Redemptive Love captures the very important message of what unconditional love really looks like, especially when our sins are too much to bear.
Although the film was not released in Hungarian cinemas, it is surprisingly available on Netflix.
We need more movies that deal with the themes of love and sexuality with honesty, yet restraint. Christian films tend to avoid the former, while mainstream films avoid the latter.
From this point of view, a film like Redemptive Love can be the first piece of a new genre. The film is based on the bestselling novel by Francine Rivers, which was inspired by the book of Hosea. Don't think of it as a typical Christian film - unfortunately, not all of them are of high quality and don't dare to discuss taboo topics - but
it deals with sinful human nature in a much more realistic way, and precisely because of this it highlights the power of the gospel and redemption more sharply.
In short, the story of Redemptive Love is that Angel (Abigail Cowen), who was forced into prostitution at a young age, struggles with internal trauma and external enemies in the 19th century. century in California, during the gold rush. Then she meets Michael Hosea (Tom Lewis), the man who, after God leads her, offers her the chance of a new life.
The biblical story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife, Gomer, and the story made from it help us realize how terribly we are moving away from God. Gomer's fornication represents Israel's wayfinding. The story confronts us that we too follow Gomer's rebellious footsteps when we choose sin instead of God's faithful love, just as the main character chooses to return to prostitution instead of commitment to her husband.
In the Scriptures, we do not get many details about Gomer's heart motivation, but the word draws attention to Gomer's repeated unfaithfulness and the stubbornness with which he rejects Hosea's faithful love.
Here, however, Angel's (multiple) returns to her old life stem more from her shame and her difficulty believing that anyone could ever truly love her. In her own weird way, she also thinks she's doing Michael a favor by leaving him. She believes that she is unable to have children due to her previous forced abortion, and knows that Michael wants a family. When a new family moves into a nearby farm, Angel believes that the young woman who lives there will be able to give Michael the family he can't.
Michael forgives his wife even after every bad decision, loves her unshakably and waits for Angel back.
However, in order to accept Michael's love, Angel must first fully allow himself the love and forgiveness that God offers him.
Several Christian critics stated that the film should not contain a sex scene, and there is truth in this, but at the same time, it would be difficult to tell the story of a prostitute's redemption without showing how her relationship with sexuality changes. In any case, Redemptive love captures the very important message that
what unconditional love is really like, especially when our sins are too difficult for ourselves to bear.
Featured image: Rotten Tomatoes
