God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.
Romans 5:6-11
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
While you were still weak. While I was still weak. While we were weak in righteousness, Jesus died for us. It’s unusual for a person to lay down his life for a good human being, a righteous person. But what Jesus did: While we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. While we were indebted to God because of our sin, Jesus forgave us.
We’re justified by his blood.
And we can and should rejoice in God through Jesus, through whom we’ve been reconciled to God.
The Unforgiving Servant
This passage reminds of the parable Jesus told about the unforgiving servant. A king wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And one servant was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. I did a search for what 10,000 talents is worth in today’s money, and it was at the very least, worth 1.3 million in today’s U.S. dollars. This servant was in trouble because he couldn’t pay his debt. So the king ordered him to be sold together with his family so the payment could be made.
The servant fell on his knees, and he begged and pleaded.
The king had mercy on his servant and forgave him the entire debt, and set him free.
Later the servant who was forgiven, found a fellow servant who owed him money, a dramatically smaller sum than what the forgiven servant had owed the king. He began choking his fellow servant, demanding his money. The servant begged and pleaded for mercy, but the forgiven servant refused. And he put his fellow servant in prison until he should pay his debt.
The king found out what happened, and, It did not end well for that unforgiving servant. (Matthew 18:21-35)
The Unforgiving Mind
Sadly, you and I are in danger of finding ourselves behaving similarly. You and I who have been forgiven of our sins, you and I, as Paul writes, we are the ones who Jesus died for: while we were yet sinners. Jesus paid our heavy debt. But in spite of that, we sometimes put fellow sinners in prison, in our minds. We hold them there, in a place of unforgiveness, resentment, anger, judgment, even contempt.
We poison ourselves when we do that. All the research points toward an ability to forgive, being associated with peace of mind, happiness, and good mental health. Consider this quote from a Harvard University article:
(Over 15 years of subsequent work has supported that.) Toussaint and Webb (2005) also provided for the option that many benefits to mental health come directly from the reduction of unforgiveness and its associated blame, shame, anger, and hatred, all of which have negative effects on mental health.
As is always the case, God is trying to help us follow Jesus’ Way because His way is the way to our best possible lives.
You and I find ourselves in the same position as that first servant. And to be reconciled to God through Christ, we need to remember the way Jesus forgave us. We need to look at others through the lens of Jesus’ forgiveness.
In conclusion, I’ll leave you with this excellent advice from Saint John of the Cross:
“Whenever anything disagreeable happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.”
Notes:
Loren Tousaint, Everett L. Worthington R., Jon R. Webb, Colwick Wilson, and David R. Williams, Forgiveness in Human Flourishing, Harvard
Image of forgiveness and reconciliation via pxhere–Public Domain
Available on Amazon, Google Play Books, and Audible!
Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)
Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:
- Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
- How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
- The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
- How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
- How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
- How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
- How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
- How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
- How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.
With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.
A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon, the ebook is now available on Google Play Books, and the audiobook is available on Audible.)
