The Counter-Conditional Love of God

I interrupt the "Why I Am A Presbyterian" series to share a few thoughts inspired by a Tim Keller sermon. The interruption is fitting with the series, for Keller could be considered reason #7 of why I am a Presbyterian.

This morning, I listened to his sermon, "Does God Control Everything?" The whole sermon was brilliant, but there were a few ideas I felt a strong urge to share. When such ideas cannot fit into the size limitations of a facebook status, that's what this blog is for. Preaching on Romans 8:28 and following, Keller explains the superiority of God's infinite wisdom and decision-making over our own. Based on this, he states:

Very seldom do we even get a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a glimpse of how God is working all things together for the good of those who love God. But he is. And, therefore, you can be assured that no matter what bad stuff's happening inside you and no matter what bad stuff's happening outside you, he has not abandoned you. He loves you.

If you've heard Keller before, it is no surprise where he will take the finale of the sermon: to the cross. This is the basis for God's love for us. Many people walk around out there believing God loves them unconditionally, but this is not enough. One must rely on the basis of God's love for them, they must "personalize" God's love in Jesus. Keller says:

Don't think of love abstractly; Jesus is the love of God. In the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, do you know what was happening? All the greatest forces in the universe were arrayed against Jesus, and he could have stopped them. He could have stopped the rejection, he could have stopped the torture, he could have stopped the death, he could have stopped the rejection of his Father, he could have stopped eternal justice coming down on his head. All he had to do was give up on us. That's all he had to do, just walk away...Jesus was up on the cross bleeding and dying, looking down at the people betraying him and forsaking him and denying him, and in the greatest act of love in the history of the universe, he stayed. Bomb after bomb after bomb was coming down on Jesus Christ trying to get him to drop us, to separate him from us, and even hell itself couldn't do it. He stayed. Nothing could separate him from us, his love from us. He held onto us; he was our Savior. He died for us! Now that's how you know nothing can separate us from the love of God. It's not an abstraction. It's not just saying, 'Oh, I just believe that God loves me unconditionally.' No, he loves you counter-conditionally; he loves you against conditions, because of Jesus.

John Newton, the author of the hymn 'Amazing Grace' and my favorite hymn writer said it like this:

Though afflicted, tempest tossed,

Comfortless awhile thou art,

Do not think thou can be lost,

Thou art graven on my heart;

All thy wastes I will repair;

Thou shalt be rebuilt anew;

And in thee it shall appear

What the God of love can do.