“…while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NASB).
I was calling a
patient yesterday to discuss his blood counts. He was not in but I listened to
his answering machine, which ended this way:
“God does not love
you because you are good; you are good because God loves you. Have faith in
Christ today.”
That’s a gutsy
answering machine.
I am amazed at the boldness of this patient’s witness. I
suspect the message he placed on his machine evolved from William Sloan Coffin’s
commencement address at Willamette College many years ago:
“God’s love does not seek value; it creates it. It is not
because you have value that you are loved. It is because you are loved that you
have value.”
I have heard no better explanation and defense of the value
and demand for justice for all human life than this statement. The value of
every person I see, weak or strong, poor or rich, perfumed or odiferous,
disabled or fully functional, born or unborn, is not dependent on his or her
contribution to society, but on the very love of God.
This man’s answering machine takes Coffin’s statement one
step farther, adding truth to truth. God’s love is not dependent on our value,
nor is it dependent on our goodness. God loves us regardless, and out from that
love came the cross that brings us our goodness.
Dear God,
I am unworthy and you
still love me. I am not good and yet you have made me so.
Let me see others the
way you see me.
Amen.
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