God Is A Friend To All Humankind!
February 25, 2015
Love this bit from Joshua Tilton's ebook, Jesus' Gospel:
The best news Jesus had to share about God’s character pertains to the Father’s attitude toward human beings: “Your Father in heaven... causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” Jesus said (Mt. 5:45). “He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked,” (Lk. 6:35). According to Jesus, the LORD is a friend to all humankind. God’s friendliness extends even to those who do not care to honour him! The goodness of God is not expressed in a way that condemns and destroys us humans. Rather, according to Jesus, the goodness of God is displayed in his friendliness toward human beings and by his acts of salvation for humankind. According to Jesus’ Gospel, the LORD God of Israel is good, not in some abstract or absolute sense that alienates us from the deity, the goodness of God is revealed in his love for each and every human being, man, woman, or child—saint or sinner, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, deserving or not, old or not yet born, ugly or beautiful, clean or unclean—all are wholly and completely loved by the One God, Israel’s God, the Creator and Saviour of humankind. This is wonderful news!
Jesus’ understanding of the heart of God produced in Jesus a profound attitude of trust, a trust which Jesus wanted to share with his followers. Jesus wanted his disciples to know that we are safe in God’s care. Do not worry. Trust in God your father. Jesus’ attitude is joyful, confident, and relaxed:
“Look at the birds of the sky,” Jesus said, “they do not sow, or reap, or gather food into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ...Observe the flowers of the field, how they grow, they do not labour or spin. Yet I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. If God clothes the grass of the field in this way—though it is living today and tomorrow is cast into an oven—will he not do much more for you, O you of little faith?” (Mt.6:26, 28-30).
Clearly Jesus loved and trusted Israel’s God.
We should not overlook the love and tenderness with which Jesus describes God’s care for his creatures. God’s love for plants and animals is not merely an illustration, it is real. Disregard for the delicate balance of the ecosystem in favour of business and progress and technology may be characteristic of us human beings, but it does not reflect the character of God. It is in God’s character to love and affirm the goodness and beauty of his creation. But more than that, Jesus teaches that the same God who created and who sustains the plants and animals cares for us human beings. And Jesus, who proclaimed that the rule of this God is breaking into the world, reassured his hearers that because this God is ruling as King, we need not be afraid. We can be unafraid because this God, whose character is goodness, generosity, friendliness, mercy, and love toward human beings, is in control." Jesus' Gospel, pgs 20-21 of pdf edition.