Unconditional But NOT Uninterested

Easter is before us--the most compelling three days of human history. Here we see God's honor inseperable from God's goodness, God's justice being fulfilled in God's mercy, God's righteousness that condemns being the love that restores by surmounting even the obstacle of human disobedience. Easter is God's resolution to God's twin decrees that humanity will share in divine life (2 Peter 1:4) and that death must fall on transgressors of God's holy law (Romans 6:23).It would be monstrous were God's decree that sin shall merit death prove to be false. Justice must prevail for God to be God. But it would be unworthy of God's goodness were God to let his handiwork, his crowning creation come to nothing. Mercy must prevail for God to be God. So Christ enters our story and accomplishes what we cannot accomplish on our own.Love (which includes both justice and mercy) is the motivation for Easter (John 3:16). It is a love which is unconditional but not uninterested. Love which gives without reserve but without desire of return can never be anything but the energy of an absolute debt. Love that is inseparable from an interest in the other is truly selfless because it delights in the splendor of the other.Simply put, God loves us because God delights in us (Song of Songs 7:10 "I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me"). God's love is one of recognition and delight, desiring all and giving all at the same time, giving to received and receiving to give.A 'uninterested' love reduces the other to a mere formality. But Easter is a love entreating us to be loved and to love in return. It is a love which liberates us from debt because love must, in the divine economy, be returned. This is the love of the Trinity into which we are brought by Easter. We love because God first loved us!Blessed Easter to you from all of us here at CrossPoint.