Would you die….. for a Bad Person?

I’m sure that a great many of us would die to save our child……or our spouse………but would you die to save somebody who treats you badly?

As a conservative, would I willingly die to save Nancy Pelosi?

As a liberal, would you willingly die to save Donald Trump?

Would Trump willingly die to save Pelosi?

Would Pelosi willingly die to save Trump?

Ludicrous, isn’t it?

Our nature is that we are far more likely to wish our enemy dead than to sacrifice our life to save him. And yet that is exactly what God did. We have all sinned. We have all done enough wrong to separate ourselves from God. We have spit in his face so many times that we could easily qualify as his enemies. We pat ourselves on the back and call to mind some act of kindness. But the truth is that we have lied, stolen, dishonoured, coveted, lusted, and far more. On God’s scale of rightness…….on God’s scale of goodness…….on God’s scale of purity…….we are as far removed from him as hell is from paradise.

And yet……..in the person of Jesus…….he willingly died a gruesome death. Why did he do that?

He did it to save us from pain…….he did it to save us from damnation.

What was he thinking? Was he temporarily out of his mind? We would never do something like that for a friend………much less an enemy.

WHY??

The fact is that God is not like us…..he is not like me.

This bears repeating.

God is not like us.

He is so different from us that when we try to understand him, using our rules…….our standards……we fail completely. Our rules just can’t handle this situation. Even worse, we are so satisfied with our rules, our way of operating……..we are so sure that we are right………we are so confident………that we decide that God must be wrong. Some of us even decide that God doesn’t exist……….he can’t exist, because he is so different from us……. because he doesn’t operate by our rules……..how’s that for tolerance?

So……..why would God do something so completely crazy……. something that we would never do? Why would God subject himself to crucifixion?

Love.

Love is the very essence of God. God loves us in a way that is so far beyond our experience that we cannot understand it. Because we cannot wrap out heads around this kind of love, we reject it…….we reject God. And that is the greatest failure, the greatest loss we will ever experience.

Enter faith.

At its heart, faith is the act of accepting the reality of something that we cannot understand. We tend to think of faith as a Sunday kind of act. But, the truth is, we act on faith many times every single day. We do not understand why gravity works; but, we trust that when we toss the dog a ball…….it will fall to the ground. We like to believe that we are rational, scientific creatures; but, we can’t get through an hour without acting in faith on something that we do not understand.

I don’t understand how my computer works.
I don’t understand why the cut on my thumb heals.
I don’t understand how the glue in my shop works.
I don’t understand the love of my granddaughter.

And yet, I forge ahead, acting in absolute confidence that I can rely on these things…….and countless more. I act on faith.

I cannot understand why God, with all of his power, would endure crucifixion……….for me.

I simply accept……as an act of faith……that God loves me with a sacrificial, parental love that operates by a set of rules that I am blind to. I accept this, not because I can measure it or prove it. I accept this purely on faith……..and I forge ahead…… absolutely confident that I can rely on the love of my creator.

I cannot understand it………..but it works……..and my life is far richer for it.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

John, NIV

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

God, NIV

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends,”

Jesus, NIV