An invitation requires a response. When someone invites you to their birthday or wedding, you can accept or decline. You respond in either way. The word for ‘calling’ in Scripture has exactly that meaning: an invitation. Jesus illustrated that point by a parable.
The Wedding Invitation
A king made a fancy wedding with a lavish banquet for his son, but the people invited made excuses and declined: ‘I bought a wife and married a cow’ (or the other way around…). They were invited but didn’t go. The wedding invitations were declined because it was not a priority for some. Other stuff was more important to them. We all have our priorities in life, don’t we? The wedding invitation was then extended to others, such as were not invited at first. Some declined, others accepted, but the king would have his wedding anyway. One guy sought to sneak in with the wrong clothes and was deported. The point was: ‘For many care called [invited], but few are chosen’ (Matthew 22:1–10). The ‘chosen’ are those who accepted the wedding invitation and came to the wedding the right way. Their response made the difference.
This parable was to illustrate that people who decline the invitation of the Gospel to receive eternal life made a certain choice. Their choice was their response to the invitation, and that response determined their fate. We are free to choose, but have to face the consequences of our choices. We reap what we sow, right? (see Galatians 6:7–8). Would you accept a king’s invitation to his son’s wedding? Jesus is the Son; God the King is inviting you. Will you accept?
The Gospel Invitation
Jesus came into the world: some rejected Him, others accepted Him (John 1:6–13). Accepting or receiving Christ is to believe in Him (v 12). It is to accept the invitation and responding to the calling of God by faith in Christ. When someone hears the Gospel of salvation and trusts in Christ the Saviour, that person receives God’s Spirit as a sign and guarantee of salvation and the blessings that come with it (Ephesians 1:13–14). To believe is to trust. We become children of God by believing in Christ and receiving His Spirit (Galatians 4:4–7). God’s Spirit is the Spirit of adoption, making believers His children and heirs of God’s blessing (Romans 8:9, 14–17). By His Spirit, Jesus would remove the feeling of being orphaned, giving us the sense of belonging (John 14:16–18). God is a good God and loving Father who wants all people to be saved and therefore invites all people to His ‘wedding,’ symbolic of salvation. God loves all of humanity (John 3:16), wants all people to find salvation (1 Timothy 2:4) and therefore Christ provided an atonement available to all (1 John 2:2)—the question is, what’s your response? Do you accept the Gospel invitation?
The God who loves you and gave His Son to carry the punishment for your sins is calling/inviting you to trust/believe in His Son, the Saviour. Salvation by grace is accessible by faith as God’s gift (Ephesians 2:8–10). God’s love is stronger than our sin. He paid the price and offers the gift of salvation to you. This is the love of God. He accepts us based on His love, not our sin. It is powerful.
Unconditional Love Defined
We are often told that God loves us unconditionally. Is that true? If true, in what way? God accepts us based on the atonement of Christ, not our performance. Therefore, yes, His love for sinners despite their sin is unconditional in that He makes no conditions for His love. All we need to do is to believe in Him to receive His grace. God is love and He loves because it is His nature to love. Salvation requires only repentance and faith: turning to God and trusting in Him. Works is a result of salvation, not a requirement. We enter God’s salvation by faith in Christ that gives us justification (Romans 5:1–2).
If you compare it to a relationship, accepting your spouse in love because of who she or he is, is the beauty of true love. You love your spouse for who he or she is, right? The security of true and faithful love is powerful, be it a couple or parents towards their children. But what if a spouse fails or a child misbehaves? Here’s the ‘other side of the coin.’
Can we take God’s, or our spouse’s or our parents’, love for granted and behave in any way we want and expect, or even demand, their love and acceptance? We all know that the love of a true parent for their children is undying and they would always love them. However, sometimes relationships can go very sour and things can fall apart. The love from parent to child can still be real, but the relationship has been damaged. Although a child may rebel against their parents, or against one of them, a true parent would never stop loving his or her child. In a relationship of adults, love from both sides is required for it to be healthy, right? However, the relationship will suffer when one decides to reject the other. So how about God?
God is a loving Father. He has shown Himself as a faithful God of Covenant towards the people He had chosen around four millennia ago. When Jesus was incarnate (became a human being), the message was ‘God with us’ (Matthew 1:21–23). The Creator did not abandon His creation—He came to save us! The Saviour brought salvation; the Father sent His Son. God came to rescue people from sin and death. But was God’s chosen people always faithful to Him? What happened when they weren’t?
Think of God’s people being enslaved in Egypt. God saved them because of His promise to and covenant with Abraham, their father, and because He had heard their groanings from their sufferings and oppression and had compassion on them (Exodus 2:23–25; cf., Genesis 12:1–3). God acted on behalf of His people as Saviour. He saved them first (by grace), and then gave them the Law, He expected them to obey (Exodus 20). Salvation by grace came before a demand for obedient living to His commandments. He didn’t give them the Law in Egypt and promised to save them once they obeyed it. Acceptance came first; obedience was the appropriate response.
Unfortunately, that generation died in the wilderness because of their disobedience (see Hebrews 3—4). But it was not that God failed the people or stopped loving them, but rather that the people failed God in their disobedience. These things should serve as an example for us (1 Corinthians 10:1–13). These principles apply to us. Stephen spoke of these things and the people’s response proved his point (see Acts 7). Nevertheless, God is faithful in His love.
‘I have loved you with an everlasting love,’ were God’s words to His people in a time when they lived in sin and refused to repent (Jeremiah 31:3). Earlier in history, Isaiah stated that ‘the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities [sins] have made a separationbetween you and your God’ (Isaiah 59:1–2, emphasis added). The reason for a rift in the relationship between God and His people came because of sin, not because God stopped loving them. Paul asked, ‘God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! … for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable’ (Romans 11:1, 29). It was a refusal to turn back to God that brought judgement on God’s people in past history. Nothing will stop God from loving us, but we can withdraw ourselves from His love. Hosea had to marry an unfaithful woman to illustrate, rather painfully for him, the unfaithfulness of God’s people at the time. God didn’t reject His people; they rejected Him! Jesus addressed those who refused to repent in no uncertain terms (Matthew 11:20–24), but still His love for the sinners remained. God loves the sinner, but hates the sin. God remains faithful even when people are unfaithful, because God ‘cannot deny Himself’ (2 Timothy 2:13). God does not change although people do.
The prodigal son insulted his father and left him after taking his share of the money, only to find the father accepting him at his return (Luke 15). Jesus accepted sinners and showed them the way back to God (e.g., Matthew 9; Luke 19). They responded by repentance. It was the religious folk that refused to repent and complained when Jesus showed God’s mercy. Despite God’s love for us, there remains a judgement on those who refuse to repent and decide to remain in sin (John 3:16–21). It’s their choice. We cannot mistreat God and expect everything to be well. Just like you cannot abuse your spouse and demand his or her love. With God’s covenant we enter by grace but we stay in it by obedience. Wilful sin and a refusal to repent separates us from God—that was why the judgement of God came on God’s people. Not despite His covenant faithfulness, but because of it: there are conditions to remain in the covenant. Micah put it beautifully.
‘He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’ (Micah 6:8)
God requires of us to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly before God. These three things are good—good for us, good for the people around us. Justice, kindness, humility! Humility is so powerful—it gives access to God’s grace. Heaven comes into our lives through humility.
Or, as Andrew Murray said it: ‘Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.’ Pride is the root of all sin. Choose humility because God requires it, for without it, grace is beyond you. God requires humility; only humility keeps us in His grace (1 Peter 5:5–6). Pride leads to destruction; humility to honour (Proverbs 18:23). Pride in the heart leads to ruin (Proverbs 16:5); but humility will bring great reward (Proverbs 22:4). Have a humble response to God’s generous invitation and accept it.
Remain humble in your walk with God, knowing He loved you as a sinner and He loves you as His child. His faithfulness towards is solid.
Trust Him!
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