As Christmas approaches, which feels crazy to acknowledge, I've been thinking about Advent. Thinking about what makes Christmas special. As my thoughts naturally turn towards Jesus' Incarnation, taking on human flesh to execute God's redemptive plan, I used the phrase "worth rescuing" in my mind and I've been stuck on that for a couple of days now.
Were we worth rescuing? Or is Jesus' Incarnation just an altruistic deed that makes Him look really selfless, though somewhat naive? Was there anything in it for Him, in that, does it just make Him look gracious and merciful or did being restored to us mean something more to Him because of who we are to Him?
Seems like an innocent enough question, but I know the theological implications run deep and in two fairly opposite directions.
One could say, no, we aren't worth rescuing, but that's what grace is. Our unworthiness, that we don't deserve to be rescued nor do we possess anything intrinsically worth rescuing, only proves to heighten and magnify God's mercy and kindness towards us. There's some truth in there...
And there's the other side of it, somewhat reactionary to the idea above, that we must have some intrinsic worth that God deemed worth rescuing. Otherwise, we should have a very low view of all humanity. Not that we can live perfectly and put God in our debt, or that God even needs us somehow. But if God chose to redeem us, to rescue us, that must say something about who we are. Doesn't it?
I'm not sure where I am on this yet. The Baptist upbringing I had leaves plenty of fodder for the "total depravity" of humanity track. Lots of Bible verses speak of an underlying fallen-ness. But something in that feels very depressing. It makes God's love seem kind of stupid. Like marrying a rapist. Or adopting a 17-year old pedophile. There might, somehow, be something noble and selfless about it, but it clashes with some deep sense of reality. The deep "unworthiness" of the rapist or pedophile receiving that love in that imaginary situation prevents any real intimacy, and selfless love doesn't change who they are... I guess on some level, this is all about unconditional love...
Do we love someone based on what they do?
That seems silly and not very much like love...
Do we love them based on who we know they truly are, an image-bearer of God?
This seems to give a reason to love, because of a deeper reality of their intrinsic worth...
Or do we love them because it's the loving thing to do, despite the fact they have no worth at all?
Which is how God's love seems when "total depravity" is pushed to its limit and our sinfulness is touted as the deepest, truest thing about us.
I don't want to push the point, because I know there's some potential for pride and self-glorification that is inherent in humanity, apparently. Part of the message of Jesus seems to be choosing others before ourselves, not fighting for our own exultation. So, I do want to be careful. But the flip-side, when our unworthiness is magnified to make much of the Cross of Jesus, it makes the implication that there's nothing about me that God values—He just is a really nice God who wants to be loving.
Yes, "God so loved the world", but the question whispers, "Yeah... but does God love ME?" Because if God views you and I just as a face in a sea of people and loves us all the same, in some group mercy project way, can we really tell people that God loves them personally? And can you really have a "relationship with God" if you don't have any worth at all? If you are a disease-carrying sewer rat, what does it change if a little girl wants you for a pet? Total depravity, when pushed too far, seems like it would turn evangelism, which is supposed to be good news, into:
"Hey man, you do realize that you're like a disease-ridden sewer rat to God, right? Or like a used tampon? You're filthy to Him. But He 'loves' you, you know?"
Something about that doesn't feel right... That, as love, doesn't make sense... Can you imagine a marriage proposal, from bended knee, "You're horribly ugly, annoying and cruel. You're an awful human being, and I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you. Not because there's some deep hidden beauty in you, nor am I psychotic, I just really want to do something selfless, because that's the kind of person I am... I don't really want to marry YOU, I just want to marry anyone that doesn't deserve to be married to me. Will you marry me?"
Should that girl think of his proposal as good news? And what if she really WAS that kind of a woman?
What are your thoughts, readers? How do you see our depravity and what do you make of Jesus' Incarnation and what it means for who you are to Him?
"How do you see our depravity and what do you make of Jesus' Incarnation and what it means for who you are to Him?"
ReplyDeleteTwo things come to mind.
First, I think Jesus' incarnation and death on the cross was for our salvation, but greater than that, that He might bring glory to Himself through the ultimate act of Love.
Second, on our depravity: Oswald Chambers says, “It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself…I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself...God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting to the place where He can use me.”
In light of that, I really like these lyrics to a JJ Heller song, as if God were saying them to me, (and in my head I preface it with "Because of what I did for you.."): "I will love you for you, Not for what you have done or what you will become, I will love you for you."