We who are Christian believe that God is love. We believe it with our souls because we feel the enduring truth of it — and we believe it with our minds because in the Bible (at 1 John 4:8), it says, right there in black and white, “God is love.”
Which pretty neatly settles it.
But wait! There’s more!
And we all know what that “more” is, of course. That “more” is the whole rest of our religion. That “more” is Christ’s willing sacrifice for us on the cross.
Chocolate and candies can really send a message, for sure — but nothing says “I love you” like volunteering to trade the spiritual well-being of another for having yourself slashed, beaten to a pulp, and then hammered to a giant cross so that you can die a slow and unimaginably agonizing death.
That is love. If they could figure out a way to package and sell that at Hallmark, then … well, then Hallmark would have some pretty dramatic window displays.
Of course, that would mean that instead of flowers and chocolates for Valentine’s Day, we’d all have to give our beloveds Band Aides and iodine. So … not so good.
The point is: Christ slaughtered himself for us. And he didn’t do it as a God, because (I assume) that would have caused him a great deal less physical pain than it did. Instead, he let himself be tortured as a man, complete with at least as many nerve endings as you or I have. And when it happened, Jesus didn’t bleed sunlight, and he didn’t cry tears of rain, and he didn’t sweat beads of gold.
He bled real blood; he cried real tears; he sweat real salt. And you won’t read about it in the Bible, but I’m betting he also wet himself with real urine.
What happened that day to our Lord was as ugly as ugly gets.
We know that. And we know Christ had to die exactly as he did, because he knew that that’s the kind of hard truth and imagery we would need in order to make and keep perpetually real for us the fact that he did virtually everything possible to ensure that we understood that, for all of eternity following the moment he said “It is finished,” the price of every single nasty, selfish, destructive, mean thing we ever did or ever could do was paid off, by him, in full.
God became a man who allowed his skin to be torn from his body so that those who believed in the miracle of his being and purpose would never have to live with the caustic, grueling, ferociously destructive force that is unrelieved guilt. He took into his body the totality of the negative ramifications for everything wrong or evil that any of us would ever do or think, and he forever put all of it to rest. In terms as true as they are simple, Jesus Christ traded his life for our freedom.
So yeah, I think “God is love” pretty effectively covers it. To be honest, I’m almost surprised there are any other words in the Bible at all.
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Follow-up: Why did God have to sacrifice himself?
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
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DR, thank you!! Out-freakin'-standing….and I'm sure nobody here finds you arrogant at all. Couldn't have said it better!!
Very well put DR. (Dennis Rodman, right? I mean, it sounds like nothing he would ever say).
I think we've each been amazed at how some individuals (I this case, those railing against fundamentalist, zealots, proselytizers, and bigots) embody the very undesirable characteristics they would staunchly claim to abhor.
I think it is the psychology of hate. There's probably a clinical term for this.
Yes. I'm Dennis Rodman. Let's go with that.
I'm not amazed. I'm a bit concerned my comment was viewed as a "Yay Jesus people, boo atheists – shut up and stop being mean as we prevent you from getting married and hide the priests who abused you. I always have partial comment regret after that kind of response.
People are furious with Christians for not living up to who we claim to love and follow. They want answers, and are demanding answers because the decisions often made by our vote and our posture as we go out into the world *literally* does damage. So they're scared of us, they don't trust us and if Christians were more interested in actually putting ourselves in their shoes, we'd get it.
It's tempting for people like you and I to say "But I'm one of the good christians, so stop being such an asshole – be nice to me! Me! Me! Me!", etc. But to many people who aren't Christian, that doesn't matter because you and I still choose to worship in places where the "bad" people are, we're still associating ourselves with a religion whose tenants have caused many of its followers to cause a lot of harm. So they aren't terribly interested in giving them a pass, and with all due respect it's probably a bit self-absorbed for us to keep asking for one.
The crap that Christians do is our responsibility as Christians to fix, not theirs. My point to David is he could *help* us. And I want some relief for he and others from the hate that must be so miserable, though that might not be realistic and is probably a bit patronizing.
He could really help us though so many are so sick of us that they've no inclination in doing so, they just want us to go away. And honestly – I get why. At minimum, I'd ask someone like David to take the heat off of guys like John who are actually getting the things done we should be getting done as a group of people who believe in Christ. But John knows what he's getting into, he seems up for it.
Christians aren't victims. Getting into an argument about tone with someone who isn't able to marry the person she or he loves because they are gay as a result of Christians voting against that? There's a place for that, but the overall point is for us to actually listen to how angry people are. Listen to the comments they are making behind the questions. Maybe David can help us listen by taking the edge off. Or perhaps the edge in his anger is what will actually get more of us to listen. I don't know.
DR: hear hear!!! And thank you for expressing it so well and so to the point. Nothing more to add but I want to copy your reply and send it to SO many people I know, not as a slap in the face to non-Xians but to my Christian friends as an example of someone eloquently sticking up for their faith. Thank you
I am baffled why people who were given such powerful brains instead choose to believe a book that tells them to act like sheep (the dumbest of the domesticated animals), to keep your mind childlike and that eating from the “tree of knowledge” is a bad thing, punishable by death. Sheep will follow the heard to their detriment and that is what the bible tells them to emulate!
Enough.
I don't know John Shore terribly well, but I do know that he's taken a stand against a lot of what Christians have done historically to wound, demean, diminish and cause pain. He's actively working against it and he's taking some hits from the Christians who are mired in their homophobia, racism and dogma. He's also motivating those of us who have been passive and cowardly to get in the game.
But oddly, there are those of you who blow right by that, and instead choose to lump John into the group of people that you despise. And in doing so, you hate just as blindly as the Fundamentalists you despise, and you fool yourself to think you are any different. I sense you've been wounded. That you've not had a voice. I bet you're telling yourself right now that you're different. That you're entitled. That your mission in life is to eradicate the very thing that's caused you so much pain, and the world so much pain.
But I'm here to tell you what people are scared to say because we want to support you, and that is that you don't get the last word on Christianity. You have the last word on *your experience* of it, but not what it is exclusively. And watching you and others attempt to claim as much is equally annoying as watching a fundamentalist preacher say "Jesus is the only way, and if you don't believe it you're going to hell." You're drawing a definitive conclusion on what Christianity *is* as arrogantly as they do.
The other thing I want to say is going to be hard to hear, and you're not going to like it. Your woundedness does not give you an excuse to be uncivil. There is a difference between being angry and being insulting, and you've crossed it. If you're here to poke the Christian bear, then do it – but it's obvious that in doing so, you're not really here for real conversation. You're here to push an agenda. And in doing so, no one who needs to listen will actually listen.
There are thousands of Christians who paint you and others with a one-dimensional brush which is often shaming, inaccurate, uneducated and just stupid. But this kind of comment shows that you're cut from the same kind of cloth as they are. You're no different. And you're no victim, at least not here. John isn't attacking you – he's not the people in your life who have hurt you. You *choosing* to see him that way is your decision, your choice to not actually participate in the conversation at hand, but to instead just rage, has a consequence. It moves you from being someone one who is actually interested in thoughtful dialogue, to being just a guy with an obvious agenda to hurt everyone who's ever hurt him before. And you're trying to do that by attacking someone who *actually* wants to know you, and who's in your corner. And not caring about that – not caring about him – that's your issue; it's your fault if you don't get responded to. And it shows that you're actually not at peace with the conclusions you've drawn.
You've decided who Christians are and what Christianity is based on your experience. Which is fine. Everyone gets the last word on who they are. But if you really think that these blanket statements actually do anything, actually convince anyone, or move anything forward productively, you're fooling yourself. At best, they give you a temporary voice in which to express your woundedness, and to hang onto the rage that you choose to hold onto when, in fact, people like John can provide a bit of refuge for you.
No one is saying you have to become a Chistian. But at best? Do justice to what you're trying to say, and don't fold it into such insulting rhetoric. You're doing a disservice to everyone who wants to see change, both Christians and atheists alike.
DR is right, David. I’m not your enemy.
Brave DR! Well said.
There’s nothing to add, really. Well, maybe this: this is John’s blog. He’s entitled to use it any way he chooses, and to express any opinions that he has.
We are clearly welcome to engage him in thoughtful discussion, debate, and even disagreement.
But if we think we’re doing anything significant with hate, spite, anger, rage, and the likes of that, all we are doing, when we engage in that, is stabbing ourselves in the foot, so to speak. It accomplishes nothing.
Enough said, by my ineloquent self.
David, I hope you don’t take my words as “shut the fuck up”. They aren’t. There are so many people who have been abused and disrespected by Christianity. Women, gays and lesbians, kids who are abused. If I didn’t have the filter I do (a positive experience of faith), I’d be on the bandwagon of shutting down this system that has removed certain Civil Rights from Americans, hidden child abusers. I just want you to be HEARD. I want you to find a group of people who have a faith, but you trust. Perhaps I’m arrogant (tell me if I am), but I think hatred holds us hostage to the shit in our lives that keeps us miserable. I don’t know you, there is a good chance your daily life is impacted, hassled and diminished by Christians either directly or institutionally or legally (fill in the blanks). But I want to join forces with you because honestly – I read what a lot of atheists are saying and think “That’s exactly what Jesus would say.” You have a place at the table. Just talk to those of us who listen. Please give us a chance. No one would blame you if you don’t want to. But not all of us is your enemy. The only thing I ask is that you open your mind to that possibility and talk to us so we can clean up this mess we choose to be a part of.
Now I apparently have a job I should go do and I think I’ve gone on enough!
Yeah for DR.
*applause*
I did a quick search for a sermon I am sharing tomorrow to see what are others saying about the statement "God is…love"
Starbuck's is…coffee
Jeeps are…fun
I was thinking why great brands are…simple. true to themselves and we get great security in a world full of constant upheaval
..I love the statement ecclesiastical eductionism…
I am not trying to reduce God to a brand..but I am trying to reduce my faith to this simple truth
selah
John Shore said, "We Christians believe that God is love. We believe it with our souls because we feel the enduring truth of it — and we believe it with our minds because in the Bible (at 1 John 4:8), it says, right there in black and white, God is love. Which pretty neatly settles it."
Eh? You believe because the enduring truth of it? Well, if it is indeed the enduring truth, than why do you only "believe" and not "know"? Hardly seems "pretty neatly settled."
Travis: On the off-off chance that you're actually interested in any of what I've in the past written on this very topic, you might start with a few of the samples below. Lemme know if you'd like links to more–or just poke around my blog. Thanks for your question.
There’s No Arguing It: We Can’t KNOW If There’s A God or Not
Christianity: 5% Brain, 95% Emotion. Yeah, Baby!
Make That Christianity: 95% Brains, 5% Emotion
Hallelujah! We Know So Little!
Certainty in Christ: A Blessing — And A Curse
Why Doesn’t God Just Prove He Exists?
Call it not love for Love to heaven is fled
Since sweating lust on earth usurped his name.
Under whose simple semblance man has fed,
upon fresh beauty blotting it with blame,
which the hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves
as caterpillars do the tender leaves.
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
while lusts effect is tempest after sun.
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
lust's winter comes ere summer half be done.
Love surfeits not, lust like a glutton dies,
Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies.
From the poem, Venus and Adonis by Wiliam Shakespeare
Um. Okay.
I came here for a quick snack and ended up with a 12 course meal. Great discussion. Insightful questions. Well considered answers. A years worth of sermons could come out of this blog alone. Thanks to all of you for the wonderful messages.
Jesus was there from the beginning, Larry. Just read the first chapter of John.
Was Jesus siting up in heaven before he came to earth, or did god create him just to be nailed to the cross?
Another great, inspiring, and provocative post! I love to read the various views. Thanks John for writing , and thanks all for the eye opening comments.
I LOVE THIS. THE SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE SCRIPTURE IS THAT GOD IS LOVE. PERSONALLY TO ME AND MY LITTLE UNDERSTANDING, THE BIBLE STARTS WITH GOD'S ,LOVE AND ENDS WITH GODS LOVE.
That was fabulous it's always good to have a reminder of the love that God has for us. Just to let us know ,Hey I know what it's like to be human and suffer but, I love You so much that I gave my all to show you so there would be no questioning about it.
Thank You Lord for Loving me so much that you alone gave the ultimate sacrifice of your life so I could live and have the ultimate gift,
You.
I Love You Jesus
God loves all people. He does not want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9) but “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)
It is God who takes the initiative in seeking and saving us, but in regard to our response to that initiative, we still have some autonomy and corresponding responsibility. God created the world and humans and “determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us….Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:26-27, 29-31) John 6 makes it clear that God takes the initiative (v. 37, 39, 44) and that there is a response that is required (v. 35, 40, 47).
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:4-10) The “this” which is “not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” is referring to the fact that “by grace you have been saved, through faith”; it is referring to our salvation. We must have faith to receive God's grace. Paul wants his readers to understand that our faith is not something intrinsically meritorious by which we are earning grace. It is a response which God will credit to us as righteousness (see Romans 4 where Paul has much more to say about this). The righteousness which comes by faith (Romans 3:21-22) is me holding out my hand to accept the gift God offers me. My doing so in no way means I am earning it so that God is obligated to pay it to me.
"Abraham believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)
"The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Romans 4:23-25)
John, I must say that I have just happened upon your site, and what you have to say on the life of Jesus is perhaps the most accurate information I have heard…. outside of my own knowing that is. Bless you.
Even our faith is a gift. (Eph 2:8-9). faith is not a blind leap or something we just conjur up. It is not mental assenting to a few truths. It is a gift of God. Joh 6:44 & 65 tell us that we must be enabled even to come. We are born rebels and have no diser for God. If however, God moves to cause a man's human will to desire Him and the Gospel is heard (God's chosen means is the preaching of the word) faith is somehow supernaturally produced, a man is saved and heaven rejoices because God has been glorified.
Morse, thank you for your question. I am sure that there are many people that are wondering about the same thing. He is the Alpha and the Omega. There is nothing above Him, there is nothing impossible to God. He can do anything and everything. If this is the case then why didn't He just forgave us if he wanted to. I guess (my opinion) He could, after all He is GOD but what does that tell us as His children? What is going to happen to the law that He established. One thing I know is our GOD is not a fickle minded God. What sort of an example is he if He himself will not follow His own laws? The law that He established will not be broken. In the old testament, when someone commits a sin, a lamb must be sacrificed. That is why Jesus is called the "Lamd of GOD" because He is the Ultimate sacrifice.
Why did he have to die? Because if he hadn't there would not be salvation. If He will just forgive us then He himself have broken the law that He created and we know he will not do that.
Our comprehension is so limited compared to Him. There are so many things that we will never understand even if we triple our lifetime, this is were faith comes in. Faith is believing without seeing and not a shed of doubt. In the book of Hebrew, "…for it is impossible to please God with no faith…"
In a way, God has a sense of humor. He experienced humanity, experienced hunger (he could have just always magically created bread so that he would not felt hunger but he didn't), cried, laugh and many other things. Jesus even asked for strength prior to crucifixion. He lived just like any of us. He did this because He loved us, He did this as the Ultimate sacrifice for all our sins so that we don't have to die spiritually ("..for the wages of sin is death.."). He proved to us that He is a God of his word. Now, when something that is not so good is happening to us, we can't really say and tell God that "God, you don't know what I am going through?". I think (my opinion), God will say, "oh yes I do, been there, done that. I went through something that is worse but I never gave up. I lived and died for my purpose. I lived and died for you". Again, I will not even attempt to have a comprehension as God's. I don't have the capability and it will not happen.
How can someone preach about the sacrifices of the Lord if the Lord did not go through such sacrifices. How can someone say that biting an apple is not as good as biting an orange if that someone have not even tasted an apple? Most of the times, we really have to have the experience in order to have the understanding and be able to share the wisdom about the experience.
The Four Laws are very 'man-centerd'. Jesus didn't die for a wonderful plan for us, so we could have our best life now, or merely to secure the possibility of forgiveness. The wages of sin is death. Someone had to die in our place. the cup Jesus had to drink was the cup of God's very wrath against all sin. God cannot forgive sin – he must and WILL punish it. Jesus died IN OUR PLACE. In the end God does everything for His own glory not any human beings good. Even in all the 'wrong' stuff we see around us, God will be glorifird. Just like kids, we always want the 'why'. What right to we have to even question God? And guess what – there are no good people apart from Christ. ALL have sinned, ALL our righteousness (goodness) is like a pile of dirty smelly rags in the corner of the garage. That's hou Holy and Perfert and Pure God is. Neither is God our 'ultimate parent'. That makes Him sound like one of us. He is HOLY and totally separate from His creation. Separe, unique, in a class by Himself – that's what Holy means. Accepting God is not nodding our heads in agreement to a few 'Laws' or 'things God wants us to know'. Apart from Christ we CANNOT seek God. It is Christ who seeks and saves. He is not knocking on the door of our hearts begging to come in. That one was for a lukewarm church deserving to be spit out of His mouth. Sins are not the bothersome things we 'do', but WHO WE ARE without Christ. It's when we realize our totally bankrupt condition, hopless and helpless before a Holy God, deserving of His wrath, and THEN 'accepting' the truth of Christs dying in our place that we can be truly saved.
Praise God, from whom all blessings (including the painful ones) flow! You are in great form, here, John, and I'm happy to have joined your group of readers. Thank God, it is finished! May we learn to live in the reality of that love. It never fails.
The way I see it, the gospel message is simple to understand, but very difficult to accept. A child can understand the truths that we have come to label "The Four Spiritual laws" : God created us and loves us, Sin separates us from God , Christ died to pay the penalty required for our forgiveness, and when we accept God's forgiveness, our union with God is reinstated. I know of many children who have understood and accepted the gospel message, but I also know alot of adults who just can't "get it". The reality of the horrific death that Jesus in human flesh had to endure for us is such an incredibly harsh truth to grasp. How could God have required such inhumane treatment of His own son? Then there are the ubiquitous questions like:"Why do bad things happen to good people?" and "Why isn't God answering my prayers?", "How could a loving, all powerful God allow human tragedy to happen?" God's reality is hard to accept, especially here in our culture where human rights, freedoms, and political correctness reign supreme. Using parenting as an analogy: my kids often keep asking "Why" when I have already given them my reasons many, many times. Eventually I get it that they understand "Why" but they just don't want to accept my rules.They keep asking "why" because they want the reality to change to something more acceptable to them. Maybe sometimes we just have to accept the reality that God is our ultimate parent, and He has every right to tell us "Because I'm God and I said so!"
John – Thank you for the reminder.
Dan – Amen.
Morse – I'm no theologian, but I immediately think of these three Scriptures: "The wages of sin is death …" (Rom 3:23) and "The life is in the blood."For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." (Lev 17:11) and "…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." (Heb 9:22) I don't claim to understand why anything is the way it is, but these are the spiritual facts of life and death, according to the only trustworthy source.
John – What you wrote here really made an excellent point: "And when it happened, Jesus didn’t bleed sunlight, and he didn’t cry tears of rain, and he didn’t sweat beads of gold. | He bled real blood; he cried real tears; he sweat real salt." Yes. That is the kind of reality I can understand. It's harder to grasp the greater horror, the horror that separated Him [Jesus] from His Father when He cried, "Why have You forsaken Me?"–the horror of sin–because I'm so accustomed to its degradation. "For our sake he [the Father] made him [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him [the Son] we might become the righteousness of God [Father and Son]. (2 Cor 5:21). I appreciate this entry for reminding me of these things. Thank you.
Since the covering of sin was always accomplished with the shedding of blood and loss of life, it appears to me, in my limited understanding, that God considers living creatures to be the most important of His creations. I'm reminded of the saying, "It wasn't the nails that kept Him on the cross it was Love."
Great post today John.
God is good! Bless you John for this post.
Thanks John. Amen. Right On and all that.
This made me laugh: "well, then Hallmark would have some pretty dramatic window displays."
The rest just makes me think, wow… for me?
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