God the Romantic

How did the power of the weak cross work? For centuries there have been at least three classic answers to that question. The cross has been seen as having a power that impacts three parties. The cross possesses a might which doesn’t just affect one party, but all three.

When I was in high school I participated one night in a role-playing board game. It featured giants and trolls and witches and warlocks. During the game you had to engage in battle against different kinds of creatures. But a weapon or a spell that would stop one creature wouldn’t necessarily work against another creature. You were always trying to remember which weapon you needed in order to stop the enemy that was in front of you. But the cross’ power functioned differently. It didn’t just have a power that impacted one particular person or party. It had a power that impacted three parties.

1. First, the cross had military power when he came to Satan. Paul writes that through the cross Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame” (Col. 2:15 ESV). The cross possessed a power that was able to disarm Satan and all his forces. This way of looking at the cross has sometimes been called the Ransom Theory. Jesus said that he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45 ESV). Paul wrote that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all.” (1 Tim. 2:6 ESV). Today we know the word “ransom” from the world of kidnapping. Someone kidnaps a person and demands a ransom. The word “ransom” also carries some of that meaning in Scripture. There is a sense in which we have been captured by Satan and the powers and rulers and authorities associated with him. But the cross was so powerful that it set us free from the power of darkness. In this sense the cross had a kind of military power associated with it. The cross was God’s rescue force sent in to take back humanity from the hands of the kidnapper.
2. Second, the cross had legal power when it came to God.  In a legal sense, humans had disobeyed God. They had broken his law.  As a result punishment was required. The cross met this demand. Paul writes in Romans 3:25 that the cross was a “propitiation.” That is, the cross turned God’s punishment aside from us and onto Jesus. Jesus took the sentence required by our crime and thus the legal demands of God were met.  This view of the cross is sometimes called the Penal Substitution or Satisfaction Theory. Jesus substituted himself so that the legal requirements of God’s law might be satisfied.
3. Third, the cross had romantic power when it came to us. In the Bible the great problem with humans has always been captured in one word: “heart.”
   1. The first book in the Bible describes the problem in these words:”The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5 ESV)
   2. God summarizes his greatest desire for humans in these words: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut. 6:5 ESV)
   3. When King David sins against God, his greatest plea is for God to renew his heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Ps. 51:10 ESV)
   4. The prophet Jeremiah urged the people to cleanse their hearts:”Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts.” (Jer. 4:4 ESV)
   5. Ezekiel dreams of this day with God: “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh…” (Ez. 11:19 ESV)
   6. Jesus agreed with the assessment of Isaiah the prophet: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matt. 15:8 ESV)
   7. Paul provides this diagnosis: “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Eph. 4:18 ESV)

The great human problem has always been a problem of the heart. Even when people get religious, they don’t necessarily engage their heart. This was the very issue the Jesus took up in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.  It is quite easy to do religious things like giving to the poor and praying and fasting, while at the same time refusing to fall in love with God.

But God’s greatest desire is illustrated in one of the concluding images in the Bible. The book of Revelation ends with a wedding scene—the wedding between Jesus and his bride the church. God is a romantic at heart. All he’s really after is for humans to fall for him in the way he’s fallen for them.

It turns out that God is not merely after followers. God is not merely after disciples. What God is after are lovers. God is not simply trying to save you. He is trying to woo you. He is not merely trying to get you to follow some ethical teachings.  He is trying to get you to fall in love with him.

This is not always easy for us to grasp. Last summer I spent 30 days in silence. My spiritual director asked me to read some specific texts and books as part of that experience. One of them was a book called The Spiritual Canticle by John of the Cross.^[i]  The book is a long love poem written by John to Jesus. In this poem John describes how he is yearning for Jesus, longing for Jesus, looking forward to intimacy with Jesus. My spiritual director asked me to spend several days meditating on this love poem. And I have to say that it was uncomfortable. I realized that I am more of a student of Jesus than a lover of Jesus.

But God is after our hearts. God is longing to romance the human race. And the great problem with humanity is that our hearts are turned away from God. We are in love with everyone and everything except God.

And the question is this: how does God win our hearts? How does God court us? How does God woo us? This is where the power of the cross may be at its greatest. Paul writes “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8 NIV). With the cross God was demonstrating just how much he loved us. This view of the cross is often called the Moral Influence theory. Through the cross God hoped to influence our hearts to fall in love with him.  God hoped the cross would sweep us off our feet.

The cross not only has military power when it comes to Satan. The cross not only has legal power when it comes to God. The cross also has romantic power when it comes to us. It was God’s ultimate way of winning our hearts.

When I was in sixth grade, I fell in love with a girl named Sara. I stayed in love with her through eighth grade. The problem was that she was in love with Max. For three years I searched for a way to win Sara’s heart. My friend Russell whom I mentioned earlier was often my counselor. He knew a lot more about love than I did.  I would ask him, “Russell, how can I demonstrate my love for Sara?” We would brainstorm and try what we had decided. I would give Sarah handpicked jewelry for her birthday.  I would offer to carry her books for her to class.  But nothing I did won Sara’s heart.

The cross was God’s ultimate way of winning our hearts. But unlike my attempts with Sara, God’s attempt worked. As many of us can testify, we’ve been swept off our feet by God’s cross. He has won our hearts.