I
grew up as a child that always tried to be good to avoid bad consequences. This
saved me from a lot of regrets that come with overtly sinful and shameful
behavior. However, it also led me into the trap of believing that God’s love
was conditioned by my behavior. Although I had received the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith in his name when I was an adolescent, my early years as a Christian
were characterized by trying to be a good Christian.
What
I learned some time later was that my faith could not rest in my being good
enough for God and in the gospel of Jesus Christ at the same time. Did God love
me because I was good, or was I expressing a goodness that came out of God’s
love for me? Was God angry with me every time I sinned or failed, or had his
anger been fully poured out on Christ against all the sins I would ever commit?
What
this came down to was this: did the gospel of Jesus Christ, and my life in the
church, call me to be good in order to win God’s approval, or did it call me to
discover the work Jesus did on the cross so that God could now approve me as
holy and righteous in his sight only by faith in his Son?
Another
way I learned about this was discovering that I believed that God began to love
me at the moment that I received Jesus Christ by faith. Yeeha! Suddenly God
could love me! What I learned later on was that such a thing was impossible. God
could not have set out on a plan of redemption that was motivated by his hatred
of me and my sin, just so that, as soon as I received Jesus, he could suddenly
love me.
That
would make the gospel something like this: “For God so hated the sinful world
that his hatred of sin caused him to send his Son into the world as a sacrifice
for sin so that whenever anyone sees this expression of hatred they would
believe in Jesus and God could suddenly begin loving them.”
The
clear and undeniable message of the Bible is that God already loved the world (people
from every tribe and nation, not just the people of Israel), and it was this
love for the people of the world that compelled him to devise this plan to send
his Son into the world as the atoning sacrifice for sin[1] that would propitiate[2] all his wrath against our sin,[3] so that he could then accept us into the love relationship that was
in his mind before the beginning of time.[4]
One
of the clearest revelations of this truth, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is
an undeniable revelation of the love of God for bad people, is what Paul
recorded for us when he wrote:
“For while we were still weak, 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]
While
many professing believers think that their weakness or sin makes God angry with
them, or causes God to stop loving them, the truth is that God’s love predates
time. Jesus’ death for sin was the expression of God’s love for the people he
had chosen, being fully expressed and demonstrated on the cross while we were
still sinners needing a Savior. At no time do things change so that God’s love
becomes dependent on our good behavior. Rather, it is his love that covers over
our multitude of sins[6] while transforming us more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ
“from one degree of glory to another”.[7]
Now,
to tie this all together, we have this beautiful Scripture: “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.”[8]
God doesn’t love us because we love him, or because we are good enough to
deserve his love. He loves us, has propitiated our sins through Jesus’ loving
sacrifice, and calls us to now “…be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for
us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”[9]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
“For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)
[2]
Propitiate: to remove the wrath of God against our sin by removing the object
of that wrath. When Jesus bore our sins upon his body on that tree, all the
wrath of God against our sin was poured out upon Jesus Christ. When Jesus said,
“It is finished!” he meant that there was no more wrath against sin to be
poured out later on those who received the gospel. The wrath of God had been
fully expended on Christ, so it was propitiated, or taken away from being
poured out on those who received Christ by faith.
[3]
“22 …For
there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, 24 and
are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, 25 whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This
was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had
passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present
time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus.” (Romans 3)
“Therefore he had to be made like his
brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high
priest in the service of God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17)
“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for
ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:2)
[4]
“3 Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his
glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1)
[5]
Romans 5:6-8
[6]
“Above all, keep loving one another
earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8)
[7]
“And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18)
[8]
I John 4:10
[9]
Ephesians 5:1-2
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