For the Love of God

John 3:16

This single verse is the gospel. In its simple phrases, it captures the essence of what we believe. It also directs us in how we are to respond. Hear and believe this good news.

GOD LOVED

John is the theologian of love. It is John who wrote, “God is love.” Therefore, it is no surprise that as John summarizes the gospel, he begins with the assertion that all we experience in Christ is an act of God’s love. For John, there is no question of God’s motivation--everything God says and does is an expression of love, from creation to redemption--it is all love.

That is our assurance as we face the confusion, ambiguity, and uncertainty of our own existence. We exist because we are an expression of God’s love--God created us in love, for love. That gives life meaning, no matter how meaningless the context becomes. Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and one of the greatest minds in 20th Century psychology, found that love could even illuminate the abject darkness and madness of life in a concentration camp. Love gave them meaning and impetus to survive. If love can transform life even there, think of what it can do with our far more mundane forms of existence. Love can lead us through each day. It can give us the confidence to face the inherent chaos of the world. It does so because it gives us a way to meet one another. If we meet one another in love, we can open the road before us in ways that offer help, comfort, and presence to one another. 

And that can make all the difference. That brings the power and presence of Christ into play.

GOD GAVE

Which was why God gave us Christ in the first place. We need to begin with a firm recognition, though, of the order in which faith proceeds--it begins--always and forever--with God. As creatures of chaos, we are continually in a battle with ourselves not to regress into the chaos from which we came (cf. Gen. 1). The truth is that left to ourselves, it is not a fair fight--chaos rules. But God did not leave us to ourselves. God gave us a gift of love--perhaps THE gift of love. God saw and acted, not waiting for us to come to our senses, save ourselves, get our act together, or solve the puzzle of existence. We’d still be lost and hopeless. No, God acted and gave us Christ. In Christ, we then find the embodiment of the love that is God--other-centered and self-sacrificial. 

Remember that as the world continually preaches the gospel of self-interest. David Brooks wrote a telling essay in the Tuesday Times in which he argued that in order to realize the goodness of life, we have to sacrifice our basic libertarianism--we cannot live only to self and find meaning, happiness, or purpose. Love requires self-sacrifice, mutuality, and constant remembrance that we are interdependent, interconnected, and intertwined. Then we can find happiness and hope because love leads us. We find fullness, fulfillment, and fealty--all through giving--the more we give, the more we have.

THE SON

God gave us Christ whom we claim to be the Son of God. 

But what does that mean in practical terms?

It means that as we encounter and experience Christ, we encounter and experience God. They are that intimately connected. God chose to reveal himself in Jesus Christ. 

So, what do we see?

Compassion, first and foremost. Christ met the world in openness, acceptance, and mercy. Christ took people as they came. They did not need to prepare themselves first. He simply met them where they were. He met lepers in their abject illness. He met demoniacs in their madness. He spoke with Samaritans in their untouchability. He called tax collectors to follow straight from their tax offices. He took skeptics with their questions. He took pompous oafs in their arrogance. In so doing, he welcomed them with love. Then, he transformed them as he healed them of themselves. No one who entered his presence left unchanged. 

So, God meets you and me as we are. We can stand before our God without the fear that what God finds will immediately result in our rejection. No, God meets us here and now, and it is okay. But we will be changed. Compassion leads to transformation. God will work within us, erasing, mending, shifting, and altering the raw material we present. Peter went from roughshod fisherman to eloquent preacher, and Paul went from self-righteous persecutor to persecuted missionary of love. Think what might happen to you and me. 

BELIEF

Bit there is a catch--we have to believe it to be so. Even as Jesus met everyone he encountered, this mechanic was in play. Christ welcomed anyone and everyone into his presence, but for some, there was no change--they decided that Jesus could not be the man others claimed him to be. That did not change his identity, nor his power, but God, in grace, allows for freedom--the choice to be in the circle is a real and actual choice to make. If we choose to stand outside it, then God lets us. 

The Gospel makes this clear with those who ended up in total rejection of Jesus. They did not believe. Nothing changed. Whole towns met this fate--like Jesus’ own hometown--”he could do no great works there,” intoned the evangelists. Pharisees were left bewildered, lost in their assumptions, missing reality. Romans were left in confusion, for Jesus seemed a mockery of real power. 

So, believe. Faith will open your eyes. Faith will clear your mind. Faith will melt your heart. Let it. Believe Jesus to be Christ. Believe that love can and will transcend you. Believe that it will lead you to a place you never imagined being. Believe.

DEATHLESS

What is the power of faith?

John makes his most radical assertion at this point--faith frees us from death. Yes, that means we can face the grave without fear. It means we can enter a cemetery and not lose all will to live in abject despair that no matter how much we achieve, this place is our end--i.e., nothing matters because we are going die. But it means a whole lot more than that, too. We can die in millions of ways. We die a little bit every time we get hurt. We die a little bit every time a dream fails to come true. We die a little bit every time love gets taken for granted. We die a little bit every time hope gets dashed. We die a little bit in every mistake. Faith frees us from all of those little deaths, too. With love, there are no lost causes, last chances, or missed opportunities, for love allows us to try again as many times as we need to in order to get it right. 

Just remember that little kid in the driveway, dribbling her basketball toward the goal, imagining the clock winding down, she turns, she shoots, the ball clangs off the rim...she stares at it, she frowns, then she goes and gets the ball, pauses, then starts counting down all over again. 

That is being deathless.

ETERNAL LIFE NOW

So, eternal life is now.

There is no end to life before God through Christ. The clock keeps getting reset so we can try again. 

So try.

Keep trying.

Keep going.

Love somebody.

That is the gospel truth.

Always has been, always will be.