He emptied Himself
and took the form of a lowly bondservant so he could live among us. He suffered
the agony of separation from the Father to take our sins upon Himself. He loved
us, even while we were yet sinners! And He demonstrated this profoundly by
giving His life for us—dying the agonizing, tortured death of a common
criminal—simply so we could be His.
Yes, this is reckless
love.
We’ve all heard the
song that swept across every Christian radio station (again and again) last
summer… Cory Asbury’s “Reckless Love.” I heard it and loved it enough to get it
on my I-pod, which is a really rare thing for me to do. I wasn’t prepared for
the backlash some in evangelical circles had to Christ’s love being pictured as
“reckless.” Reckless made sense to me!! Sure, from God’s eternal, sovereign
perspective, Jesus’s love was planned and
far from a romantic impulse, and since we get glimpses of God’s sovereign
perspective in His Word, I can understand why some Christians baulk at calling
God’s love reckless. But from a strictly human perspective, it is reckless that God would give His only
Son. It’s the picture of Abraham placing his only son Isaac on the alter and
raising a knife to sacrifice him. Why do our hearts squirm at that picture? Is
it because Abraham’s love for God and acceptance of His will was safe and easy?
Surely not!
You know another
reason why I believe in reckless love?
It’s because we, as Christ followers, are
called to the same.
Just like how our Savior’s
love “chases me down, fights till I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine,” we too
are called to humbly empty ourselves and give our all to see more people become
children of God. We are to “have this attitude in yourselves that was also in
Christ Jesus,” as Philippians 2 says—that attitude of becoming bondservants to
seek the interests of others.
We are bondservants, but even beyond that self-sacrificing
picture, we are also pictured as sheep. And Jesus promises that He is sending
us out as “sheep among wolves.” (Mat 10:16) The results? The blood of countless
brothers and sisters stains the ground so that more sinners could be saved.
Again, from a human perspective, this is reckless! Going to the darkest corner
of Ecuador to share the Gospel at the tip of the spear is reckless. Refusing to
recant your faith in the face of torture and a brutal death in the Coliseum is
reckless. Seeking to live among
cannibalistic tribes in Papua New Guinea so that they might hear about Jesus,
the Peace Child, is reckless. Smuggling bibles into the Soviet Union under the
threat of torture and death is reckless. Check out the hall of faith in Hebrews
11, especially Hebrews 11:32-40. The greatest lovers of God, our heroes of the
faith, were tortured, stoned, sawn in two, thrown to the lions, put to the edge
of the sword . . .
It’s undeniable. As
Christians, our love to God and our neighbors (and even our enemies!) is a very
reckless thing.
So the next time you
sing “Reckless Love,” let it comfort you that God really does love you so
abundantly and fervently! But let it also motivate you to love the world in the
same way. The Gospel never stops with just “I” . . . Jesus died for you, but he
didn’t die just for you. We need to
resist the pervasive theme of “me” in modern worship songs, and remember that
it is the world God so loved! And we
are commissioned to reach that world…. whatever the cost. Let’s not be ashamed
of the Gospel, but boldly declare it. Let’s turn the other cheek, give the very
shirt off our back, and go the extra mile to reach our enemies. Let’s follow
our Lord’s example and love not our own lives even unto death.
