Pyramid of Love 2
The base of the pyramid of love is shaped by three things:
-How we see God
-How we see ourselves
-How we see others and the world around us.
The nature of God across the Bible is one that is easily steeped in conflict. Horrible and horrific acts were carried out by men in the name of God or by an alleged instruction from God. But somehow as we transition into the New Testament and encounter God’s own self revelation in Christ, God was different from what others projected as Him. God’s own self revelation was vulnerable, relatable, loving, inclusive, forgiven and accepting.
Suddenly the God who orchestrated murder and violence, suddenly became the God who rejected all forms of violence. He did not endorse or order any murder, rather became a victim of murder. How does God go from ‘kill your enemies’ to ‘love your enemies?’
Do we say the Old Testament prophets were wrong or was Jesus wrong? Let’s check his scripture:“You have entrusted me with all that you are and all that you have. No one fully and intimately knows the Son except the Father. And no one fully and intimately knows the Father except the Son. But the Son is able to unveil the Father to anyone he chooses.” Matthew 11:27 TPT
Jesus was God’s own intimate self revelation and perfect theology. “The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature — his mirror image! He holds the universe together and expands it by the mighty power of his spoken word. He accomplished for us the complete cleansing of sins, and then took his seat on the highest throne at the right hand of the majestic One.” Hebrews 1:3 TPT
What if indeed the prophets saw in part? What if most of the killings were less a revelation of the nature of God but a reflection of a culture that had no other way to resolve violence? They lived in a culture of scapegoatism, when to not kill your enemies is to be killed by them.
The law wasn’t given to protect men from God, but to protect men from men. They were consumed by greed and lust. Law was an intervention pending the era of grace.
God is love. All that God is is found in His love. His love is a multi-sided diamond. His wrath is not against us, but against that which is against us. God is just, but his arc of justice, judges to redeem us and not destroy us. God’s justice is restorative, not punitive.
What if many acts people projected on God was not always his nature, but rather the understanding of men about God or more a reflection of the heart of men.
In Christ God spoke as Himself, love was the nature, grace was the sound, redemption was the mission, forgiveness was the message. Our understanding of God has to be fully rooted in the lens of Christ. We are not called to reject those scriptures, but we have to put them in context and hold the view of Christ as more consistent.
Christ came to reveal God. “I know all that you’ve done. Now I have set before you a wide-open door that none can shut. For I know that you possess only a little power, yet you’ve kept my word and haven’t denied my name.”
Revelation 3:8 TPT.
Jesus opened the door to how we should see God. He revealed the Fatherhood of God and unveiled the sonship of man. Jesus is like God, but God is like Jesus. He suffered at the hands of those he created, but didn’t not respond in violence, rather ended the culture of violence. No more shedding of blood, no more sacrifice.
How do we see God? The angry God or the loving God?
God who would rather not deal with our messiness and brokenness or the own who dives in to bring us out?
God who is constantly dialing in to see our sins and keep a precise record or the God who keeps no record of wrongs.
The Bible gives us too many images of God, to hold all as true is to maintain a tension already resolved in Christ. Christ is perfect theology, all else is a shadow.
Furthermore, how we see ourselves is a direct reflection of how we see God. If we believe in the good that is God, we believe that there is good in us and good in others. If we believe in a God who forgives, we are able to receive that forgiveness and give the same forgiveness to ourselves and to the world. If we believe in a God who loves unconditionally, we can accept that love and share that love with our world.
May every false image of God drown in the wake of His love. May every wrong notion of God dissolve in the very unfolding beauty of His warm embrace.
