As we observe the Good Friday today, let’s meditate on the depth of God’s love. Let’s read Romans 5:5-11. The word 'love' has lost its true meaning. Some people use the word 'love' in the same way they use the word 'like.' They say, "I love God," "I love my wife," they also say, "I love traveling," "I love pets." Some people also understand 'love' as expressing certain feelings like feeling happy or excited to be with someone or to like someone. True love is more than just a feeling. Feelings come and go, but true love remains.
There are three signs of true love:
1. It's a choice. True love is not based on a specific condition or feeling, e.g., "if they are kind to me, I will love them," or "if my spouse loves me, I will love her/him." Jesus said, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (Matthew 5:46-47).
2. It's shown through action. Love is not only an adjective but also a verb, and it is not a NATO (No Action Talk Only).
3. It requires sacrifice. The deeper we love, the greater we are willing to sacrifice.
Do you realize that God has loved us in all those ways to the degree that is beyond human comprehension? Today we will see the depth of his love that is revealed in Jesus Christ—in how undeserving we were to receive it.
1. Jesus has loved us while we were sinners. Verdescribeption of God's love that the Holy Spirit pours out into our hearts: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The central fact of the love of God is that Christ died for us. Christ sacrificed his life—not just his time and energy and convenience and money and health—but his sinless, holy, tender, wise, loving, divine life. But that is not Paul's focus in these verses. Here the focus is on the moral and spiritual condition of those He died for. He died while we were ungodly and sinners! This is the amazing love of Jesus Christ.
Let's begin with Paul's comparison to human love in verse 7: “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.” The point here is that human love rarely reaches high enough to die for someone who has been especially good to us. And rarely would human love sacrifice itself for one who is simply a just and righteous person.
Illus: Brandon Gamble, a 30-year-old father, yelled for his five children to break a bedroom window and escape when the fire erupted early Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018, in a Forest Park home. His wife was also able to make it out alive. But Gamble — the one who put family members’ lives before his own — could not make it out, fire investigators said. Why was he willing to risk his life? Because they were his family whom he loved dearly! In contrast with that, Paul describes the love of God. Verse 8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Before we knew Christ, we were sinners. Therefore, we were not His children and did not have a relationship with the holy God. Verse 5 also says, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” V. 5 and 8 tell that God demonstrates His love in history and his Word, and we experience the application of the love of God through the outpouring work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
The depth of God's love for us—and Christ's love for us—is seen in this: when He chose to love us, even at the cost of Jesus' life, we were not worthy of His love. We were deserving of His wrath, and we
deserved His punishment for our sins against him. And his love is shown in this—precisely in this—that his love did not wait for any moral and spiritual improvement in us. The complete sacrifice was made while we were still sinners.
2. Jesus had loved us when we were helpless and ungodly. Paul heightens this with two other words. Two of them in verse 6: “when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Christ loved us and gave himself for us while we were 'powerless' or 'helpless' and while we were 'ungodly. 'Powerless' implies weak, sickly, unable to impress or contribute to our salvation. Paul said God had chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong things. . . that no man should boast before God. The love of God is given to the unlikely and unworthy so that we will never boast before God. We will always be humbled that His grace and mercy saved us.
We were not only helpless, but we were also "ungodly." The word means irreverent. We did not fear God, and we had no respect for God. We were godless. This is the way we were when he loved us and gave His Son for us. What is so remarkable about the word "ungodly" is that it is used in Romans 1:18, where Paul says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. This means that for all of us who trust Christ, the love of God overcame the wrath of God and saved us. So, we were guilty sinners, weak and helpless, and ungodly and deserving of God's just and holy wrath. And despite all that, He loved us and gave His Son to die that we might live.
3. Jesus had loved us while we were His enemies. There is one last description of us as undeserving, and it's in verse 10: "For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"
Last month we discussed the Lord Jesus' commands in Matthew 22:37-39: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” The main reason we should love God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds, and love others, even our enemies, is that God first loved us while we were sinners, when we were helpless, and while we were His enemies.1 John 4:19 states, “We love because He first loved us.” The more we realize God’s love, the better we love God and others, including our enemies!
As we approach the Good Friday that demonstrates the depth of God’s love for us, let’s take a moment to think about these. Because Jesus has loved us so wonderfully,
- Do we really love Him? Have we placed Him first in our lives? What do we do first when we wake up? Many people grab their cellphone when they wake up to check if they get messages from their friends or how many people like their postings. Some people drink coffee and read the newspaper when they wake up. How about us? Do we take a moment to meet God? If we love somebody, we love to spend time with that person!
- Who or what are the most important persons or things in our lives? Our hobby, sport, career, family, or Jesus?
- If ISIS, Al Qaeda, or Al Shahab were coming here now and asking whether we are a Christian and if we say 'yes' they will kill us, what would we tell them?
- If Jesus has died for us, what sacrifice are we willing to make for Him and His church?
May God help us understand the deep of His love and sacrifice for us so that we can love Him and others more! Amen!
