Several months ago I came upon a book that threatened to challenge my view of Christianity. I actually look for the books that challenge my beliefs about God, because often times that is where He brings growth in my relationship with Him. For example, The Shack has been very influential in shaping my view of God. For years and years I've heard about a God that loves me, but I hadn't ever seen a picture that applied it to me in a real way like The Shack did. It opened my mind and my heart to the possibility and reality that God is personable and that His heart for me is deeper and softer than I had ever imagined. The God I had viewed for so long as a gatekeeper deciding on people's eternity based on what their lives looked like became a God that wants to spend time with me where I'm at, in the midst of my junk, in the center of my disbelief, because He simply wants me.
All that to say, God speaks very powerfully to me through books. So when I stumbled upon another book that would likely bring a challenge to my views, I was pretty excited about it. I started on it as soon as I could get a hold of it and was quite impressed by a lot of what I was reading. Several chapters into the book I came upon a quote that challenged the very core of who I believed God was and what He wanted from me.
I read it several times through, looking for some sort of loophole to change what it actually said, but to no avail. In paraphrase it said: “The core of Christianity is not simply that God loves us, but that God loves us so that His glory, His name, and His gospel will be spread to all people.” There is something about that that appeals to me. It helps me to explain why God sent His son to save me. He wanted everyone to see how amazing He was. That makes more sense to me. That is something I can take hold of. So on the surface it appeals to me, it catches my eye and confirms a belief I've had about God, that He wants to use me and that is why He sent Jesus.
HOWEVER, that is not where the issue stopped. Deeper down, something didn't feel right. There was something about it that challenged a deep core belief that I had. It challenged the belief that God did everything simply because of love. The belief that I didn't owe Him anything. As I wrestled with this idea, God took me back to the garden, back to His heart for creation.
When God created Adam and Eve it was for relationship. God walked with them, talked with them, and had perfect relationship with Him. That was it. There was nothing else that God made them for. He didn't make them to name the animals, He could have done that. He didn't create them to take care of the earth, He could have done that. He didn't create them to spread His glory, His name, and His gospel to the nations. They were all people and they KNEW Him in a perfect relationship. His purpose for creating them was simply relationship. There weren't any strings attached, His love was everything. They didn't even know the difference between good and evil, they didn't need to because they walked in perfect intimacy with Him. As soon as they decided to step out of that perfect intimacy and “become like god” they broke that perfect relationship. Their sin changed the course of history and affected everyone that has lived since, it had that power. But sin has never had the power to change who God is.
The God who created Adam and Eve for relationship is the same one that we talk about and write about today. Somehow we've accepted a God that needs us to pay Him back for what He's done for us, and ignored the God that just wants to walk in relationship.
One of the hardest things to fathom is that God would just send Jesus because He wants relationship with us. There has to be some catch, some ulterior motive for God's love. In a society where “FREE” means you have to read the fine print, it's hard to fathom life in the garden. But that is where God is calling us back to. He wants to take us back to His heart, back to relationship.
