THE GOD WHO MADE HIMSELF VULNERABLE

My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?  O my God, I cry by day, but thou dost not answer; and by night, but find no rest (Psalm 22:1-2).

He who does not love does not know God; for God is love (I John 4:8).

Can a sovereign God be vulnerable?  An almighty and all knowing God has no vulnerabilities except that he is also love.  Love requires vulnerability because love requires relationship.  How can one have a true relationship with one who does not allow another to think or act for him or her self?  Real love is the free response, the free choice, of the ones involved in a relationship.  The moment God made the decision to create beings in his own image, he made a decision to become vulnerable to be hurt and rejected by those whom he loves.

Not only in creation did God make himself vulnerable, in redemption he made himself more vulnerable by becoming flesh, meaning that he became human.  It is extremely difficult to wrap our minds around the incarnation of God, and we will probably never fully understand it this side of heaven.  Nevertheless, God subjected himself to the same frailties of humanity to which you and I are subject--yet without sin.  God says that the just shall live by faith and so Jesus Christ, our model, lived by trust and obedience to the Father.  It might be assumed that because Jesus was God in the flesh then faith was not necessary for him, or that his temptations were not real because it is against the nature of God to sin.  None of us completely understands how much of himself Jesus emptied (Philippians 2:7) in the process of becoming human, but I do know that it was enough so that he had to live by faith and deal with the temptations and struggles of life much as we do.

If Jesus' life in the flesh is an example for us, we should not expect that life will be without pain and difficulty.  On the cross Jesus felt completely abandoned by his Father (Matthew 27:46) fulfilling the prophecy of the 22nd Psalm.  I can guarantee that you, dear reader, will have times when you will feel the same.  But, we know that because God made himself vulnerable we have pardon and forgiveness of sin, adoption into his family, the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit and hope for eternity by faith in Christ.

Grace&Peace;
Tom