God Loves Us Unconditionally??

In my last blog post (“God IS Love”), I discussed the universal love of God for all people, that God loves everybody, even our so-called enemies (“Even the Russians?  Even those Democrats or Republicans?  YES).  I will discuss this further in a few weeks when I preach on John 3:16 – one of the most mistranslated verses in the Bible.  But, truth be told, I like to SAY that God’s love for every human is unconditional…but many times I really don’t believe it.  Here is one of my favorite theologians, Richard Beck, to explain the concept of God’s unconditional love a bit better.  Richard is a professor at Abeline Christian University, but also leads a men’s prison Bible study.  That is the context for what follows, Dr. Beck sitting with these men in prison, having a discussion:

We were talking about God's love and someone said that God loves us unconditionally. That observation, as you know, is a banal platitude in Christian circles. But I doubt many Christians have seriously pondered the radical implications of that claim, that God loves us unconditionally. Because I don't think people actually believe it. Yes, people might say that God loves us unconditionally, but they don't, if you press them, actually believe it.

And true to form, some of the men in the study started pushing back upon this notion. Again, the idea that God loves us unconditionally might let the hypocrites in the room off the hook. God loves us, these men reminded us, but you have to do stuff. You have to be committed. You have to be holy. You have to put in the work.

And then Steve raised his hand.

"No," Steve said, "if God loves you unconditionally then he loves you unconditionally. If you add any condition to it, any at all, then it's not unconditional."  This was met with fierce cries of opposition.  And all through the discussion Steve kept coming back to his core contention. Unconditional means unconditional. And as the discussion wore on Steve's comment began to work on me. Unconditional means unconditional. So simple. But so radical and destabilizing. And then it dawned in me: Christians really don’t believe in the unconditional love of God. The love of God, as preached by most Christians, is a conditional love. God loves you...if. If you are elect. If you have faith. If you “pray to receive Christ” (which is not in the Bible by the way). If you repent. If you are holy. God loves you if.  If. 

During the discussion, and since, my mind kept coming back to Steve's point, the point he made calmly, over and over. "If you add a condition to it then it's not unconditional anymore. I think God loves us unconditionally. No matter what we do."

And in that class, listening to Steve, I began to glimpse the true magnitude of the scandal of grace. I saw Jesus hanging on the cross saying, "Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing."

Forgive them. All of them.

No repentance. No election. No faith. Forgive them. Unconditionally.

Listening to Steve that night I think, for the first time, I began to glimpse the true shape of Christianity. I began to see the outlines and contours of a faith rooted in the conviction that God loves us. Unconditionally.  I saw something that night so huge and bright and beautiful I knew I'd never be the same. I knew I would never be going back.

For a moment, I think I saw the world the way Jesus saw the world from the cross.

I think I finally saw what it might mean to be a Christian.

(original post can be found HERE)