God’s answer breaks the hardest hearts: Why? “Because I love you! I care what happens to you. I want you to be My child for eternity. I choose you to be a part of My royal family. Despite all you have done against Me—your transgressions—My great love, mercy and grace reach out to rescue you.”
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:1,4-5).
This is the nature of God. The Bible presents this as a stunning fact. He is perfection in everything positive, especially in love—even for the worst of us. The apostle Paul had been involved in killing Christians. Yet Jesus met Paul and turned him into a new person. Why? Love, mercy and grace… and an example for each of us!
… though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life (1 Timothy 1:13-16).
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).