Did you ever have a friend dating someone that was wrong for her/him? And no matter how many times you pointed that out, your friend continued to make excuses? Or worse, did you date someone that was obviously not right for you, but you refused to see it, refused to listen to friends’ advice?
I did. He didn’t mean it. He was just, you know, arrogant and condescending. It was just his way. Or the other guy that cheated on me repeatedly. He just didn’t want to hurt me. That’s why he lied. He had such a big heart and he didn’t want to hurt the other girl either.
Do you want to smack me for that? Yeah. My friends did too.
Sometimes we want to be in a relationship so much that we turn a blind eye to the bright, red flags waving in front of our faces. Sometimes we even blame ourselves.
We’ve been given an example of true love, agape love, amazing grace love in Jesus. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13, NIV).
In the book of Hosea, we have another example. Hosea, the good, kind, prophet of God marries Gomer, the whore. (Harsh language, I know, but it illustrates the point.) Then, not only does he retrieve her from another guy, he has to pay a steep price to have her—his wife! It is a picture of Jesus, perfect, pure, just, faithful, sealing himself to me, broken, sinful, unfaithful, after paying the ultimate price to redeem me.
We are so wrong for him. But he chooses us anyway and seals himself to us forever. God’s love is NOT based on our behavior or our faithfulness. It’s based on his promise. Not that there isn’t a cost for our sin. Hosea paid the going rate for a slave. God paid with the life of his Son. There had to be a payment—a blood sacrifice. No animal sacrifice was enough. Only Jesus’ blood, only Jesus’ life could redeem the whole world from our sin.
With Love In Christ,
Stephanie