Viewpoint Against Christianity

“How could anyone possibly love someone like me? And please don’t sing me that hymn, “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” I’m not buyin’ it. I’ve done so many wrong things in my life, some of them very serious, and I’ve disappointed so many people along the way. I feel worthless. I don’t deserve to be loved by anyone here on earth, let alone by Jesus or anyone else in heaven. Yes, I’ve endured some traumatic experiences in my life, but those don’t justify what I’ve both done and haven’t done. For reasons I don’t fully understand, I feel incapable of being loved. How could the Christian community possibly welcome someone like me into their family?”

Background Discussion

Well, the Good News is that God can—and does—love unworthy persons like you and me. Consider first that he made each of us in his image and likeness (Gen. 1:26–27), with the ability to know and love. And even though we’ve gone astray through our own bad choices, God still loves us, not because we deserve to be loved based on our own merits, but because of the Good Lord’s own Perfect standard of love. As the famous passage from Scripture proclaims, “ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16; see Rom. 5:6–8).

Indeed, Christians believe that none of us, deserve, based our own moral righteousness, a loving relationship with our Maker. Not even those who have dedicated their lives to serving the poor and underprivileged, such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, can do enough by themselves to require that God love them. 

Still, like a good shepherd, Jesus proves his incomparable love by seeking us out, despite our failures (Luke 15:1–7). As St. Paul writes, “While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6–8, emphasis added).

It took Jesus humbling himself by becoming human and dying for us on the Cross to redeem us, to reconcile us so that we might have an intimate relationship with God here on earth, and in heaven hereafter. As St. Catherine of Siena says, “God alone is worthy of Himself; He alone can make us worthy of Him."

We are all designed with the need to love, be connected with and cared for by others (see Gen. 2:18). Jesus’s life and death on the Cross are the clearest and most profound expression that you are lovable, you are worth it, and that God is offering His love to you today through both an intimate relationship with Jesus and a shared experience with His followers. Even if you feel you are not good enough or unworthy of love, this does not mean you are unlovable, not for an all-powerful, loving and merciful God. Try not confuse your personal feelings of self-doubt and lack of perfection with the truth that God loves you. As St. Augustine says, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” We are all sinners.

In the eyes of God, your value far surpasses the worth of an entire galaxy, even though you’re seemingly one minute part a of single tiny planet. As Chris Cisions, a writer for Christian Decisions, states, "The universe contains more galaxies than the total number of humans who have ever lived on earth. Yet you as an individual—formed by the hands of God and in his image—have worth way beyond that of our Milky Way Galaxy, which alone boasts a staggering 200 billion stars." 

The Lord Jesus and his followers are inviting you to consider joining the Christian family. No matter your age, skills or training, you have a unique role to play in the Christian story. We are all unworthy of God’s love on our own, but Jesus’s death on the Cross has redeemed us, transforming us from the unworthy to the prospect of divine greatness in him (2 Pet. 1:3–4).

Please click on the links to the videos, documents, quotes, and books that provide further reference to how Jesus has made you worthy. You can also review the Pro section on “Forgiveness” for additional information. If you haven’t already, please consider making the Christian Decision. This could be the most important decision of your life, or of your death.