Week 4—Wednesday 1 Timothy 2:3-6
Week 4—WEDNESDAY
CO-REDEEMERS?
There is another phase of the “only Son” which we must consider. The objection is made that Jesus presented God as Father, but not God as Mother, and therefore lacks universality. The difference between mother love and father love as defined by Fromm in The Art of Loving is: “Mother’s love is unconditional, it is all-protective, all-enveloping; because it is unconditional it can also not be controlled or acquired. Since mother loves her children because they are her children, and not because they are good, obedient, or fulfill her wishes and commands, mother’s love is based on equality.” On the other hand: “The nature of fatherly love is that he makes demands, establishes principles and laws, and that his love for the child depends on the obedience of the latter to these demands.”
In Jesus both of these types of love blend—he is “grace,” that is the mother love side, and he is “truth,” that is the father love side. In the son, the qualities of the mother and father come together. So in Jesus, the Son, the mother-quality of “grace” and the father-quality of “truth” came together and are one. We do not need, therefore, to piece out Jesus, as in Roman Catholicism, to make him universal by bringing in the mother, Mary. They have lost Jesus as alive—he is usually the dead Christ—so they bring in Mary as more alive, and she is more alive to Roman Catholics than Jesus. They are now about to make Jesus and Mary co-redeemers. Usually, it was “The Sacred Heart of Jesus,” but I saw a church called “The Sacred Hearts,” and there were two hearts, not one.
But in the living and real Jesus, we see the Motherhood of God and the Fatherhood of God, for he is full of grace and truth. “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings”—the Motherhood side. “And you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate” (Luke 13:34-35)—the Fatherhood side. Love and Law meet in him, for all Love is Law and all Law is Love. In Jesus they are one. He is tender and terrible—in one hand, grace, in the other hand, judgment.
O Jesus, my Lord, I see you as all-inviting, so I come with all my heart. But I see you as all-demanding, so I give you my whole will and obedience. And I am grateful for both. You are my all, for I see All in you. And I bring you my All. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The strictness of God is my salvation—God saves me from myself.