Introduction:
The favourite song of many Sunday school children is “Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so”. Unfortunately, many adult Christians act as if they have forgotten these precious words and those who remember them act as if they are not convinced of just how great that love is. God’s love is illustrated throughout the pages of Holy Scripture. It is illustrated in Creation when God spent 6 days creating all that man would ever need before creating man and resting on the 7th day. We see the extent of God’s love when He took dust, formed it and breathed into man His Spirit. We see His love when man in His image and likeness was given authority and dominion to rule over the earth. What reason could ever make man doubt God’s love? Even God’s command that man could feely eat of all the fruit of the trees in the garden except of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was out of love. Love is a choice and God respected the authority and free will He had given man. Man was not a robot and had the choice to decide whether to love and obey God and depend on Him or to disobey God and not depend on Him. Unfortunately, man was deceived only to realise that “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death”. (Proverbs 14:12)
Step One: The Fall of man
a) Satan creates doubt in God’s Word
Satan fell from heaven when he wanted to be like God and directed his hate towards man who bore God’s image and likeness. He knew that man had authority over him and that the only way to make him sin would be through deception. Satan began his deception by creating doubt about what God had said about eating the fruit of the one tree that was forbidden by asking “Has God indeed said?”
b) Satan changes what God had said
Once the devil had succeeded in creating doubt about what God had said, he proceeded to change the word of God. God had told Adam “you shall surely die” and the devil changed it to “you shall not surely die”. According to Dr. Warren Wiersbe, when we change the Word of God, we change the God of the message and that is idolatry.
c) Satan questions God’s motive
Once Satan had succeeded in changing the Word of God, he went further to question God’s motive. He implied that God was withholding the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from them because He did not love them enough and did not want them to become like Him.
Illustration:
Adam and Eve were exposed to all the beauty of Creation in a world without sin and naturally would have loved and worshipped their Creator. Satan, who before his fall was in God’s presence in heaven as an archangel, knew the value God placed on holiness, thanksgiving, praise and worship. Satan hated God and since he was in no position to fight God, he directed his hate to man who bore His image and likeness and was the focus of His love. He deceived man to disobey God in order to destroy the relationship that existed between them for “The wages of sin is death”. (Rom 6:23) When Adam sinned, we all inherited his sinful nature for in Adam “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Sin stripped Adam and Eve of their holy covering and knowing that they could not appear before God naked, hid from His presence. God knew what they had done and immediately began to work toward their salvation. He removed the fig leaves they had covered themselves with and covered them with the skin of a sacrificed animal still dripping with blood. The blood of animals could only cover sin and pointed to the eternal blood of the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world without compromising God’s righteousness and justice.
Application:
Jesus Christ met God’s requirements for a perfect sin offering and through His sacrifice has made available God’s gift of eternal life to all believers. (Rom 6:23) How can we still have any doubts about God’s love?
Step Two: The salvation of man
a) Christ shed His blood
God’s love was not only illustrated in man’s creation but also in his salvation. Jesus Christ, born without a sin nature, tempted in all ways as we were yet without sin, met God’s righteous requirements, and shed His blood for the forgiveness of sin.
b) Christ’s body was broken
Salvation means to be made whole. Christ shed His blood for the forgiveness of sin and His body was broken to heal every sickness and disease and make our body whole.
c) Christ was forsaken
Christ was forsaken that we might be accepted and reconciled to God. At noon, while on the cross, the sun was darkened as Christ cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) Jesus was forsaken and rejected and called His Father God so that we might be accepted and reconciled to God and call Him Father.
Illustration:
The sacrifice of Christ gives life for “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive”. (1Co 15:22) Salvation is God’s free gift of forgiveness to everyone who believes in the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus cried out “it is finished” it was because He had paid the full price for sin. The sacrifice of Christ was greater than the judgement of God on sin and fully paid for our past, present and future sin. There is therefore no need for any other sacrifice for sin. Our salvation does not cost us anything but it cost God all He had, His only Son. How can we ever allow anything prevent us from showing our gratitude by thanking, praising, and worshipping our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ?
Application:
We are sure of our salvation since it does not depend on us but on Christ. “We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God”. (Eph. 2:8)
Step Three: The blessings of the saved man
a) The righteousness of Christ
Jesus Christ provided all that the saved man would need through His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. He took our place on the cross and was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness that has never known sin.
b) A son of God
The Son of God became the Son of man that sons of men could become sons of God. Christ took our place to give us His place as a son of God so that we can come into God’s presence and call Him Abba, Father.
c) An heir of the grace of God
As children of God, we have become joint heirs with Christ, of the New Covenant of grace. God’s grace does not depend on what we do but on what Christ has done. We no longer give to be given but give because God in Christ has given us all He has. We no longer forgive to be forgiven but forgive because God in Christ Jesus has forgiven us. We no longer love to be loved but we love because God loved us and gave His life for us.
Illustration:
God has saved and blessed us. His blessing does not depend on what we do but on what Christ has done. Christ was made sin to free us from sin and sin consciousness with its destructive effects. When Adam and Eve sinned the first thing they did was to hide from God’s presence. When Peter saw Jesus perform a miracle that led to a great catch of fish, his response was to ask Jesus to depart from him for he was a sinful man. Our salvation took care of sin and sin consciousness. This same Peter, before the suffering, death, burial and resurrection of Christ, must have been plagued with sin consciousness after denying Jesus Christ three times. After Christ rose from the dead and met with His disciples, we no longer see anything that points to sin consciousness in Peter’s behaviour. When he realised that it was Jesus on the shore, if he had any sin consciousness at all, he would not have been in a hurry to go ashore. Rather he could not wait for the boat to reach the shore but jumped into the water and swam to where Jesus was.
Application:
As believers, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and should not allow sin or sin consciousness to keep us from God’s presence.
Conclusion:
God is love and love is not love till it is given. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. (John 3:16) Man is God’s special creation and the focus of His love. He created man in His image and likeness and gave him authority and dominion to rule on earth. When sin cost man his just standing with God, God redeemed him with the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ. We are still the focus of God’s love. “The Lord is not slow to fulfil His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
Personal Response:
God does not want anyone to perish. You do not have to do anything but believe in Christ and trust Him as your Saviour and Lord. We all owe God an eternal debt of gratitude for His love and the least we can do is to rejoice and worship Him to the praise and glory of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!
