Gospel: When Love and Justice Mingle

Sermon Title: Gospel: When Love and Justice Mingle

Introduction: We have looked at our one hope and the love that characterizes us as God’s forever family.

BRIEFLY explain the gospel

“Flannery O’Conner was once asked to put the meaning of one of her short stories into a nutshell. She responded tartly that, if she could have put the meaning into a nutshell, she wouldn’t have had to write the story.”

Why do Christians celebrate the resurrection? (Put another way, why does resurrection matter?)

In order to understand the glory of the resurrection, we must first understand the horror of death in its origin, substance, and types

Death is separation.

Death is more than just the end of life, it is the cutting off of relationship.

This is where we get the phrase, “You are dead to me” and why Jesus can say that to hate someone, to cut them off from yourself, is to murder them.

Death originates out of human rebellion against God.

Death is the perpetual curse against humanity made by God in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:19 ESV

19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you,

‘You shall not eat of it,’

cursed is the ground because of you;

Romans 5:12 ESV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,

Forms: What forms of death exist?

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Physical death is a glimpse and foretaste of two other types of death.

Spiritual Death

Ephesians 2:1–2 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Physical we too readily know already

The Second Death

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:8 ESV

8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Why is there all of this death? Because of God’s appropriately just wrath against his enemies. Take in two parts: God’s just wrath, his enemies

God’s just wrath

You may be able to understand this through an illustration.

For those of us old enough to clearly remember September 11, 2001, we can likely remember where we were and what we felt. And amidst all the emotions, two rose to the surface, grief and wrath. You can find these two emotions on the national consciousness if you look at the songs written during the following year, but chiefly, justice through the expression of wrath came to the forefront, expressed succinctly and popularly by Toby Kieth, “Soon as we could see clearly / Through our big black eye / Man, we lit up your world / Like the fourth of July.” And whatever you may think of the seventeen and a half years of war that have followed those attacks, there is no denying the national solidarity in the months following: whoever was responsible for those attacks that killed unsuspecting men and women, and undeserving from among our very old and our very young, must be brought to justice, and justice looked like death. An egregious evil had been committed, payment must be made, justice must be served.

There is something in everyone one of us that knows unprovoked, undeserved attack is unjust and ought to be met with appropriate justice.

His enemies:

It is at the point of “appropriate justice,” however, that we struggle. I imagine that most of us would say that someone like Hitler or Mao deserved death, or at the very least some form of retributive punishment, but our struggle is not that unprovoked, undeserved attack ought to be met with appropriate justice, but that we, who are not so bad as genocidal madmen, deserve the wrath of God that leads to a triad of death. This is why we may not see ecstatic celebration as an appropriate response to the resurrection because death does not seem like the necessary response to who we are.

But let me propose to you that all sin, rather than being on a gradient scale, in its substance is a type of murder, a hateful, relationship severing action toward the God who created us.

presupposes what is stated plainly elsewhere by Paul, that humans were created for God, for his glory (), not in the sense that we would add glory to his perfect glory, but that we would enjoy him through worship and he us through our worship of him.

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (ESV)

In the middle of , the apostle Paul, explains that God’s wrath has come upon humanity because we have suppressed this truth.

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

The truth Paul references is that his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly revealed through creation itself.

Romans 1:19–20 ESV

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Knowing that God is both eternal and divine ought to prompt worship in us for him, but because of our rebellion, which began in the Garden of Eden, we suppress that truth and believe a lie.

Romans 1:21–23 ESV

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

The lie that we believe is the eradication of God from our consciousness. It is the cutting away of his existence from our minds and living as though we have effectively killed him. We replace him with self love, satisfaction in relationships, security through money and career, glory in our achievements. For the more religiously minded among us, we refashioning a god after our own image and adopt religious behaviors whether to placate a guilty conscience or fuel our pride.

Romans 1:24 ESV

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Whether worshiping the things of this world or a god of our own making, humans find themselves guilty of feebly, but persistently attempting divine murder, which then plays itself out in what we call sin, which is basically a hodge-podge of possible ways of living as though we have killed God and he no longer exists.

But this is not merely theoretical, but became actual. When confronted with God in the flesh, the Jews (the people of God) and the Gentiles conspired together, expressing their spiritual enmity toward God by physically nailing the God-man Jesus to a cross and killing him.

Therefore, every person who has sinned stands, in a sense, as guilty enemies of, having murdered God in their hearts. A crime for which punishment, he says, is death.

But there is an incomprehensible, mysterious, wonderful difference between our wrathful justice and God’s in that God is simultaneously justly wrathful toward sinners and graciously loving toward his enemies.

1 John 4:9 ESV

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] 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. (ESV)

John Calvin sees in these words, the co-mingling of God’s love and justice: “‘. . . God, in a way that cannot be put into words, at the very time when he loved us, was hostile to us till he was reconciled in Christ.’ Calvin [is acknowlodging a] mystery of God that is beyond our grasp. To Calvin, this duality of attitude, love and hostility, which in human psychological terms is inconceivable, is part of God’s . . . glory . . .”

Out of love, the one God in three persons sent an emissary in the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “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 so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He came not merely to take the wrath of his Father, but in a sense, he came so that the Triune God could, out of love for us, absorb his own just wrath against our sin.

Galatians 3:13 ESV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Romans 5:9 ESV

9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Jesus goes to the cross to die our death under God’s wrath for our sin because God loves us, which is why Paul can say to the Corithian church that “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” ().

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It was like God said, instead of vengefully pouring my wrath on your murderous intent toward me, I am going to use your murderous intent toward me in such a way as to lavish my love on you.

Transition: So Christians celebrate the resurrection because it stands as physical, historical proof of God’s love for us. But we also celebrate the resurrection because God’s love expressed in it holds promise for new life.

If sin holds the triad of death over us, justification answers with a triad of life.

Philippians 3:8–11 ESV

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Phil 3:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Romans 6:10–14 ESV

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Conclusion: A call to believe.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Gospel: When Love and Justice Mingle

I. Why do Christians celebrate the resurrection?

Substance: What is death?

Origin: From where does death originate?

Forms: What forms of death exist?

Spiritual, Physical, and Eternal

II. We celebrate the resurrection because it holds out the double promise of justification and life.

Living as the righteousness of God.

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Living under the reign of grace.

The promise of eternal life.

Gospel: When Love and Justice Mingle

I. Why do Christians celebrate the resurrection?

Substance: What is death?

Origin: From where does death originate?

Forms: What forms of death exist?

Spiritual, Physical, and Eternal

II. We celebrate the resurrection because it holds out the double promise of justification and life.

Living as the righteousness of God.

, page 492

Living under the reign of grace.

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The promise of eternal life.

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