Brian Kersch Note 2: True Love

Also written by the man blessed with an amazing blend of intelligence, knowledge, and teaching/preaching ability, Brian Kersch.

Similar (read: identical) to last time this will once again be about a song, also similarly I would ask atheists to stray from this note as once again this does not concern you and trolling will be in no way appreciated. As you could probably tell at this point the song title is True Love. However for this note I will be taking little to no credit for anything "profound" as most of the ideas are represented in the song, I'm just expanding upon them. Also note that this note is actually more humorous than the last one, marginally. (Well at least I'm hoping it's humorous because if not then I failed with this note and probably should deter myself from being a stand-up.) This is also not as highly directed towards adults as I intended the last one to be as well, except for the fact that every adult I wish to read this (and I'm friends with on facebook) interacts with teenagers on a daily basis in some way, shape, form or fashion. The message still holds true for you at the end, it's just the process that you (as the adult) might find somewhat elusive to draw the connection to, although I believe if everyone wasn't blinded by self-righteoussness (wow, that seemed really harsh but I couldn't think of another way to word it, I apologize for the nature of that statement) everyone would realize that method to which we reach the thesis remains true regardless of age.

The song can be listened to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9CGpHZvqVs

"Blood and water hit the ground
walls we couldn't move came crashing down
we were free and made alive
the day that True Love died, the day that True Love died"

While I find this mildly amusing that it takes something like this (or the song) to get a lot of Christians to notice this I also find it mildly depressing at the same time because it is true that oftentimes our thoughts are nowhere near the realm of Him.

Part 1: No one has any idea what I'm talking about (A.K.A. A Thousand Tangents)

This song makes a simple yet very true message, that Christ died for us because He has true love for us. Wait a minute... that's not what the song says at all, maybe I just suck at reading. No, it says that Christ is True Love. The purest form of love, the embodiment of love, the completion of love, and that without Him love is flawed in its most primitive form. What could compel you to take upon yourself the thing that you despise the most?
If you were like me this would probably be something like ignorance or stupidity. If given the choice to become ignorant or one marginally lacking of intelligence I think the response to the choice given would be both swift and with fear that it was ever presented in the first place. For a lot of teenagers these days some things that you might detest without knowing it would be:
Loss of attractiveness or even becoming unattractive
Societal ridicule
Being ostracized
Becoming a prep (just kidding, no really though...)
Ridicule from parents
Arrogance
Being an atheist *gasp* (if your answer is anything but this, you are wrong.)
Not being accepted (note that this is different from societal ridicule because even those who are accepted get ridiculed at times, some people don't care if they're accepted as long as no one gets on their case for it)
_________________
etc.
we all know what we don't like, we all know what we make fun of, and even the more "preachery" or "churchy" of us have our vices when it comes to a perfect personality.

Now think about what in the world could ever get you to accept that choice? Wait, what? To become the thing I have always hated (other than yourself, that's almost inevitable). What would it take for you to say "yes?"
This is where I digress from the song, and this is where the thesis of this note becomes evident.
Christ made many sacrifices for us:
He became human
He separated himself from the Father momentarily
and the duh, he died on the cross.
But the one I would like to point out today that is often overlooked when it comes to analysis is that he took our sins upon Himself. I mean everyone says it, and it has the very nature of not meaning anything due to the repetition. I mean everyone notices the whole "wow, he died on the cross!" thing, but it goes unnoticed why He died on the cross and how big of a sacrifice that was for Him.

Christ was, is holy, perfectly perfect, righteous, without flaw, holy. Read Isiah sometime, it's amazing how he depicted God's holiness. In Jewish culture if something was repeated three times it was considered to be of utmost importance, this is something you DO NOT forget. This is like someone telling you the 5 digit code to stopping the world from blowing itself up, you DO NOT forget this (12345, 12345, 12345). It is important, in case you didn't get the message, this matters A LOT. And obviously God is talked a lot about in the Bible, I mean isn't the whole dang thing about Him (and look how huge it is! There must be something about him we're supposed to get from it, I mean seriously people that thing could keep a house from blowing over in a tornado). Well since God is talked about so much in the Bible wouldn't it be worthy to note which of his attributes are mentioned. Yeah we got the ones that everyone knows about:
loving
omnipotent
omnipresent
just
omniscient (I felt lame putting the three 'omni's together)
jealous
almighty
holy
holy
holy.

Three times holy boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, principalities and powers, angels and demons (what a horrible book, well literality speaking it was a nice read but I digress). It is the only attribute of God mentioned three times in the same breath. The Cheribum fly around God and cry "holy holy holy is the Lord almighty the whole earth is full of His glory"
Hey guys remember that 5 digit code, I hope you haven't forgotten it because you're in trouble if you have! Man this is something you're supposed to get, He wants to make sure that if you know only one thing about God that you sure as hell (ed note: Brian sucks at puns, please ignore the rest of them for the remainder of the message) better know that He is holy. But what is holy, again I digress (ed note: Brian does this a lot but everything ties itself together in the end in a neat little bow, notice how we're not talking about love here?[Brian note: the editor sure does love to talk a lot immediately following himself]) I digress to further understand what this term means. (ed note: saying it twice was intentional [Brian note: shut up])

Now since I know that almost all of you have heard the "sin" spiel I am going to regurgitate it for you because I'm like that. Sin, in the greek form, was a term for archery, anything that wasn't a perfect bullseye was considered "sin". This means if you're one atom off of the dead center of the nucleus of the atom that's in the direct center of the bullseye you screwed up, sounds easy right? Well to be perfectly perfect you have to be better than that. You have to be the perfect center of the proton that is the perfect center of the atom that is the perfect center of the bullseye that is the perfect center from the target and you have to shoot your arrow over the back of the target and have it come backwards and hit it. THAT is the meaning of holy. Not only can God do this but he does do this and if I were to say "without trying" I would be lying because that would imply that God has to try at something. So if God is the perfect center... blah blah blah, that means that sin must be anything that isn't God or God's will. To do anything that contradicts God is a sin. So God is holy holy holy, 12345, 12345, 12345, He is without sin, He is so without sin that sin is the opposite of Him.

Part 2: A neat little bow.
So what does ANYTHING I've said have ANYTHING to do with True Love? Actually I chuckled right there because of how simple it is, I feel special (ed note: his mommy says he is too [Brian note: I told you to shut up, you're fired] ed note: I'm telling mom)

Now I remember asking you what it would take to get you to say "yes" to becoming the thing that you hate most, well have you come up with an answer?
"If it saved my mom's life" (We all love our mommas)
"If my boyfriend asked me to" (yeah right, liar)
"If my girlfriend asked me to" (closer, but that's like saying a boy threw a rock closer to the moon than a girl.)
"If my spouse asked me to" (yeah... that was farther off than the boyfriend/girlfriend suggestions, fail)
"If God asked me to" (well aren't you Ms. Perfect Do Goody, now why are you reading this note?)
"If it saved my life" (probably the most honest response)
"Because I love Christ" (this is a phenomenal answer and I commend all of those who have done it in the past, right now I'm thinking of Columbine... However I also ask you to be honest because no one is going to know this answer except for you. As Michael W. Smith puts it "it was a test we could all hope to pass, but none of us would want to take" so if you "chose" this answer per se I really hope that it is an honest choice.)

what about "just cause"?
what about "because I love the people that do the thing I hate the most"?
what about "oh hey, that's exactly what Christ did on the cross"

Christ, being holy holy holy, but completely and utterlyTrue Love took our sin on the cross and took the punishment for it. CAPS LOCK GOD took the very thing that is the complete opposite of Him and accepted the punishment for it "just cause" yeah, just cause He is love and He loves us. I was thinking of not leaving you hanging and actually writing a conclusion to this note considering that right there is the thesis but I couldn't come up with anything (other than what's coming next of course) and I sort of feel like this interrupts the note so I will close with this:


Christ, being holy holy holy, but completely and utterlyTrue Love took our sin on the cross and took the punishment for it. CAPS LOCK GOD took the very thing that is the complete opposite of Him and accepted the punishment for it "just cause" yeah, just cause He is love and He loves us.

WOW