Beholding God’s Glory: God’s Love
Romans 5:6-10
Let’s turn to Romans chapter 5. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we will bring one to you. Romans 5 is on page 942 in the Bibles we are passing out.
This morning we come to the final Sunday of our series called “Beholding God’s Glory.” The reason for this series is found in the verse we are memorizing – Daniel 11:32. Let’s review it --
Daniel 11:32 -- The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. Daniel 11:32.
The elders and home group leaders believe God has great things in store for Mercy Hill in 2012. But to experience them we need to stand firm and take action. And it’s when we know God that we are able to stand firm and take action.
So let’s review what we’ve covered. What have we learned about God? Three weeks ago we saw that God is holy. Look at Isaiah 6:3 –
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"
So God’s holiness means that His glory fills the whole earth. Glory is what you feel when something makes you say “Wow!” – like tasting a hot fudge sundae or seeing a Tesla sports car. But God’s “Wow!” is infinitely greater than every other “Wow!” in the universe.
Think about it. God alone has always been from eternity past – everything else has a beginning. God alone is Creator – everything else has been created. God alone knows everything past, present, and future consciously all the time – everything else imperfectly knows only a tiny slice of reality. And God alone is a constantly flowing fountain of perfect love and goodness.
Think of things on the earth we think are glorious – money or military might or celebrities. The greatest glory on this earth compares to God’s glory like a grain of sand compares to the entire universe.
God is holy – His perfections set Him infinitely above everything else that is.
Then we saw that God is righteous. The word “righteous” means to do what is right – to do what’s fitting – to do what’s in accord with reality.
So God looks at all of reality – and sees that He is Holy -- His perfections set Him infinitely above everything else that is. So in light of God’s infinite perfections – what’s the right thing for God to do? The right thing is to do everything to uphold and display His holiness – His glory – His perfections.
That’s exactly what God’s Word teaches – as we can see in Psalm 143:11 --
For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life!
In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!
He is saying, God, it would be righteous for you to bring my soul out of trouble, because it would display the glory of Your name. So -- for God to be righteous means He does everything for His name’s sake, to display the glory of His name.
Now this might make you uncomfortable. Because none of us likes people who do everything to display their glory. Why don’t we like them? Because they are not all glorious – but God is! There’s a higher glory they should be displaying – God’s glory! But for God -- there is no higher glory to display. So if God is going to be righteous – then He will do everything to display His own glory.
So God created a massive universe and a beautiful earth to show us His goodness and creativity. He created you and gave you life and an amazing mind and phenomenal body – so you could see His glory – His Wow! -- and have the infinite joy of knowing Him.
But what did we do? Like I said last week – imagine a yacht captain building a luxury yacht with state of the art equipment and luxury suites and stocking the galley with amazing food and drink and inviting us to join him for free on a cruise to the Caribbean.
But what did we do? We mutinied against Him, and threw Him overboard, because we wanted to control the ship – we wanted to be in charge. That’s what each of us has done with God.
So how does God respond? God is holy – His perfections set Him infinitely above everything else there is. And God is righteous – He does everything He does to uphold and display His glory.
So when something honors and praises His glory – God loves it and rejoices to do it great good. But when something dishonors and scoffs at His glory He is angry and seeks to punish it.
And that’s God’s wrath. God’s wrath is His deliberate and righteous passion to punish those who dishonor His infinite glory.
It’s crucial that we understand this. God has looked upon you with deliberate and righteous passion to punish you forever in hell. And because God’s wrath is just and righteous – it has to be expressed. Punishment has to take place. Justice must be satisfied.
That’s what we’ve learned so far. God is holy, God is righteous, and God has wrath.
But that’s not the end of the story. God’s Word teaches that this holy, righteous, and wrathful God is also loving, merciful, and gracious. That’s what we see in Rom 5:6-10.
God the Father is so loving, merciful, and gracious – that He took His wrath against us for our sins – and poured it out upon His own beloved Son – punishing Him in our place. And Jesus the Son is so loving, merciful, and gracious – that He was willing to suffer the horror of God’s wrath for our sins in our place.
That’s what we read in Romans 5:6-10 –
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
So what is God’s love? Romans 5 teaches that God’s love is His passion to do astonishing good for completely undeserving people.
Notice that we are completely undeserving – v.6 we were weak and ungodly; v.10 we were God’s enemies. But notice how God does astonishing good for us – v.6 -- Christ died for the ungodly; v.9 -- we have been justified by His blood – saved by him from the wrath of God; v.10 – we were reconciled to God and will be saved by His life.
For God to be love means that what thrills Him is doing astonishing good for completely undeserving people. If God had a Facebook or LinkedIn profile it would read – love doing astonishing good for completely undeserving people.
But now let’s dig a little deeper -- what does God do for us in His love? This is a crucial question. Years ago I knew a woman who was going through major trials – and she said -- “I thought God loved me.” Have any of you ever said that?
God’s love means He does astonishing good for people who are completely undeserving. But what astonishing good does He do? If He loves you, will He keep you from all trials? Will He remove all the suffering from your life? Is that what it means that He loves us?
What’s the most loving thing God can do for us? Picture it like this. Here’s some little matchbox cars – they would bring you some joy. But here’s the keys to a Ferrari – much more joy.
So how would you feel if God said to you – “I love you so much – I’m giving you these Matchbox cars.” Or -- how would you feel if God said to you – “I love you so much – here, enjoy the Ferrari.” Which would you prefer?
That’s exactly what’s going on. There’s lots of matchbox car joys out there in the world – food and comfort and money and health and friends and promotions and so forth. But there’s only one Ferrari-level joy – the joy of knowing this holy God whose glory fills the earth.
God will give some of these. And He will take some of these. But His purpose for giving these, His purpose for taking these, and His purpose for everything He does for us is to give us this – the infinite joy of knowing Him. The most loving thing God can do for us is to do everything necessary to give us the infinite joy of knowing Him.
God loves you – and poured His wrath against you upon Jesus.
God loves you – and changed your heart so you turned from sin and trusted Jesus.
God loves you – and forgave all your sin.
God loves you – and gives you the Holy Spirit so you can feel His presence.
God loves you – and guides you, provides for you, strengthens you, comforts you.
God loves you – and uses every trial to bring you even more joy in Him.
God loves you – and gives you brothers and sisters to encourage and be encouraged by
God loves you – and calls you to evangelism so you will have the joy of seeing His saving power at work
God loves you – and gives you grace and comfort on your deathbed.
God loves you – and will raise you from the dead, never to die again.
God loves you – and wipes away every tear from your eyes, and says “well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”
God loves you – and has done everything necessary to give you the infinite joy of knowing Him – forever and ever and ever and ever.
So – because of Jesus, through faith alone, at every moment of every day the Creator of the Universe is looking upon you with love, caring for you with love, leading you with love.
But many of us have times when we don’t believe that. And one of the main reasons is because we don’t understand what motivates God’s love. This is a crucial question. because we are used to thinking that we have to deserve people’s love. We have to be good enough for people’s love. We have to be worthy of people’s love.
But deep down inside we know that we have sinned against God. We know that – because of our sin – we will never deserve God’s love. We will never be good enough for God’s love. We will never be worthy of God’s love.
So if God loves us – why does He? What powers His love? What motivates His love?
I’ve got very good news. God’s love is motivated by something that is all-powerful and ever-lasting. It’s not your goodness. It’s not you deserving it. It’s not your worthiness. So what motivates God’s love? Look at these verses – and notice what motivates God --
Psalm 23:3 -- He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness [why?] for his name's sake.
Psalm 31:3 -- For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;
Psalm 79:9 -- Help us, O God of our salvation, [why?] for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, [why?] for your name's sake!
Psalm 106:8 -- Yet he saved them [why?] for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power.
1 John 2:12 -- I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven [why would he do that?] for his name's sake.
Let me explain it with our picture. God is holy – His perfections set Him infinitely above everything else that exists. God is righteous – God does everything He does to uphold and display His glory. God has wrath – because of His holiness and righteousness He is angry against and will punish everything that dishonors Him. But God is loving – because of His holiness and righteousness He loves to display His glory by doing astonishing good for completely undeserving people.
This motivation is all-powerful – because God’s passion for His name is all-powerful. And this motivation is ever-lasting – because God’s passion for His name is ever-lasting.
It’s like you are in the middle of the Sahara desert of sin and God pulls up in a Hummer, with “The Love of God” painted
on the side. He opens the door, and says – my Son bought this for you at the price of His blood. If you will trust Him, and get in, it will free you from this sin, take you through every problem, guide you in every decision, satisfy you in every heartbreak, strengthen you in every weakness. The ride won’t be easy. There will be trials. There will be suffering. But it will get you through the desert and over those mountains to the oasis of my presence forever.
That sounds pretty good. But you have one more question. How much gas is in the tank? And God says – “It’s far better than that. This Hummer has a fuel supply that is infinitely-powerful and ever-lasting.” How would you feel? You’d get in.
Through faith in Christ alone – God loves you.
So when trials come, God says -- “I’m still loving you – seek me.”
When temptations come, God says -- “I’m still loving you – come to me.”
When you have sinned, God says -- “I’m still loving you – confess to me.”
When you feel alone, God says -- “I’m still loving you – fellowship with me.”
When you are tempted, God says – “I’m still loving you – join the battle with me.”
When you are discouraged – God says “I’m still loving you – trust me.”
So – because of Jesus, through faith alone, at every moment of every day the Creator of the Universe is looking upon you with love, caring for you with love, leading you with love, orchestrating every event in your life with love, ready to help you in His love, and ready to satisfy you in His love.