they get into their hearts and minds on a regular basis. We have to do it.

Taken from "authentic christianity" (used by permission).

Let's start by looking at some definitions:

GUILT - having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong

SHAME - a painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, improper,
ridiculous

INSIGNIFICANCE - lack of importance, consequence, status

LOVE - a profoundly tender, passionate affection

UNCONDITIONAL - without limits or conditions; absolute; total

EVERLASTING - never failing or coming to an end

BELOVED - somebody who is loved very much

One of the first Bible verses many Christians memorize is all about love: “For God So loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). It’s a foundational truth every new believer claims, but one that Christian Atheists sometimes struggle to fully embrace.

It's one thing to hear this with our ears, and another to understand it with our hearts.
        
A belief in God does not automatically result in the belief—the genuine heart conviction—that God loves us.
        
Oddly, our disbelief doesn’t necessarily question whether God can or does love people.  Christian Atheists can easily believe that God loves other people; they just can’t comprehend how or why he’d love them. We hide our real selves from other people so they won’t reject us.  So we try to hide the real us from God.  We feel that there’s just no way God could love someone as undeserving and evil as I am.

One of the questions that Christian Atheists ask is Why would God love someone as bad as me?

We feel unlovable because of our sinfulness.

Throughout the book of Job Job wanted to talk to God to find do out why He was doing all this to Him.  He knew hadn’t done anything wrong.   When God finally answered him He felt like we feel sometime.  

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:  “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Job 38:1‭-‬3 NIV

For the rest of chapter 38 through chapter 41 God death with Job’s questioning Him.

After God finished here’s what Job said:

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.  Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:5‭-‬6 NIV

Have you ever felt like that?

This is from our book.  The closer I get to God, the more I realize just how bad I am. Even the apostle Paul—who penned two-thirds of the New Testament—had some seriously negative feelings about himself. He wrote, “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Cor. 15:9). If Paul felt that way, it’s no wonder that I’ve wondered how God could love someone as bad as I am.

Another question is How could God love someone so insignificant?
        
It isn’t only our sense of guilt that prevents us from believing that God loves us—sometimes it is a simple sense of insignificance.  Six billion people inhabit this planet; how could God love us all?

It turns out that many people in the Bible battled similar feelings of insignificance.  When God asked Moses to deliver God’s people out of slavery, Moses responded, “Who Am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exod. 3:11). King David, who was described as a man after God’s own heart, asked that very same question: “But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you?” (1 Chron. 29:14 NLT). When an angel of the Lord encouraged Gideon to take on the Midianites he immediately offered his not-so-impressive resume to prove why he wasn’t up for the task. The insecure warrior said, “But Lord…how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Judg.6:15 – 16).

Now let’s get to the meat of our session today which is believing in God, but not believing He loves you.

Christian Atheists believe in God and even believe that God loves people, but always other people, who are less sinful or more important.

To truly overcome this feeling, we must understand who God is. According to 1 John4:8-10, God is love.

1 John 4:8-10 (NLT)8  But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9  God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.10  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.

That means God doesn’t pick and choose whom he loves—he can’t! God is love, and we are loved, every single one of us six billion sinful, undeserving people.

Love is not something God does. It is who God is. And because of who he is, God loves you. Period.  There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. And there is nothing you can do to make God love you less.

Benefits of God’s love

1. His love covers our sin Titus 3:4-5 (NLT)4  But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love,5  he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
2. His love makes us significant.  Jeremiah 31:3 (NLT)3  Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. Luke 15:1-32 (NLT)1  Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.2  This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with the3  So Jesus told them this story:4  “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?5  And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.6  When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’7  In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!8  “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?9  And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’10  In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”11  To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.12  The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.13  “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.14  About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.15  He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.16  The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.17  “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!18  I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,19  and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’20  “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.21  His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’22  “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet.23  And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast,24  for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.25  “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house,26  and he asked one of the servants what was going on.27  ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’28  “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him,29  but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.30  Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’31  “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours.32  We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
                 

God loved us first. Before we were even aware of God’s existence, God already loved us.

Romans 5:8 captures this aggressive love: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Think of Psalm 139, where we learn that God loved us in our mother's’ wombs He is all knowing and ever present.

Psalm 139:1-24 (HCSB)1 LORD, You have searched me and known me.2  You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away.3  You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways.4  Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, LORD.5  You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me.6  ⌊This⌋ extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to ⌊reach⌋ it.7  Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?8  If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.9  If I live at the eastern horizon ⌊or⌋ settle at the western limits,10  even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me.11  If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”—12  even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.13  For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.14  I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know ⌊this⌋ very well.15  My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth.16  Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all ⌊my⌋ days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.17  God, how difficult Your thoughts are for me ⌊to comprehend⌋; how vast their sum is!18  If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with You.19  God, if only You would kill the wicked— you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me—20  who invoke You deceitfully. Your enemies swear ⌊by You⌋ falsely.21  LORD, don’t I hate those who hate You, and detest those who rebel against You?22  I hate them with extreme hatred; I consider them my enemies.23  Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.24  See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.

Look at the list of the categories of people that God love that Craig's friend put together:

A friend of mine listed all the categories of people God loves, beginning with the letter A. God loves artists, astronauts, and aerospace engineers. He loves accordion players, ankle biters, animal rights activists, airplane pilots. He also loves athletes, acrobats, and accountants—even during tax season. God loves people from Alabama, Alaska, Africa, and Albania. God loves absent-minded people; awkward people; assertive, authoritarian people; antisocial people; and aggravating people.
        
How about the B’s? God loves babies, babes, boys, bankers, and band leaders. He loves ballerinas, Bible readers, biology teachers, bird watchers, bus drivers—including the bad ones. God loves bookworms, bachelor's, botanists, bowlers, baby boomers, and boomerang throwers. He loves beekeepers, BBC watchers, blondes, brunettes, and even people with blue hair.

God also loves bores, the beat up, and the burned out. God loves bosses, braggarts,  bag ladies, bartenders, brats, people with braces, Bushmen, and Baptists.

He only went through the “B’s”
        
In short, there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love. We are already and always loved simply because God made us and he loves each and every one of his creations. There’s nothing we can do to get God to love us more, and there’s nothing we can do to cause God to love us less.
        

In Romans 8:35 – 39, the apostle Paul offered a list of things that cannot separate us from the love of Christ: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death, life, angels, demons, the present, the future, any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35‭-‬39 NIV
        
        
When we finally understand that God actually loves us, it changes everything. Being loved opens the doors of our hearts, removing the locks and bolts that were keeping us isolated and alone.

Paul writes in Romans 8:38 – 39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul is covering all the bases—nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Which struggle do you relate to more — believing that God could love someone as bad as you, or believing God could love someone as insignificant as you?

In the following scripture what is the characteristic(s) of God and the love it describes.  For example: sacrificial, merciful, beyond comprehension, eternal.

Romans 5:8 (NLT)8  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Isaiah 38:17 (NLT)17  Yes, this anguish was good for me, for you have rescued me from death and forgiven all my sins.

Psalm 103:8-12 (NLT)8  The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.9  He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.10  He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.11  For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.12  He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

Psalm 89:1-2 (NLT)1 I will sing of the LORD’s unfailing love forever! Young and old will hear of your faithfulness.2  Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.

1 John 4:15-16 (NLT)15  All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.16  We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.  

What do you think it means, in practical terms, to “know and rely on the love God has for us”?

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.
Isaiah 38:17 NIV
        

If God removes our sins from his sight — literally putting them behind him — why do you think we sometimes run around God to snatch them back? In other words, why might we resist putting our sins behind us even when God has forgiven us?

What most often undermines your ability to believe in God’s love and forgiveness?
 

What most reassures you and helps you to believe deep down that you are loved and forgiven by God (for example: biblical truths, a personal experience, regular time spent alone with God, etc.)?

The journey out of Christian Atheism begins when we move from saying, “I Believe God so loved the world,” to saying, “I believe God so loved me … I am God's Beloved.”

Read chapters 4, 5, and 6  When you believe God but don't think He’s Fair

Bible Study Audio