God’s Demonstrative Love
Romans 5:1-11
At times many struggle with the fact that God loves them. God says, “I love you.” To which the reply echoes, “How do you love me?” “I love you more than your mind can even begin to comprehend. I demonstrate that love in so many ways but the greatest demonstration of my love for you was upon a hill called Golgotha.” How great and marvelous is the continual demonstration of God’s love for you. He demonstrates His love for you...
I. By Dying for Us
A. Romans 5:7-8 “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
B. It is an unusual occurrence, an event which is all that we can hope for from the highest human benevolence and the purest friendship that one would be willing to die for a good man. There are none who would be willing to die for a man who was seeking to do us injury, to calumniate our character, to destroy our happiness or our property. – Barnes
C. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends.”
D. It was not good men Christ died to save but sinners, not God’s friends but men at enmity with him. (Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series. The Westminster Press or Logos) To be willing to die for a friend is one thing but to die for those who hate and despise you is quite another.
E. Christ in demonstrating His great love died for those caught up in the sin of homosexuality, for rapists and child molesters. He died for drunken fathers and mothers. He died for the prostitutes and drug addicts. He died for the business men, politicians, police officers, factory workers, farmers, the military, housewives, den mothers, doctors, nurses, teachers, and students. He died for you and me. He did so because He loves you and me. He died for us out of love for us. He died to deliver us from the bondage and penalty of our sinfulness.- copied
F. John 3:16”For God so loved the world that he gave hid only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
G. British pastor Joseph Parker was asked, "Why did Jesus choose Judas to be one of His disciples?" He thought deeply about the question for a while but could not come up with an answer. He said that he kept running into an even more baffling question: "Why did He choose me?"
That's a question that has been asked throughout the centuries. When people become painfully aware of their sin and are overcome with guilt, they cry out to Jesus for mercy. In joyous wonder they experience the truth that God loves them, that Jesus died for them, and that they are forgiven of all their sins. It's incomprehensible!
I too have asked, "Why me?" I know that the dark and sinful deeds of my life were motivated by a heart even darker, and yet God loved me! (Romans 5:8). I was undeserving, wretched, and helpless, yet He opened His arms and His heart to me. I could almost hear Him whisper, "I love you even more than you loved your sin."
It's true! I cherished my sin. I protected it. I denied its wrongdoing. Yet God loved me enough to forgive me and set me free.
"Why me?" It's beyond my understanding. Yet I know He loves me—and He loves you too! — David C. Egner
H. Someone has said, When Jesus Christ gave up His last breath on the Cross of Calvary, He was saying in great huge, box car size letters, "I LOVE YOU."
II. By Adopting us into His Family
A. God is at war with every sinner, everyone outside of Christ. In Exodus 22:24, the Bible says of God, "And my wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with a sword and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless."
B. Before coming to Christ the Bible declares that everyone belongs to the family of Satan. But when one receives Christ as Lord and Savior God demonstrates His love by adopting that individual into His Family.
C. When you comes to Christ and are justified by grace through faith, having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as God, as the one who paid the price for sin on the cross and rose again the third day, turning from sin and giving your life to Christ, you enter into a relationship of peace with God
D. John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
E. Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
F. Romans 8:15-17 “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ...”
G. Ephesians 1:5 (HCSB) “He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will.”
H. My Father is rich in houses and lands
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full, He has riches untold.
My Father’s own Son, the Savior of men,
Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is reigning forever on high,
And will give me a home in heaven by and by.
I once was an outcast, stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth;
But I’ve been adopted, my name’s written down,
An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.
I’m a child of the King, a child of the King;
With Jesus my Savior, I’m a child of the King. - Harriet E. Buell
III. By Securing and Protecting us
A. John 10:28-29 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.”
B. "Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand. Sheltered o’er, sheltered o’er, with His love forevermore. No ill can harm me, no foe alarm me, for He keeps both day and night. Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hand." - copied
C. Romans 8:1-2 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
D. God’s love for you is non-fluctuating and is an irreversible love. if God loved you before you came to Him , He's certainly going to love you now that you are his child. There is nothing you as a believer can do to lose the love of God. There is nothing you as a believer can do to stop Him from loving you.
E. Romans 8:37-39 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
F. Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you.”
IV. By Blessing Us
A. God in demonstrating His love provides for our every need.
B. Ephesians 1:3 “Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.”
C. God’s blessings are limitless.
D. One morning R. C. Chapman, a devout Christian, was asked how he was feeling. “I’m burdened this morning!” was his reply. But his happy countenance contradicted his words. So the questioner exclaimed in surprise, “Are you really burdened, Mr. Chapman?” “Yes, but it’s a wonderful burden—it’s an overabundance of blessings for which I cannot find enough time or words to express my gratitude!” Seeing the puzzled look on the face of his friend, Chapman added with a smile, “I am referring to Psalm 68:19, which fully describes my condition. In that verse we read “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Selah”
E. So often we are like a group of men addressed by minister who took a large piece of paper and made a black dot in the center of it with a marking pen. Then he held the paper up before the group and asked them what they saw. One person quickly replied, “I see a black mark.” “Right,” the preacher replied. “What else do you see?” Complete silence prevailed. “Don’t you see anything other than the dot?” he asked. A chorus of no’s came from the audience. “I’m really surprised,” the speaker commented. “You have completely overlooked the most important thing of all—the sheet of paper.” Then he made the application. He said that in life we are often distracted by small, dot-like disappointments or painful experiences, and we are prone to forget the innumerable blessings we receive from the hand of the Lord. But like the sheet of paper, the good things are far more important than the adversities that monopolize our attention. – copied
F. Someone has written: “As you travel down life’s pathway, may this ever be your goal: Keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole!”
G. Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
V. Disciplining Us
A. No one likes to get spanked.
B. Hebrews 12:6 “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”
C. Every person born by the Spirit into the family of God is subject to and will experience His loving, instructing discipline at some point in his or her life.
D. Proverbs 3:12 “For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father, the son in whom he delights.”
E. Charles Stanley states, “He uses it to remind us of His great love; He uses adversity as a form of discipline. As much as we see pain used in discipline in human relationships, you would think that we would readily accept this principle in the context of our spiritual lives as well. Through the years, however, I have observed that this is a difficult concept for many people to accept. They cannot imagine a loving God inflicting pain on His children. In their minds the concepts of love and pain seem to be diametrically opposed. But in God’s economy, the two go hand in hand, just as they do within human relations.”
F. Hebrews 12:11 “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
G. I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in the Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened I see most. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon in Who Said That? By George Sweeting).
H. God's discipline is designed to make us like His Son. He loves us and wants us to bear the family resemblance.
