While this story is old news, several weeks ago, a church in Sydney, Australia posted a message on its sign stating ‘Jesus Loves Osama bin Laden’. As much consternation as such a statement inevitably causes, that statement is also true. Jesus does love Osama bin Laden. In fact, God loves Osama bin Laden so much that He came to earth as Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, and died a horrible death for him.
Sometimes that truth is difficult for us to accept. In our sinful minds, we convince ourselves that some people should somehow be outside of God’s grace. It is easy, perhaps, for us to imagine Jesus dying for our sins and for the sins of ‘good’ people, but for Osama bin Laden, a murderous terrorist? How can that be?
It can be because Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners. It can be because Jesus died once for all sin, not just the sin of those who have faith. So what makes us different from Osama? Where sin is concerned, there is no difference. We are all sinners who have fallen short of God’s glory and are incapable in any way of achieving our own salvation through works or by what we choose to believe.
What can make us different is if we do not reject God’s grace for us, and so by that grace we receive faith. Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden has never heard the message of that grace, as far as we know, and so remains separated from God’s free salvation by the barrier of his faithlessness and sin.
Which brings us to the real point of God loving Osama bin Laden, that he will never know God’s love until he hears of that love. What greater gift could a man like Osama receive that to receive God’s grace? How can he know of that grace unless someone tells him of it? That’s where those of us who have received that grace come in through the Great Commission and the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.
Obviously, not many of us, if any, have the means to travel to wherever Osama is hiding and testify to the Gospel to him; however, our testimony does not have to go that far. Instead, we can simply testify to an unchurched friend or neighbor or allow our lives to be a testimony of our faith by being different from the world.
Such testimony has the power to move mountains by faith, and each soul that is won by the Word creates another testimony to the Gospel. One can imagine, then, if we were all doing that job, how quickly the Gospel could reach the ears of someone like Osama bin Laden.
Jesus does indeed love Osama bin Laden, and all of those whose souls are lost in the tragic depths of sin. What Jesus wants us to do is make sure that Osama knows He loves him, so that he too can share in the hope of salvation and eternal life we share.
In fact, how many sins do we personally know that Osama has committed? Seven or eight, tops.
How many sins do I personally know I have committed? Lots more than that, certainly.
“Chief of sinners,” indeed. Paul’s going to have to fight me for that appellation come Judgment day.
“Jesus loves Osama” might be a scandalous church sign, but “Jesus loves me” is the most unbelievable truth in the world.
Amen!
-=DLH=-