GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
The guy in the t-shirt promoting abortion, the sexual revolution, social victimization, and open borders said that I was a misogynist, legalist, and racial bigot because I did not agree with his t-shirt. Am I?
Honestly, I felt the arrow. Maybe I harbor hidden bias. Perhaps I don't love the world as Jesus does. Then I remembered some verses from the apostle John that give perspective.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. -- 1 John 3:18-19 (ESV)
Our own hearts are not infallible in evaluating our standing in righteousness. God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. His verdict is the one that matters. (Now, there is a t-shirt for Christians: God's verdict matters.)
What does it mean to love the world? Well, we know God does. What does his love look like?
First, he didn't allow the world to define love or what was needed. He looked beyond the deceptive thoughts of people bound in sin, and blind to true beauty, and gave the only gift that would free us and restore the glory of humans. He gave to meet the needs we had misidentified, so we could enjoy a greater liberty than we could imagine.
In order to prove my love, do I have to agree with everyone? It would be anything but authentic love to promote what I believe is destructive.
Second, he gave himself at great cost. It wasn't just a theory he was promoting. He didn't give a new ideology or fresh idea on how to structure society. He came into our dilemma and accepted the eternal consequences of our condition so that we could enter his condition as righteous before God.
Third, he loved us as people. Each of us has a unique story of need, though we share a common alienation from God because of sin. Jesus doesn't deal with us as a subset of society classified by our ethnicity, sex, or social standing. He loves persons!
Someone asked me if my biblical worldview prevented my loving the LGBTQ community. Instead, it compels me to love the people who may identify or be classified by those letters.
I know and love many people who have been classified in this subset -- and I am eager and willing to love many more. I am just not sure what loving a subset of society means. In order to prove my love, do I have to agree with the particular agenda of that subset? It would be anything but authentic love to promote what I believe is destructive. If Jesus had loved like that, he would have abandoned us to our own wishes, consigning us to the misery of self-delusion forever. I can respect their right to believe without affirming their belief to be right.
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Jesus' love was expressed in that while we were yet bound in deception and ignorant of our desperate condition, he did what was necessary to set us free. (See Romans 5:8.) Love is costly, and it expresses itself in actions. It cares more for the condition of another than for our own comfort and ease. (See 1 Corinthians 13.)
If I listen to the angry voices telling me who I am, I will either shrink from being real, or I will strike back and lose my sense of peace. Either way, I will be weak and cowardly. Confidence comes from knowing God's verdict and accepting it as final. That frees me to see any person as created in the image of God, valuable and worth loving. It also releases me to hear God, my Father when he lovingly tells me that I have hidden bias he wants to eliminate. I like being loved like that, and I want that for everyone.
I was surprised to discover that some 1700 people are injured each year from vending machines, including 2-4 fatalities. But after some thought, I can identify. I have shaken more than one and even kicked a few. After all, those menacing thieves just take your money and stand there with no apology, and they offer no recourse.
Then, I thought about the people I know who have perceived of God as a vending machine. They have kicked him, shaken him, and finally rejected him just because he didn't belch out the goody they thought they were getting when they did their part.
It is easy to see why so many view God in this way. We live in a transactional world. We have been sufficiently warned that there is no free lunch. You get what you pay for.
Sadly, the message of the church is often a transactional one. We hear it often, as some spokesperson for God reminds us that if we only put in the right coinage, God will spit out the blessing we have selected. We merely need to know the currency that he accepts and identify the buttons to press.
Myrtle was a handful. I'm told she was once the beauty of the town. Now, however, she looked hard and hopeless. She demanded her way in the local church, the community and in her dysfunctional marriage.
When a counselor asked why she was so negative, she revealed that God had let her down. She had prayed for her sick child to be healed, but the three-year-old girl had died. "Prayer doesn't work." She said. "God is a hoax. If he were any good at all, he would hear the prayers of hurting people like me."
For Myrtle, prayer was the coinage inserted into the vending machine god. It malfunctioned.
Charles and Sarah had returned from the mission field. They were not only tired from years of hard service in poor living conditions, but they were also depleted in their souls.
They had been eager to go and serve the poor and lost, assured that God would bless them for their sacrifice. They did not see much success from their work, and their own children had turned against God and the church. "I just feel like God let us down," Charles mumbled.
We don't do well trying to negotiate with God. We don't have anything he really needs. He has negotiated with himself to provide for us what we really need. God the Father promised some humans unimaginable blessings for their obedience. No one could fully obey. God the Son became a human and obeyed. He received the fulfillment of the promise.
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Our only hope is to be included in the Son's identity. That is exactly what he offers. We buy without money and without price. (See Isaiah 55:1.) It is true that nothing is free. Jesus paid a heavy price for our privilege of enjoying fellowship with God. His radical grace calls for a radical faith that embraces his life as our own. We then find ourselves giving and serving out of his abundance rather than in an effort to gain it.
Avoid the vending machine god. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for us a feast-table in the presence of our enemies. Humbly we accept his invitation to "come and dine." His blessings are beyond number, and his willingness to bless is beyond measure.
Romans 8:28 has become a hallmark verse for so many Christians. Paul tells the Christians at Rome, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” What an amazing promise! God will work everything to my good.
The post Does God Cause All Things to Turn Out For Your Good? appeared first on MichaelWilson.org.
