by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
God loves the lost and seeks to save them. They are not saved and accepted just because God loves them. Love longs for reconciliation, but just because God loves us it does not mean we are reconciled to God. God demonstrated His love by giving His only Son for us (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). But reconciliation takes two people wanting the points of difference removed and resolved so that both are acceptable to the other. We are urged to “be reconciled to God.” Thus, there is something we must do to let it take place. The father of the prodigal son loved his son, even when his son was miles away in heart and distance, but the father and son could not be reconciled until the son had a change of heart and made the move to go home to his father (Luke 15). Likewise, God wants us to wake up, come to realize what we did to break up a good relationship and come home to Him. Being accepted and reconciled comes after repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38; 22:16) in the name of Jesus. Love longs for us and desires our reconciliation. Whether it happens is up to us!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton God loves the lost and seeks to save them. They are not saved and accepted just because God loves them. Love longs for reconciliation, but just because God loves us it does not mean we are reconciled to God. God demonstrated His love by giving His only Son for us (John…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1267,65,47],"class_list":["post-54822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-acceptance","tag-love","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":58748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-love-in-heaven-when-sinners-are-in-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":54822,"position":0},"title":"How can there be love in heaven when sinners are in hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good Evening, Thank you so much for all the resources included on the La Vista Church of Christ website.\u00a0 My son and I have been using these articles for years.\u00a0Unfortunately, my son is now a wayward Christian, and he asked me the following questions in a recent Bible study\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87853,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/he-died-for-my-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":54822,"position":1},"title":"He Died for My Sins","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Allen Dvorak via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 What would you be willing to do for your enemy? To the Romans, Paul wrote that God demonstrated His love for us \"in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us\" (Romans 5:8). We (men in general)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/perversion-of-the-love-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":54822,"position":2},"title":"Perversion of the Love of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Many want to continue a sinful practice so much that they think they can use the love of God to justify it. God does so love the world that He gave His Son to die for sinners. He loved me while I was yet a sinner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85369,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reconciled\/","url_meta":{"origin":54822,"position":3},"title":"Reconciled","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer When we are outside of Christ, we can be described in various ways, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36), lost (Luke 19:10), or without God (Ephesians 2:13). Descriptors like these help us see our condition apart from Jesus. Understanding where we are without Him is vital\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-our-mediator-and-intercessor\/","url_meta":{"origin":54822,"position":4},"title":"Jesus, Our Mediator and Intercessor","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer When we consider what Jesus does for us as His people, two terms are used to help us understand why it is so important to trust Him. Scripture teaches that Jesus is both our Mediator and our Intercessor. Let's consider these terms. Jesus Is Our Mediator \"For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40103,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unconditional-love-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":54822,"position":5},"title":"Unconditional Love?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Benton in Answering Religious Error, April 15, 2015 That God's love is \"unconditional\" means one thing to one person and a different thing to someone else. The Bible does not use the expression \"unconditional love\" but does imply it. God \"so loved\" the world (John 3:16). That would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}