Bethany Bullet- June 2, 2009

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should. . .”

Imagine for a moment that you did not know how the first verse of the third chapter of John’s first epistle ended; if you don’t this will be easier. Whichever the case go ahead and finish the verse. God’s great love would be proven to be lavished, abundant; over flowing if we should (blank).

How does the verse end in your version?

From issues I’ve worked through with others, to conversations I have had with many, to feelings I have wrestled with myself, I assume that at any given time all of us would finish off the verse with something like… be happy, be healthy, or be wealthy. God’s great love would be proven lavished if we were free from sorrow, pain, frustration, fear, or regret. God’s great love would be proven lavished if things in our life were all right, for some more global thinkers, if things in the world were all right.

In case you don’t know or if you’ve done a good job of imagining and no longer recall its true ending, let me quote the verse for you, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should . . .be called. . .the children of God.” That’s it! Surprisingly there is nothing about success or safety, no mention of smiles and giggles, not a word about being free from terror or horror, discomfort or distress.

God’s great love is lavished on us in the form of a title. He claims us and calls us His own dear children. Of course this was no small task. In order to call us His children He needed to turn a deaf ear to the cry of His Son, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In order to embrace us as His own kids He had to abandon The Only Begotten. In order for God to pour out in fullest measure His love on us, He had to pour out in fullest measure His wrath on Jesus.

In a fallen world, we with frail lives and vulnerable existences often think that if God loves us lavishly that we should…(Fill in the blank); and sure enough somehow in some form it will come out to be that…God should make everything all right with us. Instead, to prove the truth lavished nature of His love, God, instead of making everything all right with us, makes us all right with Him.

“This is love, that he loved us

and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”