According to the Wall Street Journal, “An attack ad against an Ohio Democrat featuring her estranged mother calling her a liar and unfit for office has roiled the state’s closely contested governor race.” The candidate, Dr. Amy Acton, has said her mother’s husband sexually abused her; she and her mother have been estranged since she was a child. Last Tuesday, her opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, took responsibility for the ad.
Reaction has been strong on both sides. Former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee for Senate this fall, called the ad “disgusting.” His opponent, GOP Sen. Jon Husted, said, “I would not have run that ad.”
By contrast, Vice President JD Vance rebuked Republicans for “whining” about the ad, saying: “Politics is a tough business.” At a campaign rally in Ohio, he said the ad “calls it out like it is.” And Donald Trump Jr. posted, “Ohio watch this and think about what it means.”
There’s an old truism about politics that says you have to get elected to serve, so whatever it takes to do the former is warranted so long as you then do the latter. I’m certainly not endorsing this approach, and it remains to be seen whether the ad will work for or against its sponsoring campaign when all the votes are cast.
Of course, such transactionalism is not limited to politics. Any of us who aspire to something are likely to do what it takes to try to achieve it. And since we aspire to many different things, we adopt many different strategies for success. They are like masks we wear, each intended for the context in which it is being worn.
Behind such masking, an even more foundational process is at work. Psychologists say we all have an “idealized self,” the person we wish we were and want others to believe us to be. We then act to project this perfected person to the world.
This is wearying work. We wish we could be ourselves with everyone, but we fear they wouldn’t like us if we did.
Sacrificing to Mars before we go to war
The good news is that our Father already knows what’s behind our masks and loves us anyway. But it’s hard to believe this to be true since it’s not entirely true with anyone else we know.
For example, my wife’s love for me over our many decades of marriage is a daily marvel to me. Knowing myself as I know myself, I continue to be astonished that she loves me as she does. But if I were to have an affair or act in a way that harmed our children or grandchildren, I have to think that I would damage her heart for me. She might still love me, but she couldn’t love me in the same way. The same would be true of my family and friends, I presume.
It is only natural to apply this reality to our relationship with God. Unsurprisingly, the world’s religions function on an axis of transaction: if we do what God wants, he will do what we want.
When I led study tours to Ephesus, for example, we walked past the many altars that lined its main thoroughfare, each of them an invitation to do business with the deity it represented. If you’re going to war, you want to sacrifice to Mars so he will protect you in battle. If you need wisdom, Athena is your god; if you’re sailing, you want to placate Neptune beforehand.
So, it only makes sense to go to church on Sunday so God will bless you on Monday. Start the day with a “quiet time” with him so he will bless your day. Act with righteousness to be blessed by your righteous God.
Of course, this could only work if we were as sinless as the Lord whose favor we seek. If he is to bless our righteousness, he must punish our sinfulness. And we are back where we started, needing the help of a God whose help we cannot earn.
“I have loved you with an everlasting love”
The good news is that, unlike you and everyone you know, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is his very nature, his essence, not just what he does but who he is. To put it a bit crudely, God loves you because he cannot help loving you. His nature requires him to love you.
There is, therefore, nothing you can do to make him love you any more or any less than he did when he sent his Son to the cross for you. He loves you as much as when he chose to create you. He loves you on earth as much as he will love you in heaven.
This is why he can say to his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3a). There never was and will never be a time when his love for us changes, which is why he can add, “I have continued my faithfulness to you” (v. 3b).
The key is seeing ourselves as he sees us, remembering all through the day that we are God’s “Beloved,” as Henri Nouwen called us. We then respond by worshipping him, not so he will love us but because he already does. We serve him, not so that he will bless us, but because he already has. Our gratitude for his grace motivates all we do and liberates us to do it in love.
Someone wrote that he asked Jesus, “How much do you love me?” He responded, “I love you this much,” as he spread his arms wide on the cross and died.
He would do it all again, just for you.
