This sentence contains an entire theology in four words. Understand its meaning, and you are a theologian. Dive into its depths, and you are a master teacher. Here is the entire message of salvation that came to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer, compressed into one promise. And everything hangs on that word: "freely."

This is the glorious, the only possible, the divine way that love pours down from heaven to earth. A spontaneous love, rushing toward those who never deserved it, never bought it, never even looked for it. It is, in fact, the only way God could love creatures like us.

This text is a death blow to every attempt at spiritual fitness. "I will love them freely." If we needed to get fit first, if we needed to meet some standard, then he wouldn't be loving us freely. There would be strings attached, conditions to meet. But the promise stands naked and glorious: "I will love them freely."

We protest, "Lord, my heart is so hard." "I will love you freely." "But I don't feel my need of Christ the way I should." "I will not love you because you feel your need. I will love you freely." "But I don't have that broken, tender spirit I know I should have."

Listen! A softened spirit is not a condition. There are no conditions. The covenant of grace has no conditions whatever! So we can come, without any fitness whatsoever, and claim the promise God made to us in Christ Jesus when he said, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned."

What a blessed thing to know! The grace of God is free to us at all times. Without preparation. Without fitness. Without money. Without price! "I will love them freely."

These words are especially for backsliders. In fact, the whole text was written for the wanderer: "I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely." Backslider! Surely the sheer generosity of this promise will break your heart right now. Come back. Seek your injured Father's face.