True Love
There’s quite a lot going on in our lives to day, don’t you think? What with Christis production to plan, charities to raise money for, world-view questionnaires on Vanbrugh stalls, prayer groups to schedule and a bit of time on the side for tea with the vicar (I wish), who knows how I, your average modern Christian, can even fit time in for my degree!
As Christians, we all get caught up in this way of thinking to a greater or lesser extent at some point in our lives. We get so busy with the periphery of Christian life, the drudgery almost, that we forget about the one amazing gift that God has given us, the one that makes it all worthwhile, that justifies everything we do. I am of course talking about His love for us.
Remember that ours is not only a faith where people can live forever in perfect harmony with our creator God (by no means a universal belief), but it is the only major world religion where this eternal life is achieved in no part at all by the actions of believers on Earth, but is given entirely free by God — all we have to do to receive it is ask Him and He will deliver, for the simple reason that He loves us.
A common phrase you’ll over hear if you stand round churches long enough is that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and nothing that will make Him love us less either. This is very true — a quick read through the Old Testament shows a constant cycle emerging, one that goes something like this: God promises his people great things, they get all these great things and then decide to reject Him, life goes badly wrong for them, God rescues his people for no better reason than He loves them, certain in the knowledge that they’ll do it again.
Look in Genesis: right after the fall (surely the biggest human screw — up of all time) He promises that one of the woman’s descendents will “strike the serpent on the head” (Genesis 3:15). Move forward to Exodus: God rescues the Israelites from Egypt, only for them to start building idols out of gold. Only a chapter later, God promises that “I will go with you and give you peace” (Exodus 33:14). In the books of Kings, the people reject God, but two books later in Ezra, He gives them His support to start rebuilding the ruins of Jerusalem. Right at the end of the Bible in Revelation, John writes about a perfect kingdom where we are God’s people at last, where He has destroyed all that is evil and “They will never hunger or thirst again…and He will wipe away all of their tears” (Revelation 7:17).
A poor love it is that we humans can show to each other, compared to God’s. Think back to the hippy generation, with its promise of ‘free love for all’. As it was, their philosophy went out of fashion and we got the bleak world outlook of the seventies instead — the only difference from before was a few more people in rehab. Human love can pass away, but God’s love endures. Remember also that almost every big Christian ‘crusade’ in history seems to have ended with most of the ‘heathen’ being killed in unpleasant ways. Perhaps we have never been quite able to grasp the implications of “Love your enemies and be good to everyone who hates you” (Luke 6:27). We are told to love others just as much as we love ourselves. None of us will ever really match up to that and once again God’s love is the only thing that can save us.
But this time, love comes at a price. Christ’s death on the cross would at the time have been seen as the agonizing, wretched, feeble, demeaning, crushing thing crucifixion was, a failure for God even. In fact, it was the most powerful, magnificent, and truly wonderful expression of pure abundant sacrificial love that a God could ever show to His people — far greater than we shall ever be able to comprehend on this earth, and way beyond anything we could hope to deserve. Christ truly did (and does) love us as much as he loved himself.
Back in the present day, our Christian lives are muddled by many things. Should we tithe our income before or after tax deductions? What should our view be on a new discovery about the theory of evolution? What does the Bible really mean when it’s talking about the end of the world — how should we interpret the weird picture language at the end of Revelation? Is boycotting Nestlé really a good idea?
Yes, life really is a mess. It’s going to be a hard job sorting it out, and as mere humans, there’s no guarantee we can manage it. As Christians we’re called to “take up your cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Being a Christian is no easy task, it involves making sacrifices of our own, and giving over control of our lives to God. But with love as all surpassing as we have seen, who could choose otherwise?