- 5:1 Peace with God;
- 5:2a Access into God’s presence by faith through Grace;
- 5:2b Rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God – knowing what the future holds, beyond this life;
- 5:3-4 he ability to bear all sorts of trials with joy, because those trials are not senseless, but God-sent, for the building up of our character, making our future hope even more sure.
Today’s text from 5:5-11 draws us into the profoundest aspect of our experience of God’s Being: God’s love.
I John 4:8 says, “God
is love”. Love is not simply an attribute of God. It is
His very nature. This is what He is. And
since God is an infinite Being, His love is an inexhaustible fountain.
Here follows then another proof of assurance, by which we may know the reality of our standing with God. It is the outpouring of God’s nature into our hearts.
Love is a communicable attribute of God. When you are converted, the love of God is communicated to your own heart. This is the “cherry on the top” of our Christian experience of justification - the real experience of God’s love in our hearts. Note how Paul mentions the three pillars of the Christian faith: faith (5:1,2) … hope… (5:2,4,5) love… (2:5,8). In 1 Cor. 13:8 we read that love is the greatest of these. Heaven will have no need of faith or hope. But heaven will be a world of love (Jonathan Edwards). How we should look forward to that world!
Let us then follow the logic of this text:
1. God’s Love Is Poured Into
Our Hearts Through The Holy Spirit Whom He Has Given Us (5:5)
a. Consider that the subject is the love of
God for us – not our love for Him.
This text does not talk about our love for God. God’s love is always prior. “In this is
love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins (1
Jn. 4:10). We only love, “because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19)
b. Consider that this love of
God is poured out into our hearts. The same phrase, “poured out” is also used in
Acts 2:17,18 (quoting Joel 2:28-32) and in Acts 2:33 in
connection with the outpoured Spirit at Pentecost. This is not a measured,
controlled pouring as one pours carefully to fill a cup. This is a lavish pouring
and the cup overflows! The picture here
is that God pours His love overflowingly into the heart of the Christian
believer. The heart refers to the centre of our being. It includes the mind, will
and emotions – the whole person.
c. Consider that this love is
poured out by the agency of the outpoured Holy Spirit. It is a knowledge that
surpasses academic knowledge.
·
The Holy Spirit applies this love via His inspired Word. We must read and meditate
on the Bible for all its worth – see Paul’s desire “...that I may know Him...” (Phil.
3:10) “... the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...”
(Phil. 3:8) ... this knowledge comes to those who worship by the Spirit of God (Phil. 3:3)
·
The understanding of the love of God grows with time and
understanding, which involves learning. Paul’s prayer in Eph.3:14-19 expresses a desire that Christians
“may have strength to comprehend the breadth and length and
height and depth and to know the love of
Christ that surpasses knowledge…”. Seeking to understand the love of God requires
comprehension or knowledge. It is a
process which involves the mind. You will never grow in the knowledge of God if
you do not read the Bible.
·
The understanding of the love of God grows with trials (hence Romans 5:3,4).
This includes understanding that the love of God also comes to us via His
discipline, for God disciplines the one he loves (Hebr. 12:6-11)
A QUESTION
If this is so, then why is it that many professing Christians see or feel so little evidence of the love of God in their own experience?
Let’s engage in some pastoral wrestling:
(i) Perhaps, there is no genuine new birth. If this is so the love of God cannot be seen or felt.
(ii) Perhaps a person is backslidden. You may have “lost your first love“ (Rev. 2:4,5). Although this is written to the church at Ephesus, the church is made up of individuals. In this regard please note that it is possible for entire churches to grow lukewarm (e.g. Rev. 3:16 – the church at Laodicea).
It is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph.4:30).
It is possible to let bitterness, wrath, anger, unforgiveness etc. dampen the experience of God’s love.
It is possible to let things slowly come between you and your first love for God.
If this is so, then Jesus counsels you right now to repent and to return to the place of your first love.
“For while we were still weak (powerless), at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners , Christ died for us (5:6-8).
(i) 5:6 God’s love comes in a completely unmerited way. God’s love is not motivated by people’s merits or accomplishments (for there are none). Why God should love weak, ungodly, sinful creatures is entirely mysterious. I cannot discover any reason why God should love me. Such a thought caused Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) to write his hymn, “And Can It Be?” - “Tis mystery all! The immortal dies: Who can explore His strange design? In vain the first- born seraph tries, to sound the depths of love divine. ‘Tis mercy all! Let earth adore, let angel minds enquire no more.” [1]
(ii) 5:7-8 The amazing love of God becomes even more profound when we consider the fact that while for a righteous person a man will scarcely die (though it is conceivable)- BUT FOR AN UNRIGHTEOUS PERSON? And yet a holy God sent His Son to die for unrighteous sinners. “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love, as it is revealed in Jesus is both, unprecedented and unparalleled.
You just don’t die for a wicked enemy!
It’s unheard of! I, as a human being will not do that.
But God, the holy God, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil – He does it!
What for?
For His love‘s sake.
For the sake of His sheep.
For the sake of those given to His Son (Jn 17).
This is the deep, deep love of God. This deserves prayerful meditation, and when that knowledge finally sinks in, our hearts melt with love and thankfulness to God.
Jesus’ death on the cross for sinners is the supreme manifestation of the love of God.
There are wonderful moments when the Holy Spirit shows us something of the extent of the love of God, and your heart is flooded with unbearable love. When this happens you can be very overwhelmed. Such testimonies have not been uncommon in the experiences of God’s people.
I will mention the example of Sarah Edwards (d. 1758), wife of Jonathan Edwards. She had an experience of the love of God as a result of a meditation on Romans 8:34, which resulted in a renewed sense of the assurance of her salvation.
It began on January 20, 1742. [2]
“When I was
alone, the words came to my mind with far greater power and sweetness; upon
which I took the Bible, and read the words to the end of the chapter, when they
were impressed on my heart with vastly greater power and sweetness still. They appeared to me with undoubted certainty
as the words of God, and as words which God did pronounce concerning me. I had
no more doubt of it than I had of my being...
I cannot find language to express how certain this appeared... Melted
and overcome by the sweetness of this assurance, I fell into a great flow of
tears and could not forbear weeping aloud.
It appeared certain to me that God was my Father, and Christ my Lord and
Savior, that He was mine and I His.
Under a delightful sense of the immediate presence and love of God,
these words seemed to come over and over in my mind, ‘My God, my all; my God,
my all.’ The presence of God was so near
and so real that I seemed scarcely conscious of anything else. God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
seemed as distinct persons, both manifesting their inconceivable loveliness and
mildness and gentleness and their great and immutable love to me. I seemed to be taken under the care and
charge of my God and Saviour, in an inexpressibly endearing manner; and Christ
appeared to me as a mighty Saviour....
The peace and
happiness which I hereupon felt was altogether inexpressible. It seemed to be that which came from heaven;
to be eternal and unchangeable... I
seemed to be lifted above earth and hell, out of the reach of everything here
below, so that I could look on all the rage and enmity of men or devils with a
kind of holy indifference and an undisturbed tranquillity. At the same time I felt compassion and love
for all mankind, and a deep abasement of soul, under a sense of my own
unworthiness.... My God was my all, my only portion.
I continued
in a very sweet and lively sense of divine things, day and night, sleeping and
waking, until Saturday, Jan. 23. ....At
night my soul seemed to be filled with an inexpressibly sweet and pure love to
God and to the children of God, with a refreshing consolation and solace of
soul which made me willing to lie on the earth, at the feet of the servants of
God, to declare His gracious dealings with me and breathe forth before them my
love and gratitude and praise.”
Please note. It was as Sarah was meditating
upon the Word of God that this experience of the love of God came upon her. It
had a great effect upon her –
particularly in the matter of assurance.
(i) 5:9a“Since therefore we have been now justified by His blood…”. Paul comes back to the unifying theme of justification - the string which holds the pearls together. We are justified by the blood of Jesus. In this we saw the deep love of God for the those who were justified. When an understanding of that love grabs you, it overwhelms you.
(ii) 5:9b “Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God”. Here is what makes your love for God so much more profound - when you see what you have been delivered from … the wrath of God! This is truly something to sing about. The hymn, “In Christ Alone“ in which this subject is expounded: “In Christ alone, who took on flesh; Fullness of God in helpless babe! This gift of love and righteousness; Scorned by the ones He came to save. Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, For every sin on Him was laid, here in the death of Christ I live.“[3] Saved from the wrath of God! You will never be able to grasp the nature of justification, you will never appreciate the depth of your salvation until you understand what you have been saved from, and what it took to make that possible! A.W. Pink, in his great book, “The Attributes of God“ says that the wrath of God is “a perfection of the Divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate[4]:
- That our hearts may be duly impressed by God’s detestation of sin
- That we may cultivate a true fear of God in our souls
- To praise God for having been delivered us from the wrath that is to come
CONCLUSION
Experiencing the love of God is the antidote to falling in love with this world.
The Good news is that God has freely poured out His love on His people. The challenge lies in keeping ourselves in the love of God: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God ....”(Jude 21).
Make it your business to be always found in the presence of God.
