God's unlimited love: How far does it reach?

How far does God’s love reach? Is anyone excluded? Is it possible for someone to be so far from God that they are beyond the reach of his love?

Perhaps our question is more personal. Can I move so far away from God that I move beyond the reach of his love for me?

Perhaps our question is more like, “How does Jesus being born bring God’s love closer to the people around me who seem to live their lives oblivious to the love God has for them?”
So how far does God’s love reach?

#1 The spiritually far from God

In Matthew chapter 2 we read about the visit of the mysterious magi from the east. I know that generally speaking the church likes to think of these characters simply as “wise men”, possibly kings, certainly not astrologers. But this is possibly closer to the truth. The "Magi” cannot be identified with precision. By NT times, the term loosely covered a wide variety of men interested in dreams, astrology, magic, books thought to contain mysterious references to the future, and the like. In Acts 13 we meet Elymas the sorcerer or magon, who opposes Paul and tries to turn the proconsul from the faith.

Not all stargazers are open to the purposes of God or willing to take a journey of discovery with him.

Apparently these men, these magi came to Bethlehem spurred on by astrological calculations. But they had probably built up their expectation of a kingly figure by working through assorted Jewish books.

I guess you might call them the spiritually confused, although I don’t suppose they saw themselves in that light. But however they saw themselves, God loved them, and called to them.
Maybe they were not so far from God after all.

Whether you dabble at the edge of faith or dabble with the spiritually suspect, God’s love is never that far away from where you are.

#2 The morally far

If God’s love can reach way out east to people who are watching stars, who else can he reach?
How about the morally far from God.

Jesus became known as the friend of sinners. Depending upon which side of the religious divide you stood, this was either an insult (why do you mix with such rejects), or a comfort (someone like Jesus is willing to spend time in my company).

For Jesus it was a choice. He spoke of the need the sick had for a doctor, he spoke of coming to save those who had found themselves lost.

When he met Zacchaeus, it was Jesus who chose to share his company. He was no a reluctant guest in the house of a sinner, but he chose to be there. In John’s gospel we see Jesus presented with a case of adultery and asked to offer a judgment. Instead he offers forgiveness and a chance to start again, to change a lifestyle rather than end a life.

Jesus was known as one who would spend time with prostitutes, not a great reputation to have. But the love of God doesn’t worry about reputations, it only worries about people. People matter to God. Lost people, morally bankrupt people, matter to God.

#3 The social outcast

“The prostitute” points us towards another group of people who are well within reach of the love of God.

The social outcast.

In NT times there were people who were persona non grata as far as the religious community were concerned. Grouped together as publicans and sinners these people were thought to be beyond the reach of God. Among the list were the tax-collectors.

Working for a foreign government collecting unfair taxes on their behalf, and usually adding a little, or a lot, of commission on the side, these men were not well liked to say the least. They would have had few, if any, friends in so-called polite society. I doubt very much that they would have been welcomed at the Temple in Jerusalem or even at their local synagogue. But the love of God reaches out to even these outcasts.

As Jesus walked along the road one day he saw a tax-collector called Levi and he said to him, “Come and follow me.” And he did. He followed Jesus and he did two other things of great significance. First he threw a party for all his outcast friends and invited Jesus to be there. We don’t know how many responded to the invitation, we don’t know how many of those who came were changed by their encounter with Jesus, but we know that Jesus would have loved them just as he had loved Levi.

And the second thing Levi did? He wrote the gospel that bears his name, not Levi but Matthew. Can you imagine the New Testament without Matthew’s gospel? The stories we wouldn’t have, the insight into God’s fulfillment of his promises that would be missed.

The social outcast turned storyteller and all because the love of God reaches even the social outcast.

#4 The religiously far

Some people are very religious but far from God. Perhaps Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to meet Jesus one night, would fall into that category. He knew a lot about God, but did he truly know God? He came with questions, and he got some answers. He didn’t seem to grasp the answers, at least not straightaway, but he came.

Many religious people were unwilling to even ask the question, but Jesus still loved them, spoke to them about God’s love and purposes. Even when they rejected him and sought his life, he still loved them.

For God so loved the world, is how John 3:16 begins. It’s a verse that many within the church know well. It speaks about the all-encompassing love of God. If you are part of the world, then you are included in the range of God’s love, you are not beyond his reach. As Max Lucado puts it: it doesn’t say for God so loved the Europeans, it says for God so loved the world.

No matter what you think about yourself, no matter what you’ve said about God, no matter what you might have done, you are not beyond the reach of the love of God. Jesus invite you to come to the manger at wonder at the journey he made all the way from heaven to live on earth so that you could experience the love of God first hand.

And as you wonder at the baby in the trough, remember too the man on the cross. Remember that this baby grew to be this man who gave up his life that having seen God’s love you might understand his forgiveness.