I just can't believe

I woke up this morning with Third Day’s song “Anything” playing in my head. As I readied myself for work, one couplet stood out:

I just can’t believe, I can’t believe that You would love me

After everything, after everything I’ve done.

Read those lines again. I suspect the general Christian community would embrace this verse as both a proper perspective on our own unworthiness and sinfulness and a grand celebration of God’s incredible (literally “not-believe-able”) love for us and condescension toward us in spite of the aforementioned unworthiness and sinfulness. Haven’t you heard people express feelings like this? “When I think about all the bad things I’ve done, I can’t believe God still loves me.” “I’m so thankful for a God who loves me even though I’m this messed up.” “How can God love me when I’ve sinned so much?” Haven’t you and I said almost the exact same words in times of prayer or worship or repentance?

Well, that perspective is wrong. Rather than honor God, it lowers the love of God to a force only slightly more potent than our personal crimes of mind, word, and act. I know that if we totaled up all my brain-sins and word-sins and attitude-sins and decision-sins and omission-sins and commission-sins, we would have a nasty pile of filth and evil. But. But to say that this pile can just be barely overcome, and with great incredulity and surprise on our part, by God and His love is nonsense. By establishing our sinfulness and subsequent unworthiness as a formidable foe to God’s love, we propel ourselves to the forefront of the issue and diminish the merit and efficacy of God’s goodness. God’s love for us is completely independent of our sin, of “everything I’ve done.” There is no correlation or inverse relationship. Sin is a non-issue in the question “Does God love me?”

You might disagree with me. I understand that this goes against some of our common perceptions. [I think much of this comes from the hell-fire-and-brimstone, Jonathan Edwards-style terror tactics that some may still embrace and many of us are deeply scarred from.] We have mistakenly emphasized a false humility that grovels in our own worminess and unworthiness. We have thought that this perspective pleases God. I do not think it does. By continually tempering God’s love with our own sins, we dishonor God in at least four ways. First, we measure and limit the immeasurable and limitless love of God. Second, by regularly declaring ourselves filthy and lowly, we draw attention away from the beauty of God’s creation in us and in each other. Third, we often completely ignore the fact that we are forgiven. You are forgiven. It’s done. Move on. Move forward. You did not need to be forgiven for God to love you. You needed to be forgiven so you could stop living under the weight of your sins and so you could wake up to the reality of His love and presence. Wake up. Fourth, by continually harping on our own unworthiness, we refuse to celebrate God’s work of new creation in us and His present and future activity of making us more and more like Jesus.

Much is at stake. Much has been lost by our pious and determined efforts to doubt the love of God. We need to reconsider our assumptions. We need to reframe the ways we think and speak and sing about God’s love for us.

I now can believe, I can believe that You would love me

After everything, after everything You’ve done.