BECAUSE/THEREFORE CHRISTIANS

I recently saw these words on a church sign: “If you accept God’s Son, He accepts you.” That sounds like a perfectly reasonable statement of human fact, doesn’t it? “Quid pro quo”—“If you do something for me, then I will do something for you.” Very reasonable; very human.
But the above thought is also very non-Biblical & un-God-like. You see, our God—the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—is the initiator of the relationship with humanity throughout Scripture. It is always God who makes the first move to restore the relationship which we humans break.
Paul writes in Romans 5:8, “But God proves His love for us in that WHILE WE STILL WERE SINNERS Christ died for us.” God did not wait for us to ask for His love or forgiveness before sending Jesus to die for us. God took the initiative; God acted first.
Jesus shows this same sequence of actions throughout His life & ministry. He heals & then leaves it to the healed ones to decide whether to follow Him. Not once does Jesus say, “Well, if you accept me as God’s Son, then I’ll accept & heal you.” No. It is always God who reaches for us first.
The Gospel replaces our human “if/then” with the divine proposition “because/therefore.” “BECAUSE God so loved the world, (THEREFORE) He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) This is unbelievable news for all of us sinners, because it means that God has taken the ultimate action on our behalf even before we asked Him to…even before we admitted that we need His help.
“Because/therefore” is freeing. It is Gospel. “If/then” keeps us always under the ominous thumb of the Law. But there is another “because/therefore” that is a major factor in Christian life. It is the proposition that BECAUSE of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ THEREFORE we should all live lives “worthy of the calling” & grace of God. In other words, the world should truly “Know We Are Christians by Our Love.” Because of the gracious outpouring of love to us, therefore we should take the initiative in reaching out in love to others.
Christians haven’t always been good at this. In fact, Christians in this country aren’t very good at that today. Mahatma Gandhi (who studied the life & teachings of Jesus carefully) once said that he could easily be a Christian (a follower of Christ) if it weren’t for Christians (those of us who say we follow, but really don’t). The reason for this is too many Christians who still believe what the above sign suggests—“if/then.”
Let us be, instead, “because/therefore” followers of the One whose love has been lavished so freely on us.