Sunday thoughts: yes...but

 A couple of weeks ago some friends and I heard a Christian talk in a public place, and I came away with an uneasy feeling.  There were many statements made in that talk that were completely true, and yet I was concerned that the people hearing them would understand them in a completely different way than the truth of the Bible.  I can't remember enough of this talk to do an in-depth analysis on it (I was keeping eye on my children who wanted to go on a merry-go-round - hardly a situation for taking notes!) and I have little interest in critiquing a preacher I don't know (or even one I do know) on this blog.  But it got me thinking about 'yes...but' statements, and so today I'm going to explore a couple of them.

"God loves you"

This unequivocally true.  For God so loved the world, he gave his only son (John 3:16).  

However, what happens when we hear this statement in isolation?  What could it mean?  It could very well mean that you're ok as you are, that God approves of everything you do.  My childrens' grandparents are sometimes found to say that their grandchildren are perfect, that they can do no wrong!  But statements like this come out of love.  Actually, luckily my childrens' grandparents only say these things in jest, because they know that my children are often naughty, and they love them regardless.

God's love goes deeper even than that. We cannot even begin to understand the depths of God's love if we do not understand that we are at first alienated from him: dead in [our] transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1).  The fact that God loves us does not change the fact that we have rebelled against his way and in doing so we hurt his world and break his heart.  God loving us does not make this ok, but the results of God's love mean that there is a way out - a rescue plan - if only we chose to accept it.  The totality of John 3:16 is: For God so loved the world, he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).   God's love is great enough the he ripped himself apart to rescue us.  We cannot understand that if we don't realise that we need rescuing.

"Good Friday wasn't about criticising anyone"

This is a statement I heard, and again, if you take 'anyone' to mean people in the world, then that is true.  John goes on to say: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world... (John 3:17). See also the time when Jesus stood up in the synagogue and quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 about himself, but stops short in the middle of the last sentence, saying he had come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, but missing the rest of the sentence: and the day of vengeance of our God (Isaiah 61:2).

But Jesus also said: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17), and so it is impossible that Jesus would have simply forgotten about or decided to omit that last part of the sentence in his Isaiah passage.  No - he knew that the judgement of God would come eventually.  His silence on the last part of the sentence was to say not yet: I have come to save you first.

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In these two very linked examples, there is a common theme as to why they may be misunderstood, and that is the fact that we think these statements tell us more about ourselves that they do about God.  When many people hear God loves you, the conclusion they draw is that this is a statement about them: God loves me because I am worthy of love.  Actually, it's a statement, first and foremost, about God - he is love, and he loves us despite our failings and our disregard of him and our consistent hurting of others.  We can say that we have value - that we are wonderfully made (see, for example, Psalm 139), but only because God loves us and we reflect his glorious design - it comes back to him.

And when many hear that God isn't judging them, again, they hear: God isn't judging you because you've done nothing wrong, not God isn't judging you because in his infinite mercy Jesus died for you and took that judgement away.  Again, it says more about God that it does about us.  We are worthy of judgement, and yet God has taken that away if we accept Jesus.

To finish, Jesus tells a story of two people who owed money - one owed 500 denari, and the other 50.  The moneylender forgives them both, and Jesus asks his listener which will therefore love the moneylender more - the answer being the one with the bigger debt forgiven (Luke 7:41-43).  The fact that we have lost sight of our debt means that we fail to understand the true implications of God's love.  

God loves us - it says more about him than it does about us.