Friday, February 22, 2019

Reckless Love


Jesus’s love really is reckless for us.

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.

Let’s love recklessly.

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