“But when the kindness and the love for humanity of God our Savior appeared …” (Tit. 3:4, ALTNT)
We are currently discussing self-acceptance, and in the previous teaching covered two steps in the healing process of the wounded self.
Inner wounds in a hostile self are almost always projected onto God. Within all people, whether they believe in Him or not, God is the invisible Power personality, the culmination of all authority figures, the apex of control and approval. If we feel that we are disregarded by others because we don’t make the cut, we immediately project it onto God, as if He then automatically also feels that way about us.
In the cult film Fight Club the lead character Tyler Durden says, “You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, never wanted you, in all probability he hates you. It’s not the worst thing that could happen. If we are God’s unwanted children, so be it!” In a fatherless generation the buck stops with God.
The third step of faith in the healing of self-hatred or self-rejection is to begin understanding how God really feels and thinks about you, and that this is directed by a burning, unconditional love. We sometimes forget John 3:16’s inclusive beginning: “For God so loved the world …” He does after all have “goodwill toward men” (Luke 2:14). The ALTNT translation of Tit. 3:4 states it in striking terms: “But when the kindness and the love for humanity of God our Savior appeared …” And 1 John 4:9-10 spells it out: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
In his magnificent book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey makes it clear: “Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more …and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.”
- Paul Young’s The Shack defines it in terms of the character Papa, who represents God: “You … were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around … Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wing and removing its ability to fly … A bird is not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly. Remember this, humans are defined not by their limitations, but by the intentions I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image. Love is NOT the limitation; love is the flying. I AM love.”
Rom. 4:5 offers an important key in this regard. The New Century Version translation offers a lucid view: “But people cannot do any work that will make them right with God. So they must trust in him, who makes even evil people right in his sight. Then God accepts their faith, and that makes them right with him.” The Message states it as follows: “you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked–well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.”
- Selah: Do you believe that God has such unconditional love for you?
- Read: 1 Kings 1-2; Ps. 37; 71 & 94.
- Memorise: 37-4-5.
For a more in-depth understanding: Read any of the books mentioned in the text.
