God's Pursuit of Us

Jim Davis

God expressing his character through Jesus Christ complicates our ideas about God. Jesus was so run of the mill. It was hard to fathom such an incredible manifestation of deity. Jesus was so human that he didn't fit the part of being God. Those heralding his coming had trouble perceiving he was the Messiah. John the Baptist asks, "Are you the one, or should we look for another?" Jesus was so distant from what John was expecting the Messiah to be. It was John's ideas about God, which created the distance in his thinking. 

Why does it seem so easy to believe in a God who is so holy that he seems unapproachable? It is bewildering to think about what we have thought we must do to approach God. The Jews were asking, “With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:6-7 NIV) 

Our pursuit of God has led us to unbelievable extremes in our attempt to appropriate his blessing. Jeremiah says, "They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin." (Jeremiah 32:35 NIV) 

Throughout church history individuals have gone to unbelievable extremes to gain God's approval. There was a man who erected a very tall pole with a platform at the top. It was atop that platform he lived for years in an effort to ensue God's blessings for his soul. Others opt for a monastic lifestyle in their pursuit of God. Many opt for a life of deprivation.

Too often, God seems so far removed from our lives! Some have given up on the ideal of knowing God. In their frustration they have opted for simply knowing about him. Sadly this has led us in a determination to keep his rules with no realization of his abiding presence. 

God Defines Himself

The most defining moment of God's existence was when he came in human form in pursuit of a relationship with each of us. The prophet Hosea lovingly pursued a wife who loved everyone but Hosea. God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer. Gomer loved everyone but Hosea. Hosea’s love was undying. Gomer’s love was flaunted on anyone who came along. Hosea would go find her to bring her back from her lover’s arms. It would be hard to pursue a relationship with someone under such circumstances regardless the depth of one's desire. 
We may envision our relationship with God as identical to Hosea's pursuit of his wife. We are tempted to believe God's holiness is reluctant to embrace the unholy. However, the story of Hosea graphically portrays God's pursuit for each of us rather than our pursuit of God. Hosea is a story about God. God wanted the prophet to experience God’s love for those to whom he preached.

All of us know something about the pain of parenthood, especially when it comes to disciplining our children. In Hosea chapter 11 God refers to Israel as his "child" his "son" (v.1), whom he had taught to walk, taking him in his arms (v.3) and bending down to feed him (v.4). Yet his son was wayward and spurned his Father's love. Israel was determined to live in rebellion (vv. 5-7). He deserved to be punished. But can his own Father bring himself to punish him? (John R. Stott, The Cross of Christ, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, Pg. 129.)

At times it seems as though God is as conflicted about his relationship with us as we are about our relationship with him. Hosea says: 'My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man--the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.'" (Hosea 11:7-9 NIV) Admah and Zeboiim were cities destroyed as God rained fire and brimstone on the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah. He is questioning how he could be that harsh with his Israel.

God's conflicted emotions compel him to ask himself four soul-searching questions. Each question begins with "How can I . . ." Each question revolves around what Yahweh ought to do because of his righteousness and what he cannot do because of his love. Here we see the fierce inner tensions of God as he contemplates his compassion and his fierce anger. He is compelled to have a change of heart. (John R. Stott, The Cross of Christ, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, Pg. 130.)

There are thousands upon thousands of books written by men and women describing and defining humanity’s pursuit of God. Many reduce the Bible to a modern "How to" book on finding God? As I look around in my library, as I write, I see some of these books on my bookshelves: "Hungering for God", "Finding God", "Knowing God", "Experiencing God", "In Pursuit of God", etc. Some of these books are very helpful. However, there is one book in my library, which is the most helpful. It speaks of God's pursuit of humanity; it is called the "Bible." 

Do you know how easy it is to pursue a relationship with someone who desires a relationship with you? I am sure most of us know something about this kind of relationship. We also know something about seeking a relationship with someone who does not want one. John wrote, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10 NIV) There can be no real finding God, knowing God, experiencing God, pursuing God or hungering for God until we understand God's pursuit of us. The birth of Jesus Christ manifests the extremity of God's pursuit for each of us. His name was Jesus because he came to salvage his relationship with us. 

It would be much easier to pursue a relationship with God if we first understood God loves us. (1 John 4:19)

God's Extreme Demands

Christ's coming into this world makes two extreme statements about God: God's need to punish sin and God's need to manifest his love to mankind. You can't contemplate one without realizing the other. You cannot fully understand God's grace without understanding the dire necessity of judgment. It is God's holiness that necessitates judgment. It is his grace that demands justice.

God's attributes are often railed against each other. The reason God seems so far removed is usually because the doctrines we formulate tend to be built around one extreme or the other. We may see God's various attributes opposed to each other. To us it may be love vs. wrath, mercy vs. justice, holiness vs. tolerance, etc. We may look at the opposing attributes as a supreme flaw in the character of God. However, the Bible couples each attribute of God so as to complement his character.

In Exodus 34:6-7 God is the compassionate and gracious God . . . Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. Habakkuk pleads with God to remember mercy in his wrath. (Habakkuk 3:2) Micah says, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy." (Micah 7:18 NIV) Paul warned "Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off." (Romans 11:22 NIV) 

Christ's coming into this world reveals the extremity of God's attributes. God’s love was so compelling as his compassion drove him to enter this world as a child to truly identify with us. Yet, his holiness was so demanding that it drove him to the cross to meet the harsh demands of justice for our sins. However, you cannot view the manger without contemplating the cross. You cannot reflect on God's mercy without reflecting upon his justice. Without a sense of justice there would be no need of mercy. Without mercy there would be no justice. 

You cannot reflect upon his love without an awareness of how he suffered because of sin's need to be punished. You cannot understand the healing he offers without recognizing how he was afflicted with our diseases. You cannot be released from the burden of your sin until you see how he was crushed under its burden. His love cannot free you from sin until you see his oppression and judgment for your sin. We cannot look at the manger holding the Christ child without realizing that he was also assigned a grave with the wicked. You cannot be released from the suffering sin brings until you understand how he suffered for your sin. God's love cannot give you eternal life until you see how God poured his life out unto death as he bore the sins of many. (Isaiah 53)

God's character demands he love us, but it also demands justice. We see both desires raging in the mind of God throughout the Bible. Matthew records Jesus most scathing rebukes against the Jewish religious leaders as he called them hypocrites, blind guides, snakes and a brood of vipers. He concludes his scathing remarks by saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matt 23:37 NIV)

There is no way we can reflect upon Christ coming without reflecting upon his judgment for our sins. Through Christ coming we see the just judgment of God desiring to extend his mercy through salvation. 

The Extreme Pursuit of God

God’s descending into our world, as a baby was the most passionate statement ever made by God concerning his relationship with humanity. The eternal one became mortal; the author of truth was accused of blasphemy; the giver of life was robbed of life; the shameless one endured the shame of a criminal’s death; the most loving person became the most despised; the most accepting one was most rejected.

Initially, to pursue a relationship with any person, you must accept the person as he/she is. The greatest example of Jesus' acceptance of us was the ordinariness of his disciples. He did not choose those to be closes to him because of their native talent or perfectibility or potential for greatness. When Jesus spoke to the rich young ruler about eternal life, it never dawned on Jesus that he would have a lot to offer his cause. He surrounded himself with the most ordinary people who misunderstood him, often failed and even betrayed him. 

Jesus went to great extremes to manifest God's acceptance of the most spiritually deprived. Jesus met the woman at Jacob’s well who had been married five times and she was presently living with a man to whom she was not married. 

Jesus spoke a parable to teach his acceptance of those whom we think to be unworthy. Jesus spoke a parable about a landowner going out hiring men to work in his vineyard. Some were hired early in the morning, some were hired at midday, some were hired in the middle of the afternoon and others were hired an hour before quitting time. In modern day terms, some were probably already standing at the time clock ready to clock out when some were hired. The shocking part is that the landowner paid each a full days pay. Of course those hired in the early morning were furious as they questioned, how could this be? Jesus simply said the "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matthew 20:1-16) In essence Jesus was saying no one would be deprived of the full blessings, regardless of the time and circumstances upon entering. What extremity!

Jesus exemplified this story as he died on the cross. The thief dying beside him pleaded, “Remember me, when you come in your kingdom.” A few moments before both of the thieves were cursing Jesus and challenging Christ to get them off the cross. (Matthew 27:39-44) Jesus said, “Today, you shall be with me in paradise!” God can’t get more extreme in his pursuit of us. The most holy one who has ever graced the earth counted it all joy to save thief and share his eternal home with him. (Hebrews 12:2)

To pursue a relationship with us, God sought to enter into our experience by living in human form on planet earth. Our plight became his plight, “many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." (Matthew 8:16-17 NIV) This is why God “is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.” (Hebrews 5:2 NIV) 

The most effective healer is a wounded healer. One who has suffered the same disease he/she is trying to cure. Jesus was wounded as we are by sin. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV)
 
True, Jesus did not sin, but he felt the full impact of sin upon his life. Satan barred no holds in his oppression of Jesus. The sole purpose of Christ's coming was "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)

2 Corinthians 5:17-20
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (NIV)

God is a gentle God because he has lived in our shoes. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. (Matthew 12:20 NIV)

Isaiah 53:4-7
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (NIV)

God is not unapproachable. The Psalmist writes, "Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other." (Psalms 85:9-10 NIV)

God is nearer than most can image. He is on our heels in pursuit of our salvation. In Athens Paul proclaimed, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:24-28 NIV)

Conclusion:

Christ's coming demonstrates God's pursuit of us as nothing else can. Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me." (John 6:44-45 NIV) God seeks to draw us to himself through his Son.

God expressed the totality of his character as he wrapped all his attributes up into one neat gift and revealed himself through his Son. 

Bibliography

Bible, New International Version
Hybels, Bill and Wilkins, Rob, Descending Into Greatness, Zondervan, 1993
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Stott, John R., The Cross of Christ, InerVarsity Press, 1986
Yancey, Philip, The Jesus I never Knew, Zondervan Publishing, 1995