Willow Branches in Autumn Winds

Some Thoughts on Love Wins

One of the things I appreciate so far about Rob Bell’s Love Wins is that he is asking a lot of questions that are based on making good observations of the Biblical text.

I teach people how to study the Bible inductively, and the first step in really digging into the passage (after you’ve figured out the context of the passage and how it fits into the bigger picture) is to make observations. This is the part that people often seem to skip. They want to get right to the second step: interpretation, figuring out what a passage means.

Possibly because we are so familiar with certain parts of the Bible, it’s easy for us to assume we know what it says and what it means, without having to really think much about it. But when we do that, we are missing out on a great opportunity to interact with God. It’s good for us to wrestle with Scripture, to see it with fresh eyes and ask the Holy Spirit to show us if we’ve missed anything. 

In the first chapter, Bell quickly looks at several Bible passages that deal with the question: What is it that “saves” you? How do you get your sins forgiven? How do you make sure you’re “in”? The typical evangelical answer is something like, you’ve admitted you’re a sinner and have accepted Jesus’s death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. Sometimes there’s a prayer involved. 

Many of the passages Bell brings up are very familiar to us. The problem Bell observes is that, when you look at all these passages together, there seem to be different answers to the question, “What is it that saves you?” depending on the circumstance and who it is Jesus is talking to. And I don’t think any of the people in any of the stories says a “sinner’s prayer.” So, what are we supposed to do with that?

In the end, Bell doesn’t seem to answer these questions. Questions, and unanswered questions, are something that I always bring up when I’m teaching. Part of making good observations is being honest enough to ask questions of the text. And often, our questions just can’t be answered. If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to let some of our questions go unanswered. There is a lot of mystery in our faith, and we need to be OK with that. I think this might be one of Bell’s main points.

I applaud Bell’s willingness to admit that sometimes the Bible can be confusing. There are a lot of things in the Bible that, honestly, are kind of ambiguous. Bell is saying that it’s OK to let some of those things remain ambiguous—we don’t have to have black and white answers to all of our questions. On the other hand, Scripture, and Bell, are very unambiguous about some things. In particular, evil and sin are very real, and there are very real consequences. Bell does not shy away from saying that all of us are sinners.

I still have about a third of the book left to read. I’m eager to see what conclusions, if any, Bell comes to.