“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:9-11 NIV)
“God loves me” is not the essence of biblical Christianity. Because if “God loves me” is the message of Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity? God loves me. Me. Christianity’s object is me.
Therefore, when I look for a church, I look for the music that best fits me and the programs that best cater to me and my family. When I make plans for my life and career, it is about what works for me and my family. When I consider the house I will live in, the car I will drive, the clothes I will wear, the way I will live, I will choose according to what is best for me. This is the version of Christianity that largely prevails in our culture. But it is not biblical Christianity.
The message of biblical Christianity is not “God loves me, period,” as if we were the object of our faith. The message of biblical Christianity is “God loves me so that I might make Him -- [His Son,] His ways, His salvation, His glory, and His greatness – known among all nations.” Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around Him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is.
-- David Platt in “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream”
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