I have to admit that I don’t particularly like shopping for cars. I’ve always felt that if I didn’t get to the very bottom price, I had left something on the table. I say this not to impugn those who sell automobiles. I know that they have employees that deserve a salary. They have overhead for which they must compensate. And frankly, they deserve to turn a profit for their business. Yet, I still want to get the very best deal I can.
Through the years, I have come to terms with the process and found a sense of peace. I do a great deal of research on both the make and model I’m interested in, as well as average prices. I also look at the family budget. Ultimately, I set a price that I will not go over… no matter what. My hunch is that the dealer also has a price they will not go under. At some point in the bargaining process, one of us will come to a point in which we say, “That’s my final offer.” In other words, that’s the best I can do… take it, and we have a deal; leave it, and we’ll have to walk away.
In some sense, the cross is God’s final offer. I don’t mean that in a way that suggests ambivalence from God as if God really doesn’t care. Nor do I mean that God is tightfisted with grace or miserly with revelation. Certainly, this isn’t because God’s will only go so far on the road to redemption. The cross is God’s final offer because it is God’s best and fullest offer.
Throughout scripture, God encountered, invited, and negotiated with human beings to enter into a life-giving covenantal relationship with their Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. This was offered to Adam and Eve and to Abraham and Sarah. It was fleshed out at Mount Sinai, where God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments and the covenantal code. In time, God sent to the Jewish people seers and prophets who spoke God’s word to God’s people. The prophets cried out to the people to return to the God who loved them. They called Israel to be faithful to the God who offered them a covenantal relationship. They called out to the people to care for the marginalized and live out their love for God by loving and caring for their neighbor.
Then in the fullness of time, God sent God’s one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, God displayed his love of all people. Jesus taught that the kingdom of God was available to anyone and everyone who would believe. He healed so that human beings would see that God desires us to live whole lives. But the people of Jesus’ day did not accept his message or him. Instead, they sought his destruction, arrested him, falsely accused him, condemned him even though he was innocent, and crucified him.
Now Jesus could have called down legions of angels, and they could have destroyed the people perpetrating this crime. Jesus, the One through whom God created, could have spoken, and creation could have ceased to exist. But instead, Jesus gave himself over to death, even death on the cross. Rather than return violence with violence or hatred with hatred, he offered love, mercy, and forgiveness.
This is the nature of love. Love does not force relationships. Love does not coerce connections. Love does not bully to forge a bond.
Through the cross, God is making his final offer. God’s final offer to our brokenness, faithlessness, and sinfulness is not divine hatred. It is not condemnation. It certainly is not our destruction. Rather God’s final offer is love – suffering, sacrificial love. Even when we are at our worst, God is at God’s best. Jesus opens his arms, they are nailed to the cross, and he says, “forgive them. I’ll take their punishment upon myself.”
Folks, that’s it. God’s final offer – love, forgiveness, and acceptance. It is God’s best offer. Why would we walk away from it?
