The Grace of God!

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. – Matthew 22:37-38, Titus 2:11-12 NIV

The FIRST and GREATEST commandment of God is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37-38), but do you know why? It is because of the mercy and the grace of God which offers salvation that we are made to be new creations in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17) to be the righteousness of God:

There is salvation in no one else! God has given NO other name under heaven by which we must be saved. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (Acts 4:12, 2 Corinthians 5:21)

Why we were/are sinners though, especially before Jesus Christ was crucified? What is the reason? We are sinners, because of the world, since “… the whole world is under the control of [Satan], the evil one.” (1 John 5:19) For this reason, Jesus cut our sins away by crucifying Himself on the Cross. So we could gain ETERNAL life through Him. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)

Overall, we should really love the Lord, our God in full-devotion, enough to say “Yes” to all of the God’s word spoken by the Holy Spirit and through the Bible, for the word of God NEVER fails and we are His children (1 John 3:1):

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. For NO word from God will ever fail. (2 Corinthians 1:20, Luke 1:37)

And because we are the children of God, we should overcome the world as well, since the whole world is under the control of Satan who is the enemy of God:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5)