Got it?
There are generally two different conclusions that you might have come to. Relentless to you could resemble a mighty warrior. One who is willing to go the distance and continue to battle when times get tough, a hero of heroes. Relentless, on the other hand, could give you an image of a hurricane destroying everything that stands in its way, an utterly destructive force. One side favors a bold endurance that Hollywood loves to capture through film; the other of a darker side of brutality.
Both views describe Our God.
The Father is relentless when it comes to how He loves his children. Jesus speaks of the shepherd who leaves the 99 to come and seek after the 1. The son is relentless when He allows Himself to be horrifically murdered in our place, refusing to give up on the long journey to the cross. The Holy Spirit is relentless as He convicts our souls and brings us to a place of repentance.
You see as a child of the Light, we walk in a confidence that God will never cease to chase after us, no matter how far away we stray. The scary side comes when He wants all of us. I know it's easy for us to talk of our love for God, but it becomes a struggle when He tries to take away "our stuff". Be it good, bad, or indifferent; we all have our one thing that we don't wont to let Jesus have. This ranges from everything from an idolatrous view of women to an overly zealous obsession with football that conflicts with our church attendance. You see Jesus is not okay with having a small part of our lives, He wants it all. Sounds a bit greedy from our perspective doesn't it? But when we really consider it, do we really deserve what we think we do?
If we want to turn this into a merit system then we fall into the red from the very beginning. Since the Fall, you and I are doomed to Hell to suffer for eternity. We don't have the right to even be in the presence of a Holy God because He cannot and does not tolerate sin of any form. We don't deserve that pay raise at work; we don't deserve that new car that just came off the line. We don't deserve to be blessed with financial earnings; we don't deserve to own a car at all. Yet we have been blessed with this and I for one take these things for granted way too often.
It's time we cast aside our Americanized entitlement syndrome. If we truly realize that we deserve nothing at all, the relentless love of Christ begins to overwhelm us in a beautiful way and the Gospel begins to work in our lives. This is love, not that we first loved God, but that He first loved us and gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There is no greater love than this, a man who lays down his life for His friends. I [Christ] have come so that you may have life, and have it to the full. [cf1 John 4:10, Romans 5:8, John 15:3, John 10:10]. See what I'm saying? How incredible is this love that will stop at nothing, not even death?
If his Love has power over sin and death, who are we to upstage Him in any way? Who are we to shun his freely given grace? The relentless love of God demands we lay down everything and run to Him. When we think about it, why wouldn't we? There is nothing to lose and everything to gain in the free gift of the Cross.
God promises to come after those who reject this gift. He relentlessly pursues and destroys all who oppose Him. Luke 12:5 tells us that we aren't to fear man but fear God who can throw us into Hell if we choose to rebel against Him. The Relentlessness of Christ is coming to after you no matter what you do. The choice has been given to you, will you run to Christ or will you not?
-matt
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