The importance of Hesed (חֶסֶד)

When we speak about God’s love, both in prose and in song, we find ourselves using phrases like ‘God’s love never fails’. To quote an old Hillsong tune, ‘your love never fails, it never gives up, never runs out on me’. In our day this is mostly construed in the soppy strains of the ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’-type songs, in which Jesus’ persistent and unconditional love are lauded as wonderful facets of his character in the face of our very human failure to be faithful to Christ and our failure to love and cherish him and his work.

These depictions of Christ, the patient but adamant suitor, have been dressed up well and are often the product of the colourful and intentional wording of megachurch bands who know what sells. However, there is another domain in which this faithful love, hesed, has not had so excellent a PR team: soteriology.

The profound, beautiful and thoroughly biblical truth that God’s hesed towards us is an effectual grace that will not tire, fault or fail is one that has been met with the straw-men of harsh reception. It usually goes like this:

‘God is a gentleman, and will not force himself upon you against your will. He stands at the door and knocks, but unless you invite him into your heart and make him your Lord and Saviour, he will not be joined to you.’

The key phrase in question is the modality of the word ‘force’. It suggests that his initiating action in commencing a relationship with you is inappropriate. By means of an example, consider the lifeguard. If a child is caught in a rip and takes in water and falls unconscious, unbreathing, the good lifeguard will take that child and immediately begin opening the airways and conducting CPR without waiting for the child to consent.

No one would ever say ‘did you see that lifeguard force himself upon that child?’ No. It is an apt analogy, because an unconscious and drowning child perfectly resembles the spiritual condition of all humans before they are Christian, namely, ‘dead in the trespasses and sins in which [the believer] once walked’ (Eph 2:1-2a).

In fact, it should be the bold and proud proclamation of the Christian that God did not wait for us to come looking for him, but initiated his relationship with us and was resolved to see it come to completion. With that understood, then we can stand in one mind with our brother Peter and say:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5, emphasis mine)

This truth bears on far more than just our personal understanding of how our relationship with God started. It bears on evangelism. Writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul shows us that God has set his faithful love on his people before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), and that those chosen people whom he foreknew, he predestined to not only hear the good news and accept it gladly, but to reach the end, and be glorified and fully conformed to the image of his son, Jesus Christ (Eph 1:5, Rom 8:29-30).

This means that when the Christian shares the gospel with an unbeliever, they can have the confidence of knowing that God will not fail to save sinners. Only in the confidence of God’s hesed can the Christian say ‘Repent and trust in Christ alone for your salvation. Do this, and you will find him to be a perfect saviour who will never let go of you, but will carry you through to victory.’

The Psalmist cherished God’s faithful love and this confident joy in the reliability of God is seen so beautifully in the 136th Psalm. Tracing out God’s glory and worthiness in eternity past, God’s creation of the world, his sovereignty over history in delivering his people from Egypt, his judgement of wicked nations and his faithfulness to Israel, every second line repeats that ‘his steadfast love (hesed) endures forever’ (Ps 136).

Let us join with the Psalmist and recognise that the same loving Father who created a beautiful world and people to rule and fill it, who guides the very course of its history and directs the hearts of kings like streams of water, is the same powerful God who does not wait for you to find him, but sovereignly acts to initiate a relationship with you by bringing you to life in Christ. Indeed, his faithful love rescues you from darkness, and for all your years on earth, and countless years after in glory, his steadfast love will remain on you.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul