God Loves You
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What would you say if I asked if you are worthy?
I’m pretty sure everyone hear would answer with a resounding “NO” right?
What if I told you the church has done a huge disservice by using a few verses to say we are unworthy?
How many people have walked away discouraged or struggled to grow close because they are told they are unworthy?
Many people I know have stumbled in their walk because they thought they were unworthy of God’s grace. They walked away feeling discouraged, depressed and hopeless. They never returned to find grace.
The word unworthy means: Lacking value or merit; worthless.
Do we deserve God’s grace? No
Can we do anything to earn God’s grace? No.
Our main passage today is going to be Romans 5:6-11. I’m going to skip around quite a bit as well.
Before we get into the passages let me ask you this. If we are unworthy, if we are worthless, why would God send His only Son to die for us?
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Let’s read Romans 5:6-11
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.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
How often do we look at God’s word from His view? I know our finite mind can’t comprehend it completely, But I want to look at these verses from God’s view.
When we do that, we find in God’s view we are:
Weak and Ungodly
Precious and Valuable
So Dearly Loved
That first one seems a little out of whack right?
Have you ever felt that way about your children?
We need to understand what Paul means when he says weak and ungodly.
Weak and Ungodly
Weak and Ungodly
The Greek word translated “weak” here would have given the original audience the idea of being in a state of helplessness in view of the circumstances.
The Greek word translated “ungodly” brings the idea of living without regard for religious belief or practice.
In my Bible study practice following the quiet time practice found in Every Man A Warrior. I take the verse of the passage that stands out most to me. And I write it in my own words.
I’m going to do that here to bring understanding to what Paul is telling us.
Paul is saying, I want you to understand something. We were in a helpless condition. There is no way we could do anything that would bring us even close to a right relationship with God.
So at the right time Christ died for us who, despite our best efforts, were living without that right relationship with God.
It’s a good thing I didn’t write any Scripture. It takes me a full paragraph to write what Paul wrote in one little verse.
And the phrase at the right time is a fairly literal translation. It might be translated better as “at His [Christ’s] appointed time.”
Does any of that suggest anywhere that we are unworthy?
No, nothing says we are unworthy. It does say we are living without a right relationship with God and are completely helpless to do anything about it on our own.
Let’s look at Acts 13:46
46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
“Since you thrust it [the word of God] aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.”
God doesn’t consider us unworthy, we call ourselves unworthy. Look at 2 Thess 1:5
5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—
“that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God.”
God considers us worthy. That means in His view we are us precious and valuable.
Precious and Valuable
Precious and Valuable
I have to pause here for a minute and take a closer look at verse 7
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
I’m going to do my best to explain this verse with my limited ability to understand God’s mind. Even top scholars struggle to explain exactly how to interpret this verse.
Let’s start with the obvious appearance of contradiction. a righteous person and a good person.
A righteous person at that time would have been a person who strictly followed the law. Every jot and tittle were to be exercised completely and fully.
A good person at that time would have been a person who followed the law, but were willing to show mercy and kindness beyond what the law demanded.
It’s important to also understand that the righteous person Paul is referencing is not righteous in relationship with God. They are righteous in their own ideology of the law.
It does not suggest or imply one who is put right with God.
The Greek word translated scarcely here is hard to translate into english or most any other language. It represents a measure of scale.
If you were to imagine a scale of 1-10 it would almost equal some extent on the scale, but not quite.
The word translated dare is saying that there is the slimmest chance one would be willing to die for a good person. We see value in others and we are willing to sacrifice for them up to a point.
But, to die for someone else?
I want you to think about how precious and valuable a person would have to be in order for you to die for them. What would their character have to be like?
Would you die for another congregation member?
Would you die for another Christian you know very well?
Would you die for a person who is a Muslim?
Would you die for a Muslim terrorist?
It’s funny how we accuse the world of objective views. Aren’t we supposed to love everyone the way Jesus loves them?
If we did, every single person on that list would be precious and have the same value to us.
We hear Muslim terrorist and we think , “Oh, he’s precious alright.”
But valuable? If there was a negative scale for valuable then I might find value in him.
“But God.” Two small 3 letter words, uttered together, are probably the most powerful words in the New Testament.
“But God,” thinks you are so precious.
“But God,” thinks you’re so valuable.
“But God,” loves you so much.
That while we were still worse than a Muslim terrorist. “Christ died for us.”
So Dearly Loved
So Dearly Loved
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.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
You, each and every one of you, are so dearly loved. God has proven His love for us.
A Muslim terrorist has done something that has hurt you in a very deep and profound way. Maybe their terrorist act killed one of your children.
Now, that same Muslim terrorist has an opportunity to see Christ and be saved. But, that opportunity only comes through your willingness to die a horrible, excruciatingly painful death.
Would you die for that Muslim Terrorist?
My mind immediately says, “yes, of course I would.”
But, unless I were actually in that situation…
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know if I would or not.
We have caused God far greater pain in our sins than anyone could ever cause in us. Our sins have hurt God so deeply we will never know that kind of pain.
“But God” loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. And Jesus loves us so much He willing goes along with the sacrifice.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love all of you very much. But I wouldn’t sacrifice my son for you. I’m definitely not going to sacrifice my son for a Muslim terrorist.
And I can guarantee he wouldn’t willing go along with the sacrifice either.
We are so dearly loved by God. I can’t explain the love. I can’t fathom the love. It’s far beyond, far greater, and so much more glorious than I could ever imagine.
Think about it. I have caused Him deep anguish and pain. And unfortunately I’m not done yet.
In all of this pain, God says, “you know what, I’m going to cause Myself even more and much deeper, pain so those who have caused Me pain can be reconciled to Me.”
I don’t understand that kind of love. But it goes even further than that.
I say I would do anything to be reconciled with all of my children. But I’ve got to tell you, there’s a limit to that “everything.”
I love my children dearly.
But, how far am I willing to go?
How much am I willing to sacrifice?
How much am I willing to forgive?
This happens all the time. We have issues, we say we forgive, and we reconcile our relationship.
Six months later…
We’re in an argument and what comes up?
The same thing we said we forgave them for.
Our love is limited.
“But God” loves you so much that His grace is perfect forgiveness. Rom 5:9
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
I want you to understand the focus of God sending Jesus as a sacrifice here, is not that He takes our place. It’s about the perfect love God has for all of His creation.
He loves us so much that He’s willing to sacrifice His Son. Jesus loves us so much He’s willing to go along with the sacrifice. They didn’t have to get an army to subdue Him and tie Him up.
They didn’t even have to present a solid evidential testimony in court. Jesus remained silent and allowed it to happen.
Paul says if they are willing to do that, then you better believe that God’s forgiveness is perfect and permanent. We won’t have Him bring it up later on and we won’t have to deal with Him being angry over it.
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.
God wants reconciliation. He loves us so much that He wants us to be in a close relationship with Him.
“While we were enemies we were reconciled to Him.” We aren’t talking about a righteous person. We aren’t talking about a good person.
The Muslim terrorist is the closest I could come up with to reference how hostile we are to God without Christ.
We actually plot and scheme ways to hurt and destroy God. Romans 1:30 says we actually invent sin.
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Even then, He loves us so much that He provides reconciliation in the death of His Son. A reconciliation where our sins, everything we did to cause pain and hurt, are forgiven.
Not forgiven just here and now to not be brought up again, but eternally forgiven to never be mentioned again.
We hold onto those things even after we claim they are forgiven. And we bring them back up when we are feeling hurt by the other person.
Women are especially gifted in this area. Wives bring up stuff that we did years ago. Stuff even the men forgot they did.
My wife does this like she has a master’s degree. Not when we’re arguing, she wouldn’t do that. But when I’m complaining about something one of my children have done.
Suddenly she’s like Jesus standing in front of Lazarus’s tomb. She’s standing in front of my closet saying “come out” and that skeleton comes to life!!!
Not so with God we are reconciled perfectly so we can be close to Him. He loves us so much that He wants us in the throne room with Him.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Jesus Christ is the door into the throne room of God. It is through Him that we receive the perfect love of God.
Yes, we should be rejoicing and it should cause us to be delirious in love.
A poem by Faith A Mills I think gives a good analogy to the kind of delirious love we should feel from and for God.
I climbed up the door,
and I shut the stairs.
I said my shoes,
and took off my prayers.
I shut off my bed,
and I climbed into the light,
and all because he kissed me goodnight!
God tells us how much love He has for us in Isa 54:10
10 For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Now Paul tells us how He has proven His great love by sacrificing His own Son. By causing a deeper pain to Himself only so those who have hurt Him can be reconciled to Himself.
If you have placed your faith in Jesus, you can experience this love every moment of every day.
All it takes is to truly believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, that He rose again on the third day, and that He ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God.
In Isa 41:10 He tells us what that love means for us.
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Believe in Jesus and God’s love will never depart from you. Peace can be found even in the hardest of times.
We will find strength and help through Jesus Christ.
We find all kinds of reasons to keep a distance between us and God. We call ourselves unworthy and are afraid to seek Him.
We fear that He’s going to be like an earthly father that abandoned us. Or abused us. Or was an absent father.
So we have a hard time trusting that He loves us.
The truth is we are the ones that put boundaries on our relationship with God. He not only tells us how much He loves us, He proved how much He loves us.
Open yourself up to seek Him. With an honest heart seek His presence and let His love touch you just one time. I promise it will change your life.
The story is told of a king who desired to know how much his three daughters loved him. The first two declared they loved him more than all the gold and silver in the world.
The third said: “I love you better than salt.” The king was not exactly elated and attributed his youngest daughter’s reply to her immaturity.
The cook, overhearing, left salt out of the king’s breakfast. Then the father awakened to his daughter’s declaration: “I love you so much that nothing is good without you.”
You are precious to God. And God loves you so much that He wants you to experience His love. Open yourself up to God. Seek Him and His love.
Once you do you might find yourself like the third daughter of the king. Saying I love you so much that nothing is good without you.