"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law...Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
No debt except love. Love, though a small word, embodies what it is to be a believer in Christ. For it was through the love of the Father that the Son was able to die for the sins of mankind. The days we live in would say that a father allowing a son, actually willing that his son would be born, live a life of intense purpose, and then desire his betrayal and subsequent death is absurd and crazy. How is this love? Fathers and mothers live their lives in such a way that they would lay down their lives to preserve the life of their child, especially an only child. But the love, this incomprehensible, unconditional love is bigger than what we understand love to be. We have reduced the word to describe our favorite foods, television shows, or anything else for that matter, but love is more. Which leads me to ask the question: is understanding this love a requirement to accepting it? Do we really have to understand that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) is a picture of the love God has for us, a picture of what seems contrary to love, but is actually a perfect representation of what Agape love looks like? Maybe understanding something isn't a prerequisite to accepting it. Maybe most people who don't accept decide not to because that picture of love seems so backwards that it seems improbably, nay non-existent, but I believe it is the mystery of this picture perfect Agape love that makes it all the more appealing. This near incomprehensible definition of true, righteous, divine love drives me on to attempt to more fully understand how this is possible, and not only that it's possible, but that it was for me to accept at no price to me...well, monetarily anyway. It drives me to the Word of God, the writings of people who actually walked the Earth with the God-Man (Jesus), who left the right hand of the Father fully knowing what would happen to him 33 years after his earthly birth: death on a criminal's cross, burial in a borrowed tomb, both of which were a direct result of God's unconditional love for people. We know Christ rose again on the third day, but let's focus on the fact that he had to die for love. Not only did he have to die, but he was tortured in unbelievably inhumane ways (the Romans were really good at bringing people near death without actually killing them). I digress because the focus isn't the brutality of his death, but the fact that God wanted to use this as a picture of his love. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God so loved the creation that he created in his image, that he was willing to send his son on a death mission, a "kamikaze of redemption" so to speak (although kamikaze pilots weren't so fortunate as to raise from the dead). Jesus Christ, the Man-God, came here (not exactly Heaven) on a death mission of love. Pure, unadulterated, perfect LOVE! Sent by his loving Father, and it's as though he thinks this concept is easy to grasp...or does he? I don't think God wants us to hang ourselves on reason and logic, because the Gospel a lot of the time has none of either. It doesn't make sense that to "repay evil with kindness because it is like heaping burning coals on his head" (paraphrased from Romans 12:20 and Proverbs 25:21-22). The fact that we can accept that love is not rational or logical, so why would we ever think that the love in the Gospel must be understood before you can accept it? I believe that God wants us to accept the love and spend the rest of our lives seeking out his face and seeking Him through the scriptures and working everyday to find out more about this mysterious love. As more is discovered about this mystery, more should be given in an effort to personify this newly discovered portion of God's love each day as we discover it.
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