No Strings Attached...(God is Love Series, Part I)

August 18, 2009

Danielle Joyner Kelley

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10.

One of the hardest historical events people try to understand is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For those who know the story, many write it off as a historical fable, while many more treat it as historic fact.

Often believers and non-believers have a hard time explaining “why” it happened rather than “how”. We are keenly aware that such a horrific event could take place on Earth. Knowing that, we often get caught up on “why” such an event would ever occur.

Even the most devout Christians have a difficult time explaining a loving God that would allow such a horrific scene only to save people, who through sin, were not worthy of Him at all. The difficulty does not lie in the facts surrounding Jesus death, but it lies in what we define as our concept of “love”.

On Earth, love comes with commitment and with many strings attached. Our concept of love usually falls into the “give and take” category. It is difficult for us to wrap our minds around someone doing something for us out of pure love with no ulterior motives.

That is when we all have to remember where the emotion of “love” came from. Without that emotion we are nothing more than animals with no conscience or ability to give at all. Because it is a good emotion, we know it comes from God. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17. God is the author of love, and that emotion does not exist without Him. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8.

Those who have difficulty with the fact that God sent His son as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind often miss the meaning of the term “sacrifice”. A “sacrifice” means you give to someone else while you take a loss personally. “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:25-26.

The real lesson is that love is not conditional, but love is sacrifice. That sacrifice comes with no strings and includes selflessness to the point where you are willing to take a loss in order to feel the emotion. True love is not about what someone can do for us, but it is about what we can do for them.

With the true definition in mind it is no wonder so many cannot understand what took place. Without God, we cannot love, nor can we understand it. “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7.

Any strings we attach are our very own doing. The true difficulty does not come from the facts surrounding Jesus sacrifice, but it comes from the fact that we can attach strings to an emotion that was given to us freely with no strings attached from the beginning.

When we realize this the true reality of love and sacrifice becomes apparent. God’s love was never about strings attached to force us to do things for Him, but it was about so much more.

That love was about His taking a loss through nails in His hands, so that someone else might gain.