"Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah ... "
—Reckless Love, Cory Asbury
The Redemption of the Bride
This art inspired by the song "Reckless Love" (Cory Asbury) and modeled after Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam", depicting Christ's sacrifice to redeem fallen humanity.
Part of the intention behind this image is to respond against the tendency of popular media to portray the idea of God, the heavenly, or perfection in general, as something undesirable ... distant, unloving, antagonistic, and even malevolent (as can be seen in the Sovereign from Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, the Moon people from Kubo and the Two Strings, and pretty much any depiction of the Judeo-Christian religion in JRPGs aside from Final Fantasy XV).
I believe that these negative imagery of the divine represents the people's coping mechanism against their guilt. In almost every title I mentioned, standing as the heroic force against the heavens, is a celebration of human freedom and their flaws. This may seem like a good message on the surface, but I do want to point out that there is a difference between loving people and seeing the good in them despite of their flaws and celebrating those flaws as something good.
These rebellion and fear would be justified if God is a tyrannical king who thirsts for the praise of his perfect, obedient, pawns. But Christianity teaches that God is a loving Father who wants to relate to His children, and, rather than sit indifferently on His throne, He is willing to go through such great lengths in order to win us back.
One of the questions that really challenged me during my missions prep was, "what am I really willing to give up for the sake of walking with the Lord in His path of righteousness?" It is easy to serve and/or give when we have a lot of "spares", but the true mark of our love and dedication is not measured by how much we give out, but how much we keep for ourselves. Or, in other words, how much we are willing to live without in order that we may give to others?
A relationship, whether it's a contract/covenant, or a personal kinship, needs to have a mutually beneficial terms, or else it's an exploitation rather than a relation.
For our part, we often have to give up our time, our possession and our comfort to obey God. We sacrifice many pleasurable things in hopes that God would bless us. But since God is Almighty, even if He gives us the entire universe, He loses nothing, so how would that prove His love for us?
"Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form," (Philippians 2:7)
The person of Christ is the only true embodiment of the love of God. For even though He has everything, He was willing to come with nothing, so that He can identify with our lack. He was willing to be broken, so that He can share our tears when we are broken, as it is often said, "a friend in need is a friend indeed." He has sacrificed more than we can ever give, and that is how we can understand how much He loves us.
Yes, God is just, and in His holy nature He cannot let any our sins remain unpunished. Yet, because He is love, He is willing to bear that punishment Himself, so that we no longer need to bear it on ourselves, so that we can return to fellowship with Him, if we allow Him to.
"But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." (1 Corinthians 1:23)
Many people would find the idea of God becoming man as repugnant, because they think it's an insult that a being of such splendor and glory should stoop down to earth and dwell among the corruption of the flesh. I think this mindset reflects simply our own pride, and our unwillingness to surrender our lives for the sake of others whom we think are unworthy.
Obviously, we can take pride to be enlisted in the service of the King of kings. We can even feel good about serving the poor and needy, if only to show how much WE have to offer to other people (a tendency I've only began to fully realise during outreach).
On the other hand, to worship Him who serves takes a lot of humility that many of us are unwilling to bear. Yet, this is what the King has done, is it not but ingratitude if we refuse to do the same?
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah ... "
—Reckless Love, Cory Asbury
The Redemption of the Bride
This art inspired by the song "Reckless Love" (Cory Asbury) and modeled after Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam", depicting Christ's sacrifice to redeem fallen humanity.
Part of the intention behind this image is to respond against the tendency of popular media to portray the idea of God, the heavenly, or perfection in general, as something undesirable ... distant, unloving, antagonistic, and even malevolent (as can be seen in the Sovereign from Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, the Moon people from Kubo and the Two Strings, and pretty much any depiction of the Judeo-Christian religion in JRPGs aside from Final Fantasy XV).
I believe that these negative imagery of the divine represents the people's coping mechanism against their guilt. In almost every title I mentioned, standing as the heroic force against the heavens, is a celebration of human freedom and their flaws. This may seem like a good message on the surface, but I do want to point out that there is a difference between loving people and seeing the good in them despite of their flaws and celebrating those flaws as something good.
These rebellion and fear would be justified if God is a tyrannical king who thirsts for the praise of his perfect, obedient, pawns. But Christianity teaches that God is a loving Father who wants to relate to His children, and, rather than sit indifferently on His throne, He is willing to go through such great lengths in order to win us back.
One of the questions that really challenged me during my missions prep was, "what am I really willing to give up for the sake of walking with the Lord in His path of righteousness?" It is easy to serve and/or give when we have a lot of "spares", but the true mark of our love and dedication is not measured by how much we give out, but how much we keep for ourselves. Or, in other words, how much we are willing to live without in order that we may give to others?
A relationship, whether it's a contract/covenant, or a personal kinship, needs to have a mutually beneficial terms, or else it's an exploitation rather than a relation.
For our part, we often have to give up our time, our possession and our comfort to obey God. We sacrifice many pleasurable things in hopes that God would bless us. But since God is Almighty, even if He gives us the entire universe, He loses nothing, so how would that prove His love for us?
"Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form," (Philippians 2:7)
The person of Christ is the only true embodiment of the love of God. For even though He has everything, He was willing to come with nothing, so that He can identify with our lack. He was willing to be broken, so that He can share our tears when we are broken, as it is often said, "a friend in need is a friend indeed." He has sacrificed more than we can ever give, and that is how we can understand how much He loves us.
Yes, God is just, and in His holy nature He cannot let any our sins remain unpunished. Yet, because He is love, He is willing to bear that punishment Himself, so that we no longer need to bear it on ourselves, so that we can return to fellowship with Him, if we allow Him to.
"But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." (1 Corinthians 1:23)
Many people would find the idea of God becoming man as repugnant, because they think it's an insult that a being of such splendor and glory should stoop down to earth and dwell among the corruption of the flesh. I think this mindset reflects simply our own pride, and our unwillingness to surrender our lives for the sake of others whom we think are unworthy.
Obviously, we can take pride to be enlisted in the service of the King of kings. We can even feel good about serving the poor and needy, if only to show how much WE have to offer to other people (a tendency I've only began to fully realise during outreach).
On the other hand, to worship Him who serves takes a lot of humility that many of us are unwilling to bear. Yet, this is what the King has done, is it not but ingratitude if we refuse to do the same?
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