You Cannot Earn God’s Love; You Can Only Receive It

Grace breaks the cycle of spiritual striving—and Romans shows us how. We walk through Paul’s argument to uncover why the gospel is not just our starting line but our daily power: righteousness comes by faith, not by effort, heritage, or rule-keeping. From the opening reminder that the just shall live by faith to the freeing promise of no condemnation in Christ, we trace a clear line through Romans 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, and into the challenging terrain of Romans 9.

Pastor Carl unpacks the limits of the law—it reveals sin but cannot save—and contrasts it with the gift of eternal life in Christ. We revisit Abraham’s story to show that faith preceded the law and still stands as the way God counts people righteous. Then we stare into the hard questions of Romans 9: God’s mercy and compassion, election, and the unsettling example of Pharaoh. Far from a cold system, these passages spotlight a warm, sovereign mercy that offers real opportunity and honors real responsibility. Pharaoh’s repeated refusals and eventual hardening serve as a warning against persistent unbelief and a call to receive the life God freely gives.

Along the way, we confront the drift many believers feel—trying to earn God’s approval after receiving grace—and learn practical steps to walk by the Spirit instead of the flesh. The potter and clay image humbles our assumptions and invites us to renew our minds by the Word, trust the finished work of Christ, and carry a loving burden for those who have yet to believe. If you’re weary of performance-based religion or wrestling with questions about justice, mercy, and free will, this conversation offers clarity, courage, and real hope.

If this helped you rest in grace and lean into faith, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can discover the freedom of the gospel.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of a Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

We believe. And he went on to talk about, you know, because most of the believers in Rome were Jews, and so they have an emphasis on the law. And even as Christians, we tend to come to faith in the Lord, and we realize it's his forgiveness, and we don't earn it, and yet we start trying to be good. We start trying to please God again instead of just walking in that faith and growing in him and allowing him to change us from the inside out.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

There is a hard balance of trying to be good and trying to do good for God's approval. There is nothing you can do to make God see you any different than you are, to make him love you any more than he does. And you can't do anything to gain his approval. In today's message, Pastor Carl will shed some light on how you can be accepted, forgiven, and unconditionally loved by God. I'll give you a hint: it's not about what you can do, it's about what Jesus has already done for you on the cross. And now here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

All right, let's get into a study of God's Word. We're in the book of Romans. We'll be picking up in Romans chapter 9, thinking about verse 14. But before I get into it, I want to give a little disclaimer again. Our slogan is teaching the word or simply teaching the word. That's what we do, and that's how we do it. And I'm a simple guy, and there are many others that are uh deep thinking Bible scholars that uh have have have written on these next two chapters in many ways with thoughts that are higher than I can understand. So, what I'm going to be presenting this morning is things that I've been able to grasp with with the Lord and the Holy Spirit showing me and just going through what the word has taught us so far. And uh I wanted to go through and touch some some verses to get us into uh uh an understanding of where we are, setting the context of where we are as we go into nine and ten, because there's some difficult things in nine and ten that I don't think have to be as difficult as we've made them to be. All right, you following me? So let's let's review some of the things that Paul has told the Romans. Of course, he wrote this this letter to the church in Rome because he had heard about them, that they grabbed a hold of the gospel and and they were living their lives to the glory of God, and yet there were still some issues to be addressed. Um he starts out in Romans chapter 1, verse 16 about the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. The Church of Rome was comprised mainly of Jews, but many Gentiles came in as well and believed the gospel and were changed. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Not only do we come to faith in Jesus Christ because of the gospel, but we walk in our faith every day because of the gospel. And um, and he quotes from uh oh was it it was Habakkuk, wasn't it? The just shall live by faith. Um an Old Testament concept. Faith was an Old Testament deal. It wasn't just following the law, it was the faith that saved. And we'll we'll show you some more of those verses. But the question there is the just shall live by faith. Who is just? Who is just? Well, of course we are, because we've been forgiven. And then he had a whole litany of all these sins that happened to a society that rejects God, and it just got really bad as they progressed and said, yeah, that's bad. They deserve hell, and we don't deserve. And he says, stop pointing fingers because those same things that you see the world doing are things that are going on in your heart, because Romans 3.23, all have sinned to fall short of the glory of God. Each and every one of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is nothing just in us except for the Lord. And then he goes on to say in Romans 5, beginning in verse 12, therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all have sinned, so also by one's man's obedience many will be made righteous. That's verse 12 and the second part of 19 from Romans, just kind of combining a couple things. The point is, we were born into sin thanks to Adam. Adam and Eve, they disobeyed God, and sin came into the picture. The fall happened, and we're all born into sin. We were all on the wrong side of God because of that. But Jesus, the other man, the second Adam, as he's described as, came to represent us. He was the only man that lived that was sinless, and because of that he could be the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. Jesus would turn all things around so that many would be made righteous. Another verse to consider: Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we're trying to earn our way into heaven, if we're trying to do all these good things in order to please God so he would accept us, we don't realize that, you know, the wages of our sin is death. Our greatest deeds are as dirty rags. We're all fallen. We've all are sinners and fallen short of the glory of God. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. We could not make ourselves right with God, but God could make ourselves right with God. And it's about accepting this gift that He's given us in Jesus Christ our Lord. He died for us on the cross in our place so that we could be right with him again. It's a gift. And then he goes on to say in Romans 3, beginning in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, even through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. How do we receive this gift? How do we receive this righteousness of God? We believe. And even as Christians, we tend to come to faith in the Lord, and we realize it's his forgiveness, and we don't earn it, and yet we start trying to be good, we start trying to please God again, instead of just walking in that faith and growing in him and allowing him to change us from the inside out. And so we tend to elevate the law, we tend to point out the sins in others, to elevate ourselves. I'm not as bad as that person, and we miss the whole point of the gospel itself, that it is what brings us to salvation. And then the Jews even go on to say, you know, but you know, we're we're Jews. Not only are we Christians, but we're Jews. We were the chosen people. And even in some of the other places that Paul writes to, some of the Jews were forcing the Christians, the Gentiles that were wanting to become Christians, they were forcing them to become Jews first and to be circumcised before they became Christians, because that's how it works. Jesus was a Jew, so you need to be a Jew, and you need to do these things before you can experience the grace of God, which which Paul says it's not about that at all. It's about the righteousness of God that comes through faith. And it's to all and on all who believe the righteousness rests on us because we have believed in the gospel. Are you following so far? And then in Romans 4, 3, in the second part, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, the father of the faith, the father, the man who God chose to build the Jewish nation from. The man that that God chose to bless the whole world through. And you have the the sons of Abraham, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob, his name was changed to Israel, and Israel had 12 sons, which turned out to be the 12 tribes of Israel, through whom the law came, through whom an example came to the rest of the world of God's grace and his goodness, and through whom the world had an example of the rebellion and the rebellious heart of man. Israel was was a rebel against God in many ways. And yet, through the line of Israel, the Messiah would come and would bless the whole world to anyone who would believe the same thing that Abraham did in the beginning. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. It's not about fulfilling the law, it's about believing God and what he told us. And you and I were made right with God when we believe God as well. And it's accounted to us as righteousness. Romans 8:1. There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Paul had used all these different reasonings to point out the goodness of the law, but that the law in itself does not have the power to save. But it shows us our shortcomings in the righteousness of God. It shows us our need for a savior. It shows us that we have a sin that is in the way that we wouldn't really realize any other way, except through the law, that it opened up our eyes, even though our spirits know that there's just something not right. There's just something wrong with my life. No matter what I do, no matter the things that I look for to fulfill myself, nothing really fulfills it except for the grace of God. And now he brings us to the place where he says, of course, there's no condemnation. If we try to fulfill the law, there's always a condemnation because we don't do it. But in Christ He's fulfilled the law, and when we're in him, we have no condemnation because he's fulfilled it and we're one with him. And so don't walk according to the flesh. The flesh, when we came to faith in Christ, um, should have died because I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but it's Christ who lives within me. But the flesh seems to rear its ugly head and come back and cause us to get off track. And Paul's saying, don't get off track. Walk by the Spirit, deny yourself. This is what the Lord says: deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow after me. And then we got into chapter 9 last week, where Paul was starting to share his heart and his burden for the Jews. First, you know, he's talking about uh these things to the church in Rome, which is primarily Jewish, to help them to realize okay, the law is good, and it's good to have the heritage that you have, but that's not what saves you. That's not what saved Abraham. Okay? He believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Same thing for you. Now, now are you grasping a hold of this? Because you are saved, and God wants you to be powerfully used in order to proclaim the truth to other people around you. Don't get distracted by your flesh and your past and your ideas of how things should be. Now, when you've got your act together, you can see that, boy, I've been distracted. How much more the rest of my Jewish brethren that have not come to faith in the Lord? They have gotten distracted by the truth. And Paul starts sharing his heart that, Lord, I desire for the Jewish nation to come to faith. And he's sharing it with his Jewish brothers who are part of the church in Rome. Do you have a burden for your brothers as well? Because it's not about being a Jew, it's about being a believer in Jesus Christ. And it's about being chosen as a group, but then missing the call. There's a lot here, and I'm not going to be able to get into it all. But it's about this idea that God in his grace chose an individual. He chose Abraham, and then he chose Isaac, and then he chose Jacob. And Jacob was not the only son. He was a twin. And the older that was born was Esau, and yet God in his wisdom chose Jacob for some reason. And you have this idea that Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And we go, wow, why does God hate Esau? And then we made the point: well, it's not necessarily that he hated Esau, that's an amazing thing. It's why he loved Jacob, that was an amazing thing. Why would he love me enough to go to the cross so that I could be made right with him? Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. And that's a hard word too, hated. Hated. God hates Esau, but he loves Jacob. I'm not going to necessarily go into the wise, but I'm going to address here what is it that God hates? And if you're familiar with Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 16, there are a few things that the Lord, through Solomon, points out, that these are things that the Lord hates. There are six things that the Lord hates. Yea. In the Old Testament, in the Old King James, it's yea, seven. Here it's, yes, seven are abomination. If you think six are a lot, there's really seven, and it's a bunch. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run in evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one whose souls sows discord among the brethren. That almost sounds like a typical church today, doesn't it? I know it's not our church. Well, I do know that we have some of these struggles in our own body, don't we? And if we're honest, we have broken all those things. So, in essence, we are hated by God too. We are hated. And yet his love for us is so great that he became one of us, died on the cross in our place, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us so that we could be loved by him in relationship once again. Are you catching some of this? This is heavy stuff. The Lord hates us, but he loves us. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Why did he love Esau? I mean, why did he love Jacob? Why did he love me? Because I'm just as evil as the next guy. We'll chew on that as we get into our study. That's just the setup. Chapter 9, verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? I mean, picking one over another? Because we're all sinners, aren't we? So he's picking one that's sinful over the other that's not sinful. Is that the deal? Is he not righteous? Certainly not. He is the epitome of righteousness. He's the definition of righteousness. And it's his righteousness that he imputes to us that makes us right with God. But just for the sake of argument, this is God. Verse 15. He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whoever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whoever I'll have compassion. It's not about, you know, that person deserves it, that person doesn't. God and his grace is God, and he can do what he chooses to do. And yet, in his love and his grace and his mercy towards us, he's revealed his heart to us through his word. And he shows us that he desires to have mercy on compassion and compassion on everyone. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Are you following? So then it's not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. It goes back to what he's been saying the whole time. Look, it's not about you wanting to please God and doing some great things, running hard, working hard to get God's attention, so he'll say, Oh, I really want to choose him because he's done all these great things. It isn't. It doesn't matter what we do, it doesn't please God except for believing him. And it's because of God's mercy. It's of God who shows mercy. The only reason we have any possibility of entering into his presence is because of his mercy towards us. You know, they talk about the difference between mercy and grace. Grace is getting what we don't deserve, and mercy is not getting what we do deserve. What do we deserve? Eternal punishment. That is what we deserve. And yet, God, in his mercy, will give us life, will give us health, will give us healing for eternity. And to make some examples here, he brings up Pharaoh from the Old Testament. Verse 17, for the scriptures say to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the world, in all the earth. He chose at the specific time this Pharaoh to be Pharaoh at the time in order to free the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt, to be a picture of what Jesus would do for us, to free us from the slavery of this world called Egypt, and to bring us into the promised land. And he would use the Pharaoh to do it. And the Pharaoh thought himself to be God, and all these curses that came went against all the other gods that the Egyptians would would worship. And God gave this Pharaoh an opportunity to recognize hey, there's a God that's more powerful than all the gods of Egypt. There's a God more powerful than I am. I need to repent and turn to this God. And there were a couple of times where he seemed to be heading that way, but then he hardened his heart. And hardened his heart again. And hardened his heart again. And then, verse 18, therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and on whom he wills, he hardens. Pharaoh was one that he showed both to. God showed mercy to Pharaoh, gave him opportunity after opportunity to repent and turn and to find real life and real freedom in the Lord. And yet, time after time after time, the Pharaoh would harden his heart, and eventually the Lord. Would finish the job and harden Pharaoh's heart. The gospel is given as a message to all the world, to whosoever will accept it. The problem is, much of the world is going to reject it. Is going to reject the gospel. And when we reject the gospel, then there's no hope for us. The fact that God would even give us this opportunity is beyond understanding because of the sin nature that we have. We deserve death. But he's offering us life. And if we don't accept the life that he offers us, then we have what? Death. Because that's what we started with, and that's where we'll remain. And Pharaoh was a picture of that. Verse 19. You'll say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? This is God, and he's working in in all of creation. And there's this idea that, you know, if he's going to pick and choose who's going to be hardened and who's going to be, you know, accepted. And that's what they were starting to think with what he was saying, but that's not what he was saying. Who has resisted his will? The truth is we have all resisted his will. Haven't we? We've pushed against him. We say, no, I don't believe. I'm going to do my own thing. Even as Christians, not today, Lord. I want to do what I want to do. That's why we keep needing to come back to this truth that you know you need to be walking in the spirit and not in your flesh. Deny your flesh. Pick up your cross. Follow after him. Trust in the gospel. The first day that you came to faith, and every day that you continue to walk in faith. God didn't make robots, he made living souls, persons, with hearts, with desires, with ability to say yes or no. So it's it's why does he still find fault? It's not like God is there picking out on people. You're doing good today, you're doing bad, you're doing bad. Another way to put it is he reveals our sin to us because that's for our good. If we don't know our sin, then we don't know the precarious position that we're in. It's his grace that he reveals our sin to us and gives us the ability to respond to his gospel. Verse 20. But indeed, O man, why who who are who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? And again, there are a lot of smarter people that can break this up and apply this in ways, but I'm going to just share with you what I'm seeing here. Who are we to question God? I mean, he's given us free wills, but God is God, and in his grace, he's revealing himself to us so we can understand. We're to pray to have the mind of Christ, understand things from his perspective. Our perspective is tainted. Our perspective is tainted by the fall. It's tainted by our own flesh. It's tainted by the things of the world. It's tainted by doctrines of demons. But the Lord wants us to have his heart, so he calls us later on in Romans 12 to renew our minds by the washing of the water of the Word, right? So we can say, why do you make me like this? Why have you made me fallen? It doesn't matter why I made you fallen, because I didn't make you fallen. You made you fallen because of Adam and Eve. You're born into fallen, and I'm here to point out your fallenness and to give you a solution to your fallenness. Quit trying to get answers to that and find the answers in me.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You've been listening to Pastor Carl here on Come On Up, as he covered another interesting passage in Romans. The book of Romans has many meaningful verses that are good to keep in mind. For example, Romans 6.23 states, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Never forget that God's generous gift of salvation through faith allows you to be saved by grace. May you walk in that truth today. Come on Up comes to you from the Mountain Cross, a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We meet Sundays at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina, beginning at 10 a.m. To learn more about us, visit our website, themountaincross.com. You can also make plans to join us for the next Faith Film Night. We show faith-based films on the first Monday of each month. Our February film is the 10th anniversary presentation of Risen, which follows a Roman soldier who was given the task of finding Jesus' body after the resurrection. Mark your calendar for Risen back on the big screen, Monday, February 2nd at 6.30 p.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. To learn more, go to themountaincross.com. You can also search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. That's all we have for today. But come on up to the mountain with us again tomorrow as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.