He loves me, He loves me not
Have you ever noticed that when Jesus does most of His miracles we are rarely given people’s names? In the first chapter of Mark alone we see Jesus heal a demon possessed man, a man with leprosy, and Peter’s sick mother-in-law. (Some scholars believe the reason Peter denied Jesus three times is because Jesus healed his mother-in-law…I’m kidding). Instead of knowing their names, we’re often only given their gender and condition - the woman with the blood issue, the man with the withered hand, the blind man, etc. In fact, this is even common in our own lives today. We tend to label people by their gender and conditions - ‘he’s divorced, she’s had an abortion, he’s an alcoholic, she’s a user, he’s battling depression, she sleeps around.’ We love to label people by their struggles and mistakes because it’s easier to look down on others for doing things we wouldn’t.
However, in Christ you don’t have to be identified by your issues. It doesn’t matter what people call you, it only matters what you respond to. People may know your history but don’t let that affect your destiny. The last three blogs have been about understanding our identity as victorious in Christ, permanently forgiven, and fully righteous. This week, our label as a son or daughter of God is one simple word - LOVED.
It’s cliche only because we roll our eyes as we think we’ve heard it before. Yet, if we were to be real honest about how we think God views us, it usually lines up more with the vivid picture of a middle school boy plucking flower petals to see if his crush likes him - ‘She loves me, she loves me not.’ We believe God loves us when we’re good and then frowns upon us when we’re bad. Reality is, it’s impossible to follow God when you are unsure about how He feels towards you. You will never be able to love well until you recognize how loved you are by your Father in Heaven.
What does God’s face look like when He thinks about you? If the image of God’s face has anything but a smile, you have misunderstood the reality of His unconditional love for you. Because our human relationships are broken, we tend to project earthly relationships onto God. We refuse to believe that God is really as loving as He says He is so we create a god in our own image. We want God to be as gloomy, pessimistic, fussy, rude, legalistic, narrow-minded, judgmental, violent, unforgiving, and unloving like we are. We end up basing our identity on how well we are doing spiritually rather than on what God has declared over us in Christ. We must relate to God in light of who He really is, not just who we think or hope Him to be.
Brennan Manning, a man who preached the grace of God until he passed away several years ago believes the Lord Jesus is going to ask us one question and only one question when we see our Maker face to face. He believes God will look at us and ask, “Did you really believe that I loved you? That I desired you? That I waited for you day after day? That I longed to hear the sound of your voice?” He goes on to preach that many of us who are so faithful in ministry and church attendance, will reply to the question with a heartbreaking ‘no’. They’ll say they heard incredible sermons and teachings and even believed it occasionally through life but they really just thought it was the Christian way of patting people on the back and cheering them on. And that is the difference between real believers and the many people who say they follow Jesus in our churches today.
Bottom line is Jesus is our hero. Not because He comes and destroys our enemies but because He shed His blood on the cross for our enemies. He’s the One who has rescued us from sin and death. He is our lover and friend, ascribing to us unsurpassable worth. The cross is not the symbol of Christianity, the empty tomb is! Jesus is alive and He’s freeing us from the religious grave clothes that keep us in bondage. It’s time to break free from rituals and rules and run into the loving embrace of the Father - because we are His beloved! As author Jack Frost says, “Moving from slavery to sonship or daughterhood is a matter of reaching the place where you get up in the morning feeling so loved and accepted in your Father’s heart that your whole purpose for existence becomes looking for ways to give that love away to the next person you meet.” So remember your victory in Christ, accept His forgiveness, own His righteousness, and realize you’re loved and there’s nothing you can do about it!