“I never asked to be born!” this blog
“I never asked to be born!” Church Set Free blog
So a biblical God did not give me the gift of life. The biblical God gave Himself the gift of life. I then cope with the living that I find myself living.
And that – for me – explains the “why” of unconditional love.
The God Soft Hands Jesus I know never has, and never will, demand or expect of me. He gave Himself the gift of me. So my living is not a gift given to me, my living is the consequence of a gift from God to God – biblical speaking.
And that, for me, fits perfectly with being loved unconditionally.
I never chose life. So demanding I live life a certain way (or repaying an obligation for being given “the gift of life”) does not apply. Not to a biblical God who is supremely just and loving. Just as God expecting I get forgiven for being a sinner makes no sense either. Not to a supremely just and loving biblical God.
So what if … “the gift of life” (we claim and exclaim) is just us not getting it? And what if that “not getting it” dictates how we interpret everything biblical thereafter?
The Fall. Original Sin. The God who tests. The God who judges. The God who rewards and punishes. The God who forgives. The God of Heaven and Hell (no matter whether that is real of defined as “separation”).
What if the God who loves the gift He gave Himself just …
Loves each of us?
What if that love invites a better way … desires a gentler way … delights in seeing us succeed in the living we choose … cries in the living we choose … shares the living we choose without demand or criticism? What of this God just loves to see us live the best we can … loves the mistakes … loves the not getting it … loves the confusion … loves us just as much when we seem to be getting it … when we get loving others … when we get that love is the only key … ?
And what if that means we owe God nothing? How would that change things?
The Cross … The Garden … The Chosen People … Sin … obligation … duty … sacrifice … faith … good works … bad works … no works at all … the bible … the church … religion … qualified religion of institution … fighting about this god and that god … fighting about biblical right and wrong … biblical good and bad … biblical sinners and saved … ? What if that changes so much of what we have created around the God we keep safe?
What if that is not what God is all about at all?
What if I owe God nothing and what if God doesn’t think I owe Him anything either …
What if God never did?
How would that change things?
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paulfg …
pondering … wondering … curious … very curious …
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I find myself lost in the tall grass somewhere 🙂
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🙂
Have you done your homework and gone through through the preceding posts? If you have – then Monday’s skype session might be more fun than usual!
Paul
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Maybe. I totally get the anti-transactional part, but the route to the thesis is where I’m lost. Yep, I’ve read the earlier posts; maybe I should re-read them in case I’ve missed something- which is quite possible. Yet I have a hunch we’ve forgotten the context of those initial texts that you quoted fall into… but then I’m lost, so maybe I’m mistaken 🙂
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You are very gracious Don, thank you.
I think maybe I have my arm down a rabbit hole and can feel and visualise perfectly what is there – but am having trouble describing it to anyone else. 🙂
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I know the feeling 🙂
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