I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, the love of God. Thanksgiving and Christmas always turns my attention towards God’s love. He had every right to condemn and destroy the creation in response to Adam’s sin. The rules were, “The soul that sins dies.” That’s pretty simple and straightforward. It doesn’t require a rulebook, a team of referees or instant replay. You sin, you do anything that is contrary to God’s command or is in violation of His holiness – you die, game over. But God chose to love. More than that He chose to be wild and extravagant with His love.
Years ago I read a book on the parables by Lloyd Ogilvie entitled The Autobiography of God. Ogilvie’s point was that the parables where a way for God to say to us, “This is who I am.” His chapter of the “Lost Son” from Luke 15 was The Prodigal God. I thought that was a strange title until I discovered the term “prodigal” means wild or extravagant. Webster’s dictionary has it, “recklessly spendthrift.” It means to spend until there is nothing left. That is what God has done for us in Christ. That is the wonder of the Gospel. As we enter the Christmas season I hope that you will take time to reflect on God’s wild extravagant love for us. Imagine God so loved hopeless rebels like you and me that He gave His best – His one and only Son. He stood in your place. He bore your burden. He paid for your sin. Not because you begged Him to. Not because you deserved it. Not because you were caught up in a circumstance not of your making. He did it because He chose to love you. He made that choice when you were at your worst, a sinner rightly deserving His eternal wrath. That’s good news. That’s the Gospel. That’s the story of Christmas.
I’ll see you Sunday.
Rod