I’m sure I’m not the first person to link God to the word radical. Not radical philosophies. Radical love.
From day one, God began the relationship with His image bearers by walking with them in the cool of the day. 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?
From the moment the fellowship with God was broken, God already had a plan set in motion to restore it.
God is merciful and at times He practically begged His people to repent so He could forgive them so that they could fellowship with Him again. 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 hurts Him. Someone once said, “God hates sin because it robs Him of the people He loves.”
The ancient gods had to be appeased, but that appeasement did not satisfy them. They were vindictive, required horrendous sacrifices (like the death of children) and were made by human hands, backed by demons. The God of the Bible loves to the point of His own pain to restore what sin cost us in Eden. That’s why Jesus came. He made a way to free us from all the forces of evil, including and especially the sin nature that is in us.
God of the New Testament
Jesus came into a broken world already knowing that by doing so He would face hostility, rejection, hatred, and a brutal death. 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.
If He had wanted the approval of the people of His day, He would not have condemned their actions. The religious leaders thought they were already good enough for a holy God—as if they could earn their way into the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said their religion wasn’t good enough. Only those who are broken know that. “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
Jesus did not meet the expectations of anyone looking for a Messiah. The people of Jesus’ day wanted a political rescuer. Someone to defeat their political enemies. Jesus didn’t come to mend 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. 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.
Jesus even loved the friend who betrayed Him. He loved through His torturous death on Roman cross. Jesus loved so that we could become His family. Reconciled to walk again in the garden where the lion or the wolf sleeps beside the lamb and the birds sing songs so pure we can’t even imagine the sound.
It’s “normal” in our sinful world to reject, hate, take sides, revile, disdain, and feel all manner of unkind things against each other. 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.
Jesus’ love is sacrificial. He suffered so that we don’t have to. There is no other God in human history who would choose to satisfy His own requirement to fix what we have broken. He only asks that we believe in Him. Accept His love. Allow Him to restore us to the relationship we once knew, that He still wants. There is no other who loves like that.
~Selah.
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