Radical God

I’m sure I’m not the first person to link God to the word radical. But I’m not talking about radical philosophies of our day or any time in history past, which led people to do horrific things to their fellow man. The God of the Bible is not an ideology. He is Almighty, Sovereign Creator. The list of His names in the Hebrew are many. You can see them on this website (Hebrew4Christians).

Just a study of His character revealed in His Name would take books to unwrap and that’s not the purpose of this post. What I would like to consider though is how radical Jesus, God the Son, appeared to the people of His day. And how radical the ancient Yahweh also showed who He is to the nations of antiquity.

Lest this become a book in length, I just wanted to bring out a few points I’ve been pondering as I write and as I spend time in devotional reading. First, since I write from the Old Testament narrative, let’s take a look at who God revealed Himself to be—His character—to those whom He created.

1. From day one, God began the relationship with His creatures—men and women in particular—by walking with them in the cool of the day, before sin entered the world. God has always wanted to talk to us. Can you picture walking with God in a garden with perfect beauty and no detractors like thistles and thorns or anything that could harm you? Did the lion walk with them and rub his chin against Adam’s hand? Did the birds flutter near to listen? What might Adam and Eve have told God about their day? What might God have said to them?
2. From the moment the fellowship with God was broken, God already had a plan set in motion to restore it. Did you know that even the Holy, sometimes frightening warrior God of the Old Testament was far more about mercy and restoration and forgiveness than He was the things He is accused of, things that seem abhorrent to us today? His justice demanded sin be punished, but His desire for reconciliation was greater. He has never wanted to punish us for our sins. He has always wanted us to be forgiven.
3. God restricts His anger against sin and evil, holding back His wrath against both, because of love. Yes, even in the Old Testament, God showed His mercy and at times it was as if He practically begged the people to repent so He could forgive. He sent prophet after prophet to warn them. They knew His laws, even promised to obey them, then broke their promise over and over again. Did you know God feels? Our rejection of Him hurts Him. Someone once said, “God hates sin because it robs Him of the people He loves.

HOW DOES THIS MAKE GOD RADICAL? CAN YOU NAME ANY OTHER GOD, EITHER ANCIENT OR CURRENT THAT LOVES LIKE THAT? THAT WANTS TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS CREATION? THAT ISN’T OUT FOR OUR HARM BUT OUR GOOD?

I’ve studied many of the ancient gods and all I see are creatures that were meant to be appeased and had vindictive attitudes toward people. That’s not to say that Christians have not misrepresented God. Or that people haven’t misread Scripture. But if you take the whole book and ask God for understanding, you may not grasp it all – no one can – but you will see the heart of God, which has always been good, even when His holiness forces Him to punish sin. That may be hard to grasp, but in some ways, don’t we want to see evil punished? Don’t we want to see justice in an unjust world?

THE MOST RADICAL THING ABOUT OUR GOD IS THAT HE LOVES US. IN FACT, HIS LOVE EXTENDED TO THE POINT THAT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING HE KNEW HOW HE HIMSELF WOULD RECONCILE WHAT SIN HAD STOLEN FROM HIM. HIS PEOPLE. BUT IT COST HIM THE LIFE OF HIS OWN SON TO DO SO.

So how was Jesus radical? Again, there are many things I could mention, but I’ll focus on three.

1. He came into a broken world already knowing that by doing so He would face hostility, rejection, hatred, and a brutal death. Before He ever allowed the Spirit to do His work to make Him into human form, He knew His mission. Can you imagine doing something like that? No one likes to work in a hostile environment. No one likes to feel rejected or hated or treated with disdain. And hands down none of us would want to suffer as He did when He died. I imagine things about a lot of people in Scripture and how they might have felt in a given situation, but I cannot put my imagination to work when it comes to how Jesus feels or felt then.
2. He came to suffer and die as He did out of radical love. If He had wanted the approval of the people of His day, He would not have condemned their actions. Actually, He condemned the religious leaders and forgave the prostitutes. Why? Because the sinners, as the leaders saw them, knew they were broken and needed saving. The religious leaders thought they were already good enough for a holy God—as if they could earn salvation. Every other religion teaches that we can earn or must earn our way into God’s good graces. Jesus said our best wasn’t good enough. Only those who are broken know that. “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
3. He did not meet the expectations of anyone looking for a Messiah/Savior. The people of Jesus’ day wanted a political rescuer. Someone to defeat their political enemies. If you read the New Testament, you know that Jesus never got political. Even when goaded to choose whether they should pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus turned their trap on its head. He didn’t come to fix the political ills of His day. He didn’t leave His followers with the mission to fix the nations using might or power. He didn’t ordain the Crusades or other atrocities done in His Name. He never said that the world would appreciate His followers and look to them to fix the world. His mission was not to hate those who disagreed with His message or who treated His followers with persecution or rejection or disdain. His message was to spread the good news of forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to God, which was the whole point from the very start.

HIS MESSAGE WAS TO TEACH THE WORLD THAT THE GOAL OF THIS LIFE IS “TO LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

If we can look at one another today, in our hostile world, our polarized political climate, our “I’m right, she’s wrong” attitudes, and remember that Jesus told us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate you, then maybe, just maybe, we can live that same radical love and grace that God demonstrated for us from Genesis to the Resurrection, and continues to woo us with His love right up until and throughout Revelation, which is yet to come.

The God of the Bible is a most radical person, and Jesus showed us how by the way He loved even those who spit in His face. Jesus loved even the one whom he called “friend” and yet that friend betrayed Him. Jesus loved even when His agony over what He came to endure caused blood to pour out like sweat from his body. Jesus loved even when we were His enemies for the sole purpose of welcoming us to become His family. The people He could walk with in the garden where the lion or the wolf sleeps beside the lamb and the birds sing a song so pure we cannot even fathom the sound.

It’s “normal” in our sinful world to reject, hate, take sides against, revile, disdain, and feel all manner of unkind things against our fellow human beings. It’s not normal to do good to those who mistreat you and to love with such a radical love that we act like Jesus did.

Radical God. Radical Son of God. Radical love.

May we be that kind of radical to a watching, needy, broken world filled with humans who need God’s love as much as we do. And He loves them just as much as He does us.

~Selah.

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