We are saved by God's love for us and in turn our love for God draws us to follow Him.
It is not our own power to love God that saves us; love for God is something that God gives us through the Holy Spirit because God loves us, but we must accept it and as we open our hearts to God and experience the Lord’s goodness we begin to love God more. A relationship with God should not be motivated by fear. I'm not saying it isn’t appropriate for humans to ever have concern about God’s judgment, but we don’t need to live with that as our focus and follow God primarily out of concern for our own wellbeing. This is selfish and reveals a misunderstanding of God’s character.
God’s judgment, however harsh it might seem, is motivated by love for humanity. Punishing the wrong doer not only gives the person a wakeup call to repent it also discourages others from following a harmful example. “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ swears Adonai Elohim, ‘I take no pleasure in having the wicked person die, but in having the wicked person turn from his way and live. So repent! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, house of Isra’el?’” Ezekiel 33:11. God doesn’t cut off with the intent to harm us but to heal. God’s love for us is deep and consistent. Knowing this can give us confidence to follow God no matter the cost and to love God with a motivation of gratitude.
We should be able to say, “If we are insane, it is for God’s sake; and if we are sane, it is for your sake. For the Messiah’s love has hold of us, because we are convinced that one man died on behalf of all mankind (which implies that all mankind was already dead), and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer for themselves but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised.” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15. We can look like fools to our friends and enemies to follow God without concern when we recall all God has done for us.
“There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.” 1 John 4:18. If your relationship with God has been rooted in fear, pray to have your heart re-rooted in a relationship with God and developing trusting relationship with the Lord.
