I preached this past weekend on Counter Conditional love. You might ask how it is different from unconditional love. Well, I'm glad you asked. If uncondtional love says "I love you no matter what," counter conditional love says "I love you even if its going to cause me pain."
Because counter conditional love is not based on a response, its based on an object: us. We are the object of God's counter conditional love whether we like it or not. We are the object of God's counter conditional love and there is nothing any of us can do about. We are the object of God's love and there is nothing any of us can do to make God love us less than he does right now. Nothing in our past, nothing in our present and nothing in our future. His love is available to us becuase he chooses to love us regardless of what we do.
If God's love for us was based on our response, then his love would be a one chance love. That would be like God saying "I love you and you can accept it or reject it, this is your only chance." God doesn't say that, God says "I love you and I desperately want you to receive it, therefore it is always available."
We are God's prized possession, thank goodness there's nothing we can do to change that.
1 comment:
Rich,
Good sermon topic. We were talking about this the other day in SS. We are going through the Purpose driven life and in one of the early chapters Warren talks about God pulling away form us as a test. I am not saying we don't have times when we feel closet to God than others. I simply think God is not the one moving.
It is God's prevenient grace that constantly woos us and pursues us to accept his calling. Yes we can present barriers form our side to accepting that grace but it is there because God's desire is for us to accept it.
By the way hope you are well. What church are you at now?
Summer
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