Refreshment To The Thirsty

God Demonstrates His Love For Sinners

3.12.23 [Romans 5:1-8] River of Life (3rd Sunday in Lent)

Jude 2 Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. Amen.

If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all. It’s the kind of quip we’ve heard—and maybe even said—more than a time or two.

Maybe we heard it from a self-deprecating funny man who’s had a string of lemons he’s turned into laughs. Or from a soulful baritone blues singer. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all. But it’s not just famous figures that have all the bad luck.

Sometimes, we feel like we are the subject of some secret Murphy’s Law experiment. Or our loved ones do. Especially when we’re facing a series of bad financial breaks, or we’re dealing with some chronic condition, or we’re trying to navigate a fractured relationship. What can go wrong for us, always seems to happen to us.

For people that believe in God—or even just some active and involved higher power—this experience can pose a big problem. Because you recognize that life isn’t just a series of random incidents or experiences. There is some connection, some correlation, some reason for our lives.

So when all the bad luck seems to come our way, we wonder what the reason could be. We wonder if God’s trying to get through to us. We speculate that maybe, just maybe, we did something or didn’t do something to make God mad at us. Perhaps that’s why some of the good things in life seem to elude us. Maybe, we think, that’s why all the bad luck seems to find us no matter what we do or where we go.

That’s not a complete fabrication of our imaginations either. The Word of God gives us historical accounts of people making bad choices and then experiencing troubling consequences for their actions.

Jonah comes to mind. This prophet of the Lord received an assignment from God—Go to Nineveh and preach my Word—and he ran in the opposite direction. He got on a boat and got caught up in a storm.

And the Bible tells us it’s more than just a coincidence. It’s not just bad luck. It’s a wake-up call from God to Jonah. The sailors want to figure out who’s responsible for the bad conditions—a thought that baffles our modern sensibilities—so they cast lots. Then God demonstrated he is in charge of even things we think are just dumb luck or random chance. The lot fell to Jonah. He was forced to admit what he had done. He told the sailors to throw him into the sea and (Jonah 1:15) the raging sea grew calm. These men who didn’t know the Lord recognized God’s power, offered him sacrifices and made vows to him. And Jonah isn’t a one-off, either.

Again and again, we see the nation of Israel disobey God and deal with the consequences of their sin. Wandering in the wilderness, the whole period of the Judges, and the exile to Babylon just to name a few.

Not only that, but God’s Word promises blessings to his people when they obey his law. (Ex. 20:12) Honor your father and mother that it may go well with you and you may enjoy long life on the earth.

So when it is not going well with us, when we feel like we are mired in a streak of bad luck, and especially when we are suffering, we need this word from God. The Lord our God wants us to have peace even when we are in pain. He wants us to have Biblical hope—confidence for the future, assurance about what we do not see, and certainty in God’s love—even when we are suffering. The Lord does not want us to worry. He wants us to see his glory. In what he’s doing for us, in us, & through us.

This hope and peace are not the byproducts of optimistic speculation. They’re not even the result of our self-discipline. They can’t be. Look at how people are described. Powerless. Ungodly. Sinners. There is a significant amount of overlap between these three terms—but that’s only because they describe the same kind of person. Us, by nature.

On our own, we are powerless to do the righteous thing. You have felt that failure, haven’t you? You’ve been in conversations where someone is being smeared or slandered. Most of it is uncharitable and unfair. If they were talking about you this way, you wouldn’t let it stand. But, in the moment, under that slight social pressure, you remained silent. You knew it wasn’t right, but you didn’t step up to the plate, for whatever reason. That’s but one time. It wasn’t random chance. It wasn’t a coincidence. It was your opportunity to do good—and you blew it. (Rom. 5:18) You had the desire to do what was good, but you didn’t carry it out.

But our powerlessness runs deeper than that. Even when we have done the right thing, we’ve done it for the wrong reasons. We’ve done it to look good, to feel good, to further our career, to have someone owe us, or to advance our agenda. We’ve done the right thing for the wrong reasons.

This condition is why we are powerless to draw near to a righteous God. Imagine if someone who wanted something from you pretended to like all the things you liked. Would you trust them? Of course, not. Motivation matters. God sees right through us. He knows our hearts.

And our hearts are not like his. We do not love the things he loves. In fact, the truth is, we often love the very things he most despises.

Sins of pride, lust, greed, and anger scratch itches for our sinful natures. We are defiant and selfish. We are hypocritical and judgmental. By nature, we see God’s grace as spiritual diplomatic immunity. We think we can behave however we want and not have to face any consequences.

But there are real, unavoidable consequences for sinners. We feel shame when we are caught in sin. We feel guilty when we know we have done something wrong—even if no one else has found out yet. Sin has a real impact on us and our world. And God knows this. So he did something about it. He didn’t wait for us to come to the negotiation table. He didn’t sit back and hope we’d come to our senses. He came down to the earth.

At just the right time, Christ Jesus came to earth. He became like us in every way. Familiar with our struggles. He faced temptation as each of us has. But he lived differently than any of us could. He never gave in. Not for one moment. Each time he had the opportunity to do good, he did it.

Jesus, anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit at his Baptism, came to be our humble servant. He healed the sick. He reached out to the lonely. He loved unlovely sinners. All of them.

This is one of the modern misconceptions we have about Jesus. We tend to think of Jesus as a spiritual Robin Hood. Embarrassing those who thought they were spiritually rich and giving to the spiritually poor. We may think of Jesus as a champion for the little guy. That he came to turn the tables and bring blessings to those who had a string of bad luck.

But Jesus did not think in power-dynamics as we might. He knew that everyone was a powerless, ungodly sinner. Some were painfully aware of that because everyone else told them. Others were totally unaware everyone thought they were great people and admired them. Jesus recognized that all of us were sinners in desperate need of a Savior.

So he came and did the unimaginable. He died for us. He suffered for our sins. He was put to shame for our wickedness. He did not come to die just for the “good” people, or to be a champion for the little guy. He sacrificed himself for sinners who were powerless to do anything good. He suffered and died for wicked people who love to break God’s law. On the cross, God demonstrated his love for powerless & ungodly sinners.

On the cross, Jesus demonstrated his love for the powerless. On his side was a man who deserved to be there. A hardened & convicted criminal. At first, he joined the other mockers in (Mt. 27:44) heaping insults upon Jesus. But at some point during his suffering, he turned to Jesus with a modest request. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. This man had nothing to offer Jesus. He was powerless. But Jesus was not. So he spoke beautiful words of promise. (Lk. 23:43) Today, you will be with me in paradise.

But it was not just for the powerless, Christ died. He gave himself for the ungodly, too. The Roman soldiers made sport of him and his kingdom. They put a crown of thorns on his head. They made him wear royal-colored clothing. They reveled in his suffering. But as he was suffering and dying, he prayed for his abusers. (Lk. 23:34) Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

This criminal & these soldiers—none of them were good people. They were vile sinners. But Christ died for them. And for us.

So we all have peace with God and hope that will not put us to shame. Christ crucified has won peace for us. The suffering & death of the Son of God has secured our right standing before a righteous God. Because Christ paid for our sins in full and rose from the grave, we have hope that cannot be taken away. We will not be put to shame. We will be raised to eternal glory. So we can boast of God’s glory even when we are dealing with pains and problems, sufferings and setbacks.

The love Christ demonstrated on the cross has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In the waters of Baptism, God demonstrated his love for the powerless. You did not wash your own sins away. God did that. God also gifted you a new spirit that longs & strives to do good. Yet even when we fail, we are forgiven. (Rom. 5:2) We stand firmly in God’s grace, never upon our own goodness.

In Christ, we witness God’s undeserved and unconditional love. We have peace even when we are dealing with pain and problems. We have hope even when we are suffering. We no longer have to worry, but we can glory in what God is doing for us, in us, and through us.

Because we know what God accomplished through Christ’s suffering. Our salvation. This is the love that is the anchor of our faith. It keeps us tethered to him when we are in the middle of the squalls of suffering.

It’s never bad luck. We know what God is doing as we suffer. He is drawing us closer to himself. God doesn’t enjoy seeing us suffer. He didn’t create suffering. But when it comes our way, for whatever reason, he uses it to strengthen our confidence in his wisdom & love.

Some suffering is a consequence of our bad choices. In those moments, God is calling us to repentance, as he did for Jonah. But even in those situations, God is abounding in mercy and love. When Jonah acknowledged his sin, God was quick to send a big fish to rescue Jonah. When we confess our sins, God loves to point us to the Prince of Peace, who died that we might live, who sacrificed himself that we might be saved from drowning in guilt & shame.

Other sufferings have not been caused by anything we have done. In those moments God is calling us to rely upon him. To trust his plan and his timing. To take up our crosses and follow after his Son who has opened the glorious gates of heaven for us.

In every suffering, God is developing us. He is growing us. Maturing us to be like him. We can’t develop perseverance unless we have problems to endure. We can’t become battle-tested believers, Christians of deep and proven character, unless we have been challenged.

And when we persevere, when we are chiseled and molded into people of unquestionable character, our hope will become more dear, most clear, and more winsome. Because everyone admires people who have these two qualities: perseverance and character.

And these are not from ourselves. They are a gift of God. Who loved us and gave himself up for us—even when we were powerless and ungodly. Because God loves sinners. And has poured out his glorious and abounding love into our hearts so that we might have peace and hope, even when it looks like we’ve run into bad luck. Amen.