Reading
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
Reflection
As we move through the season of Lent focusing our hearts and minds on the life and sacrifice of Jesus, some of the staff are meeting weekly to reflect on David G. Benner’s book, Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality. While the book is relatively short on pages, it is not short on depth. I find myself needing to pause frequently to let the author’s words interact with the beliefs and personal experiences that I have of and with God.
Early in the book Benner states:
“The story of Jesus is the story of love personified. We miss the point when we simply try to do what he tells us to do. And we miss the point when we merely try to follow the pattern of his life. His life points us back to his own Source. His life is intelligible only when it is understood as the personification of divine love.”
I think his death is that same personification of divine love.
At every turn, God chooses to move toward humanity—toward our pain and our brokenness—in order to reconcile us to Himself. God chooses to come to earth in the form of a tiny infant. That infant grows up and chooses, yet again, to enter into humanity’s pain and brokenness—to demonstrate his selfless love for us by dying on the cross.
Christ’s death on the cross is so much more than a simple act of saving humanity. Everything that Jesus says or does throughout his life is layered with meaning. It’s why he spoke in parables. His actions become a kind of living parable or message—revealing what divine love looks like.
The cross is the clearest picture of that love. The atonement is evidence of God’s love for us. God reveals his desire for a restored relationship with humanity through His own self-giving. God does not stand at a distance waiting for us to return to him. Instead, God moves towards us, demonstrating his selfless love.
1 John reminds us that love does not begin with us. The source of love is always God. We cannot earn God’s love. God’s love has already been gifted to us—we simply have to receive it.
That’s one danger of thinking too logically about the atonement. When we focus on analyzing it, we run the risk of understanding it with our head without experiencing its effect in our heart.
It’s one thing to know what forgiveness is, but it’s another thing to experience being forgiven.
It’s one thing to know what love is, but it’s another thing to be loved.
It’s one thing to know that we are reconciled to God, and another thing to experience that reconciliation and personal relationship yourself.
An Invitation
So, this Lenten season, I invite you to consider all the things you know about God, and to consider whether you know about God, or whether you truly know God himself. Spend time sitting quietly in God’s presence. Reflect on God’s love revealed in Christ’s life and on the cross. Ask God to help you move beyond understanding God’s love to actually receiving it.
