Louisville loves bumper stickers. For real. And there is a Christian
bumper sticker on the back of lots of cars in the city that reads: Love
Wins. I understand the sentiment and even approve, kind of. But like
all bumper stickers, its impact suffers from a diffused ambiguity.
Whose love wins? Does human love inevitably win? Wins what? Wins the
war, the tennis match, the poker game? The big question that looms in
my mind is this: If it’s God’s love that wins, then what kind of divine
love wins? This may seem to be a very odd question. It may seem
self-explanatory or moot – God’s love is God’s love, right?
Maybe.
Actually, probably not. I don’t know. But I would sure like to see the
likes of McLaren, Piper, Pagitt, Boyd, MacArthur, Carson, Bell,
Driscoll, and Bishop Gene Robinson duke it out in a cage-match to
determine who actually knows what they are talking about.
In all
seriousness, the point I am getting at is we need to make clear with
our bumper stickers and culture-current writings is that the love that
wins is a holy love. The love that won on the cross and wins the world
is a love that is driven, determined, and defined by holiness. It is a
love that flows out of the heart of a God who is transcendent,
majestic, infinite in righteousness, who loves justice as much as He
does mercy; who hates wickedness as much as He loves goodness; who
blazes with a fiery, passionate love for Himself above all things. He
is robed in a splendor and eternal purity that is blinding. He rules,
He reigns, He rages and roars, then bends down to whisper love songs to
His creatures. His love is vast and irresistible. It is also
terrifying, and it will spare no expense to give everything away in
order to free us from the bondage of sin, purifying for Himself a
people who are devoted to His glory, a people who “have no ambition
except to do good” (Titus 2:14). So He crushes His precious Son in
order to rescue and restore mankind along with His entire creation
(Isaiah 53:10-12). He unleashes perfect judgment on the perfectly
obedient sacrifice and then pulls Him up out of the grave in a smashing
and utter victory.
He is a burning cyclone of passionate love.
Holy love wins.
been said that a half-truth masquerading as a whole truth is a complete
untruth. So true. And convicting, because we do this so often. These
bumper stickers are just one tiny example of our culture’s insistence
on accomodating half-truths and it puts us in danger of de-clawing and
domesticating the mighty King, whose presence made demons scream in
terror and death flee in shame. He came on an invasive, dangerous, and
unwelcome mission of mercy to cut open and expose what was hidden in
men’s hearts (Luke 2:34-35). His coming was not to be marked by peace
and tranquility – He came to impose a test of absolute allegiance. He
forced people into a divisive crisis of choice (Matthew 10:34-39). The
peace He came to bring first triggered a war. He was on a guerrilla
mission to infiltrate territory controlled by His enemy, raid his camp,
and set the prisoners free (Mark 3:23-27; Luke 4:18).
His carpenter’s tool belt there also hung a sword.
