Love that is Better than Unconditional

I am in the long process of reading Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison. The process is long because he has so much good stuff to say as well as what he says is both convicting and hopeful. For awhile I have been thinking about sharing some of his insights. Well, the chapter I read yesterday really wowed me for I sometimes struggle with believing the radical love of God and how his love can change me. The chapter is entitled: God’s love: Better than Unconditional (pp. 164-166, P&R Publishing). Psalm 36 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 support his below thoughts. I reference only the Corinthians passage.

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Based on these passages and others, Powlison says: “I’d like to propose that God’s love is much different and better than unconditional love. Unconditional love, as most of us understand it, begins and ends with sympathy and empathy, with blanket acceptance. It accepts you as you are with no exceptions. You in turn can take it or leave it.”

He goes on:

But think about what God’s love for you is like. God does not calmly gaze on you in benign affirmation. God cares too much to be unconditional in his love…Imagine yourself as a parent, watching your child playing in a group with other children. Perhaps you are observing your child in a nursery or a classroom, or on the playground, or in a soccer game. You might accurately say that you have unconditional love for all the children in the group. That is to say, you have no ill will toward any of them; you generally wish them well.

But when it comes to your own child, something more goes on. You take much more notice of your own child. Injury, danger, bullying, or injustice arouses strong feelings of protection—because you love your child. If your child throws a tantrum or mistreats another child, you are again aroused to intervene—because you love. If your child thrives, you are filled with joy—again because you love.

Of course, any of these reactions may be tainted by a parent’s sin. Pride, fear of other’s opinions, lust for success, superiority, ambition, or calloused self-absorption can warp parental love.

But imagine such reactions untainted by sin…The Lord watches you. The Lord cares. What his children do and what happens to them matters to him. His watching, caring and concern are intense. Complex. Specific. Personal. Unconditional love isn’t nearly so good or compelling. In comparison it is detached, general, impersonal. God’s love is much better than unconditional.

Then he blows me away in expanding the love of God we have in Christ:

God’s love is active. He decided to love you when he could have justly condemned you. He’s involved. He’s merciful, not simply tolerate. He hates sin, yet pursues the sinners by name. God is so committed to forgiving and changing you that he sent Jesus to die for you. He welcomes the poor in spirit with a shout and a feast. God is vastly patient and relentlessly persevering as he intrudes into your life.

God’s love actively does you good. His love is full of blood, sweat, tears, and cries. He suffered for you. He fights for you, defending the afflicted. He fights with you, pursuing you in powerful tenderness so that he can change you. He’s jealous, not detached. His sort of empathy and sympathy speaks out, with words of truth to set you free from sin and misery. He will discipline you as proof that he loves you. God comes to live in you, pouring out his Holy Spirit in your heart, so that you will know him. He puts out power and energy.

God’s love has hate in it too: hatred for evil, whether done to you or by you. God’s love demands that you respond to it; by believing, trusting, obeying, giving thanks with a joyful heart, working out you salvation with fear, delighting in the Lord.

Remember what Lucy, Edward, Susan and Peter learned in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. They were at first frightened to learn that Aslan, the Christ figure, was not a tame lion. Through their journey with him, they did experience that he was not tame but they also experienced that he was good. Powlison encourages, “In the same way, God’s love for his children is no tame love, no relational strategy. It’s not characterized by calm detachment or a determination not to impose his values on you. His love is good in a way’s that’s vigorous and complex.”

God’s love as shown in the person and work of Jesus Christ as written in the above Scripture passage is much better than unconditional. This love accepts you as you are but also make you over. This love is not superficial or detached but active and purposeful. It is intrusive and yet reassuring. God’s love never stops reminding us of our daily need of him and the power he gives to change us to live and love like Jesus.

So what do you think? Do believe that God’s love is that radical? Personal? Intrusive? Purposeful? Active? Compelling? I would love to hear from you!

Warmly,
Jeff