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Every time I talk with a believer, Love Without Condition is the condition of God.  Love without condition is the great reward.  Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so.  It is something we all seem to agree upon.  We are loved even before we are born.  The lines keep on coming.

Except that almost every believer has a “but” inside their head and heart.  But is the condition of a believer.  A but of necessary saving and necessary believing.  That we are but sinners saved.  That Christ died for my sins.  That I, washed clean with His blood, am now forgiven of my sins even though (but) I still sin.  But they no longer count against me.  Which is why I am certain of eternal life.

That’s a pretty big “but”.

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And as I journey a path meandering this way and that, I have found that the only person capable of taking that “but” away is me.  God won’t – God endows free-will as a non-condition of unconditional love.  The church won’t – its very survival depends on conditional salvation.  The bible won’t – the words are fixed whether or not they are inerrant and infallible or merely God-inspired.  And a commandment is a commandment after all – a believer can’t be picky (even though we all are all the time).

Which leaves me.

My choice.  My decision.  My allowing or not.

Do I insist on unconditional love with a big “but” or not?  Do I believe original sin debases me even though saved?  Do I believe I am incapable of love without condition because of original sin?  Do I tell God that even though he created me in His image – I am a flawed creation.  That whatever God thinks He created – it wasn’t perfect and He cannot expect me to be that good.  The Garden – that tree – the serpent – and damn you Eve and Adam – all that and you screwed it all up for me!

Which brings it back to me again.

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As I journey through my meanders – this “logic of belief” seems increasingly flawed.  This biblically correct bible interpretation I was taught seems more and more odd.  For that belief limits me.  It removes my free-will.  It makes be disabled. And it is my taught (and correct?) choice to be less than perfect – not God’s (who is perfect even in Love).

Love without condition.

I think we have made the love of God as cheesy as the love of popular culture.  God’s love is perfect.  He never misses a trick, never runs out of time, has nothing other than perfect timing, will never think badly of us, would heal us all if only we had enough faith (but that we haven’t … original sin and “not my fault” again).  In other words the imagery of the Garden (also made fact) is the Love of God – and no way can we even come close to that.

But is Love really “that”?

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We die for each other.  We heal each other.  We give to each other.  We sacrifice for each other.  We strive to be the best we know how.  And we mess up.  All of which is a journey of living.  Just like the first @ three decades of Jesus’ written life are almost a blank page.  A journey of three decades hardly worth a mention in the Gospels.  A blank page we fill with assumption and cheese.  Making the possibility of any of us living a life of unconditional love ever more impossible.

Which isn’t free-will at all.

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But it is what we tell our children not to do.  Not to limit themselves.  To dream big and never stop.  To follow their dream.  That anything is possible.  They can be whoever and whatever they set their minds and heart on.

And then we tell ourselves the believer can’t do any of that.

Is that really “being saved”?

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