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Friday, March 17, 2006

God is liberal

For all of my conservative friends. Take a deep breath in....Take a deep breath out. Feel better now? The headline to this post is not a political statement, it's a statement about the character of God. What do I mean by the statement "God is Liberal"? I have in mind the passage in the book of James chapter 1:5 which says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." The thought struck me the other day as I was reading this passage that God never does anything half-heartedly. When God gives. He gives liberally. Here is another passage that brings out the same idea. "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. (John 1:16) God's greatest gift that He can give to mankind is the gift of Himself. And when it comes to sharing His life and nature with sinful human beings, He chooses to give us His fullness, not just a part of Himself. (Of course, the condition is that you have to receive Him by faith. He doesn't just force Himself on you.) I guess you can say that God is an extremist in that His hatred for sin pales in comparison to His extreme love for sinners. As the Bible says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Most of us would die for a family member or a close friend, or even a helpless innocent. But to die a torturous death to save your enemies? If that's not liberal love, I don't know what is.

1 comment:

Ontario Emperor said...

I believe that we as Christians can often get select about the sins we oppose. Those of us with litmus test issues (abortion et al) may ignore the sin of greed, for example. I've planned to blog on this, but never got around to it.