Written by Pastor Jack Wellman-Warren Wiersbe
Radical Love
When Jesus came to earth to die for sinners, it wasn’t out of love that we might know about. It was a radical love that the world had never seen or known before, because “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom 5:10), and “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6). What a radical love where Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)…the many who were wicked, ungodly, enemies of God (Rom 5:6-10) like we were.
Radical Generosity
When God gave His one and only Son, it was the very most that He could give, so why can’t we seem to understand that since God is a radical giver, we ought to be radical givers too. That doesn’t mean we’ll give away all of our possessions, or even our life, but we should give of our time, talents, and treasures and sow them into the work of the kingdom.
Radical Witness
When you are living a life of holiness and submission to God, you are being a Christ follower. I love the word “Christ follower” over “Christian,” because anyone can claim to be a Christian, but to follow Christ takes hard work and dedication. That is radically different from a lukewarm faith. It is a faith that runs hot and is on fire for the Lord. That can change your life and the lives of those around you. And that’s just what God wants you to do.
Radical Change
What the Spirit of God does is regenerates a dead carcass. In other words, we were DOA or dead on arrival into this world since we were conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5), and we were dead in our sins (Eph 2:1-2), and unable to revive ourselves. That would be like asking Lazarus to move his little finger or blink an eye and Jesus would do the rest and raise him from the dead. No, we were dead in our sins and it took the radical transforming new birth (John 3:3-7) to create us into new creations in Christ (2nd Cor 5:17).
Conclusion
You and I cannot change or control the world around us, but we can change and control the world within us, as Warren Wiersbe said, so let that change begin with loving others in a radical way, just as God loved us; let us be radical in our generosity because God was abundantly generous to us; let us be radical witnesses to change those around us; and let God’s Spirit work in us to shape us into the image of the Lord, Jesus Christ. That’s about as radical as it gets in this world.
