Grace

Last Sunday my pastor gave an excellent sermon on Revelation 2:18-29—which is a letter from Christ to the church at Thyatira. In this series of letters, Christ points out what the churches are doing well and what they need to do better.

 

Perhaps my favorite part of this sermon series—of these letters to the churches—has been looking at the introduction Christ gives Himself:

 

Revelation 2:1—“The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

 

2:8—“The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life.”

 

2:12—“The One who has the sharp two-edged sword.”

 

2:18—“The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze.”

 

3:1—“He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.”

 

3:7—“He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no-one will shut, and who shuts and no-one opens.”

 

3:14—“The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.”

 

Jesus is quite frightening. He has such an absurdly large amount of power, and yet, somehow, He loves us. Christ’s love, God’s love, the Spirit’s love, is ridiculous, by our standards at least. God’s love is absurd. I’m trying to offend you. God’s love is completely stupid. It’s so dumb (for Him—by our standards). God’s love is dim-witted and mindless.

 

Let me paint you a picture: You are married. If you are a guy, you have a beautiful wife, and if you are a girl you have a wonderful, compassionate husband. The day after you get married, on your honeymoon, your spouse sleeps with someone else, or goes to a strip club, or goes to Vegas and hires ten hookers. What do you do now? Let’s say you forgive them, “It’s okay, honey, I still love you.” The relationship is whole again. You go to bed all happy and full of fuzzies because you have forgiven your spouse.

 

You wake up in the middle of the night and your spouse is gone—uh oh. You call and they don’t answer, but you find out later that they were unfaithful again. It stabs your heart. You get that lumpy sort of feeling in your throat where you think you might cry if you talk. Because it hurts so much that the person you just married is sleeping with other people on your honeymoon.

 

Now, repeat that process every single day. Would you divorce the spouse? My guess is: yes. If my wife sleeps with another dude on my honeymoon—and I’m gonna be honest here—I would most certainly divorce her. And, on the off chance I didn’t, if she slept with another dude right after I forgave her for the first time, I would for sure divorce her. You should get the picture by now. And hopefully you have made the connection.

 

You are the spouse who sleeps with someone different every day. I am that spouse. God is the husband who forgives me every day, even though I hook up with a different girl every day. I screw up big time. I tell God, with my actions, that he can take the back seat for a while, and He forgives me. That’s completely illogical! Look at our standards above! If any man or woman stayed with a spouse who committed adultery every—single—day they would be insane! Are you getting this? It’s so ridiculous! And awesome! And beautiful.

 

How, why does He still love us? I’m not sure it’s our job to figure that out. But I do know it’s our job to bask in His love, and respond to it. With action—showing others, as best we can, His love—grace

 

Hosea 2:19-20—“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and compassion, And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know YHWH.”