T.S. Eliot wrote his famous poem “Little Giddings” during World War II, as German bombs enflamed London, and as hate and prejudice spread. In the poem, Eliot used the image of fire as a symbol for that which could either destroy humanity or save it. On the one hand are those passions that consume us but also destroy us. On the other hand is a passion that consumes but also refines and satisfies. Eliot says the choice is ours: “The only hope, or else despair, lies in the choice of pyre or pyre–To be redeemed from fire by fire.” He tells us what the fire is that “redeems” us–it is Love. “Love is the unfamiliar Name…which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire, Consumed by either fire or fire.” All of us live either consumed by those substitute fires which in time burn us up, or by the raging fury of the love of God, a love that burns away the things that destroy us and ignites our souls with thirst-quenching love.
Tom then said there is a name for when you have that extreme capacity for love but no way to express or receive it: Hell. Hell is the place where you long for that which will satisfy the deep longing in your soul, only to realize too late that what you thought would fill the void did not, but only left you entrapped in a deeper hole. Tom said that in his case, his recovery only began when he was able to experience a love so deep that he was finally, finally able to receive love and express it back. He said this love came from “Almighty God,” who “loved the hell right out of me.”
THE GREAT INVITATION
The greatest commandment in the Bible is not “Be wise” or “Be good.” It is not “avoid evil” or “seek peace.” The greatest commandment is one simple, wonderful thing. The commandment is simply: Love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love the Lord your God with all your soul. Love the Lord your God with all your mind. Love the Lord your God with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30; Deut. 6:4, 5). This was the “greatest” and first command. This sounds exciting–more like an invitation than a command. Love! Isn’t that what we all want to do anyway?
But the Bible never tells us to love God first. Instead, it always says that it is God who has loved us first, God who made the first move, God who is reaching out, God who is the Seeker. The only way to make sense of life, the true piece to the puzzle of our souls, is to respond to the seeking, relentless love of God. And the love of God is not an abstract concept; nothing is “abstract” about God. God is personal and always acts personally. God is always personal and is always acting in love. TheBible is simply a history book of how active God is in loving us. The most repeated phrase in the Bible is the one used over and over in the Old Testament: “The LORD is good; his love endures forever.” And what God did in Jesus of Nazareth showed precisely what kind of God we are dealing with. By emptying himself for us, God not only showed us what love is but opened the door for us to be captured by the greatest love for which our souls long, the ultimate “fix.”
THE BEATING HEART OF THE UNIVERSE
Jesus Christ has created a revolution in our knowledge of God. In every other religion, “God” remains incomprehensible to us. But in Jesus, God has shown us exactly what kind of God he is, and he has shown us what love really means. Amazingly, in Jesus, God has shown us that He is a community of selfless love, a community of Father, Son, and Spirit, loving and responding and giving. At the heart of the universe is selfless love. Christians call this understanding of God the “Trinity,” which is another way of saying God is a community of love. Or as Eugene Peterson put it, “Under the image of Trinity we discover that we do not know God by defining him but by being loved by him and loving in return. We are given an understanding of God that is most emphatically personal and interpersonal. God is nothing if not personal. If God is revealed as personal, the only way that God can be known is in personal response.”[1]
Jesus reveals this intensely loving, personal God to us. Although we did not expect God to humble himself and become a human, that is just like his love. We did not expect God actually to suffer with us, but that is just like his love. We did not expect God to absorb the power of evil upon himself and to die a cross-like death for us, but that is just like his love. As Thomas Torrance writes, “It is in the cross of Christ that the utterly astonishing nature of the love that God is has been fully disclosed, for in refusing to spare his own Son whom he delivered up for us all, God revealed that he loves us more than he loves himself.”[2]
COME TO THE TABLE
We also did not expect a resurrection right in the middle of history as a complete guarantee that death is not the end. But again, that is just like his love. Or as Paul put it, “I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38) At the core of all the Christian doctrines and teachings and books and bibles is one simple thought: God loves me! The proclamation is that God is not a faraway God, but a God who sweats, bleeds, and cries with us, and a God who is seeking to “love the hell out of us.” The proclamation is not just good news; it is an invitation. “Love God with all your soul.” “The feast is ready; come to the table.” “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me” (Rev. 3:20). I believe the most sublime lines ever written by the pen of the Apostle Paul were his prayer for every one of us:
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Eph. 3:16-19)
Jesus has convinced me that the way to the heart of God is not through knowledge. I can know all things about God and be able to explain them convincingly and clearly, and I would not know God. The way to the heart of God is not through willpower and discipline. I can strive for moral excellence and be perfect in every form of behavior and be as far away from God as any Pharisee. The way to the heart of God is wholly and entirely by love. His love, not ours. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Bernard put it this way: “Neither fear nor love of self can convert the soul. They change the appearance of one’s deeds from time to time, but never one’s character….Love truly converts souls because it makes them willing…. the faithful wonder and reach out to that supreme love of his which surpasses all knowledge…The more surely you know yourself loved, the easier you will find it to love in return.”
Let God love the hell out of you. Or as Christian singer/songwriter Rich Mullins put it:
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God.[3]
[1] Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), 7,45).
[2] Thomas F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (London: T&T Clark, 2016), 5.
[3] Rich Mullins, The Love of God, © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management