The Audacity of God

WHILE WE WERE UNREPENTANT SINNERS WITH HIS BLOOD STILL ON OUR HANDS (ROMANS 5:8), JESUS LOVED US FIRST (1 JOHN 4:19). HE DID NOT WAIT FOR OUR CONVERSION TO PURCHASE A HIGH FIDELITY UNDERSTANDING OF GOD FOR US. HE MADE THE PURCHASE TO BRING ABOUT OUR CONVERSION. JESUS WAS AUDACIOUS. HE WENT OUT ON THE LIMB OF FORGIVENESS IN THE HOPE THAT FORGIVENESS WOULD INDUCE REPENTANCE. HE CONFRONTED US WITH THE PRODIGIOUS LOVE OF GOD AND CHALLENGES US TO COME TO GRIPS WITH IT. THE PRODIGIOUS LOVE OF GOD CRASHES AGAINST US, KNOCKS US OFF OF OUR FEET AND CARRIES US TO OUR SALVATION. FEW SWIM AGAINST THE TIDE.

Jesus magnified the impact of his prodigious love for us with the accelerant of audacity - radical, extreme audacity! Jesus did not wait for our conversion to forgive us but forgave us to bring about our conversion (Matthew 22:10) (John 15:13) (John 12:24). JESUS TOOK THE FIRST STEP. While we were unrepentant sinners with his blood still on our hands (Romans 5:8) (Matthew 7:6), Jesus loved us first (1 John 4:19). Our conversion is not the catalyst of his forgiveness. His forgiveness is the catalyst of our conversion. The audacity of God shows itself in the sequence of events (Matthew 22:10). Get the sequence right. Get it wrong and the audacity of God disappears from Jesus's portrait of God - the vibrancy of the colors in Jesus' portrait of God gets washed out - diluted.