When I was a child, I had an uncle that I feared. He had qualities that attracted me to him, but his size and authoritative mannerisms cause fear in the child that I was. Over the years love grew and the fear was overcome. In the Bible there are multiple references to fearing God. But didn’t our Lord Jesus come to us so that we might have a personal relationship with God? Isn’t it written that the greatest commandment is to love God? It is also written, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (I John 4:18). It is written that God would send to us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would help us to remember all that Jesus said, and teach us all things. One of the products of the Comforter is love. Of the spirit it is written, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7).
How can we, those that live in this world, understand love? From the moment we are born, we might be told that we are loved. But the people we depend on the most have mixed up ideas of what love is. As children, we are in great numbers abused, put aside, and lost without a living witness of true love. As we grow, we meet more and more people that are confused and lost in their search for love. We become hard and protective and fearful of love.
We meet people and become people who use the need for love in others to get what they think they want or need. Preachers use the need for love to try and win converts, but then do not know how to teach the love and grace, so they teach law. Brennan Manning wrote, “Put bluntly: the American Church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice (The Ragamuffin Gospel, (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishing, Inc, 1990, 2000) p.18). If we do not accept grace, we have no witness to the love of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Holy Spirit and the seed of women. The Word of God, the creator, became part of the creation to bring a witness of God’s love, namely grace. The Word of God, in the form of a man, suffered all things that man suffers. The Word of God, in the form of a man, healed the sick. The Word of God, in the form of a man, died to pay the debt of death that is the penalty for man’s falling. Instead of falling, I would like to say that we walked away from or hid from grace. Falling sounds like it was an accident.
Adam and Eve, representing mankind, hid from God and His mercy. Mankind is still hiding from the loving mercy that is God’s grace. It could be said another way. Man is still hiding from God’s graceful mercy that is God’s love. Or another way, mankind is still hiding from God’s merciful grace that is God’s love. Loving grace that is God’s mercy – graceful mercy that is God’s love – merciful love that is God’s grace. Any way you want to say it, it means that we have a witness of true love.
We, the humans that walk away and hide, now have in Jesus Christ the means to be one with God. The Lord Jesus has taken His place at God the Father’s right hand. We are all called to be part of the body of Christ, part of the Son of God. We are called to be part of the body at God’s right hand. What do we have to do to get there? Believe that Jesus, the Son of God, lived, died, and rose for us. To put it simpler, accept merciful graceful love. We are the children living the prodigal lie coming down the road, while our Father is watching and waiting – no, coming to greet us. The prize lamb has been prepared for the feast. We are called to the feast. We are called to become witnesses to the merciful graceful love of God.
When I was a child, I had an uncle that I feared but love overcame the fear. It was not my love for him that attracted me; it was his love for me that endured and overcame the fear. It is not our love of God that will bring us back; it is because He loved us first. God looked down the road of time and saw us hopelessly looking for love. God prepared the Lamb for the feast. God sent the Holy Spirit to place the Word of God into a woman. It was God who watched us kill His Son and it was God who became human to die for us. We did none of these things. It is God who gives the Holy Spirit to us and God who created us part of the Christ – part of the Word of God. It is God’s love that has made all things possible. God’s love is not a spirit of fear. God has not called us to a spirit of fear, but of love to overcome fear.