For God So Loved - The Cross

I have had more than a few conversations with people that boil down to somebody saying, ‘God definitely doesnt’ love me.’

And there’s a similar kind of conversation to that. it’s the, ‘God is going to be angry with me for BLANK, and he’ll hate me’. It’s a little different, because it started with ‘God loves me’, but then we did something stupid, and it turned into ‘well, that did it. God hates me now’.

Or, another close cousin to that conversation is ‘I doubt God will want to do anything with me’. We will say, ‘God loves me’, but when it comes to any way that God would want to practically show his love, we go ‘well.... I don’t think he wants to.’

and here’s a scary truth. We think we’re thinking low of ourselves if we beat ourselves up. If we say, ‘God couldn’t forgive me’. ‘God couldn’t love me’.

But what we’re really doing is thinking low of God. God’s love can’t be so big that He could accept me. God’s forgiveness can’t be so good that it applies to me. God’s arm can’t be so powerful that he could still have a use for me. God’s just.... not good enough.

And this makes sense. Maybe you’ve met someone that has made you feel like this about yourself.

I Promise you, God is absolutely nothing like anyone you’ve ever met.

We need to recognize how much God loves us

We can’t have a working understanding of God and the bible without knowing this. And all the ramifications of it.

So I want to go through a few verses that I think really lay the ground work for having a better understanding of God’s love.

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

We have to start with the obvious one. And it IS really important. It lays out God’s ultimate plan - that he loves us so much, that he gave his son so that we could have eternal life with him.

This is his underlying reason for doing what He did. Because He loves us.

And I know we’d say, we love this person or that person so much, we’d die for them. and maybe we mean it. But what does it mean to say ‘I love this person so much, I’m going to sacrifice so that they can be free?’

It’s not a reflexive thing, it’s a plan. Jesus didn’t jump in front of a car and take the hit. He looked at the problem, he knew that somebody had to die, and he said, ‘Ok, I’ll die for you, so you don’t have to.’

How can we hear something like that and say in the next moment, that God doesn’t love us? After all, he died BECAUSE we sin. It’s not like our sin would cause him to reject us.

God isn’t going to say ‘The punishment for your sin is death, but I love you so much, I’m going to take that punishment in your place’. And then look at you and goes ‘oh wait, hold up - you actually HAVE sin? I thought that was a metaphorical thing. My bad. Go away’.

Your sin isn’t what drives God off. Your sin is what motivated Jesus to go the cross.

OK, so, fine, Jesus died for us. But MAYBE you’re thinking, that’s a thing he HAD to do. That he just puts up with us. Sure, he died for us, but really, he just wants to be rid of us.

But that’s not how Jesus describes Himself in the bible. Let’s listen to his words.

John 10:11,18

John 10:11 NIV

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 10:18 NIV

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

We have this perspective on the bad things we do, and we say, ‘God must really hate me.’

In this story, we are the sheep, He is the shepherd AND the gate - he is the structure that exists to keep and defend us, the one who owns us, and the one who is willing to die to protect us

and trust me, God knows about the source of our sin better than we do. he knows how much we’ve dropped the ball more than we will ever be wiling to admit or acknowledge. In any way you look at yourself and find some deficit, God sees clearer and deeper than that.

Yet in all of that, He sees himself not as the judge to drop the gavel and sentence you for your crimes - He sees himself as a shepherd, caring for his sheep who are in danger, even to the point of being willing to die to protect us.

And this isnt’ a one-off. The new testament uses these kinds of examples all day long

Hebrews 7:27 describes jesus as a priest who has offered a sacrifice on our behalf to God - Himself

Romans 8:34-35 says that Christ sits at the right hand of God and steps in on our behalf in regards to our sins against God.

John 6:35 has jesus calling himself ‘the bread of life’ - something that will provide life. In fact, that anyone who comes to Him will never even go hungry

Jesus’ way of seeing His relationship with you is Him saying, ‘You are mine, I love you, I want you to have an eternity with me, and I’ll protect you’

If we really, really believed that God loved us THAT MUCH, where does that take us?

Romans 5:1–2 NIV

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Jesus gave us access to faith - using GRACE. Not judgment, not a bar that determines how awesome we are.

And now that we have faith, we stand justified before God - and we can confidently say ‘we have peace with God’

This word ‘justified’, it literally means ‘Having a good reason’. If you’re sitting there, and a spider climbs up on your hand, you are justified in getting up, screaming, and moving out of your home.

So, what Paul is saying here, is ‘When you have faith in Jesus, through grace, you have a GOOD REASON to be able to say that you have peace with God. You have a GOOD REASON to be confident that God loves you and accepts you’.

Jesus’ GOAL, what he sought to accomplish, was that we can say this:

I am confident that I have a relationship with God - and He wants a relationship with me

God went through all this effort, this giant plan, so that we could have free access to approach Him. the bible calls this process ‘having peace with God’.

God can see you, he knows who you are. He knows what you’re capable of. He knows the deepest, darkest secrets that you’ve never told a soul. And in all of that, he looks at you, and he says ‘You don’t have to worry about me. I’m at peace with everything you are, because my son gave His life on the cross’.

So in that, we can have confidence in approaching God. We can believe, really believe, and be at peace, with the idea that God wants to have a relationship with us.

And that’s a crazy thing. It almost sounds like arrogance, and I think that’s why many Christians are nervous about it.

But the thing is - it’s not an arrogant boast based on our goodness. We’re not saying, I can come to God because I’m so awesome, of course he wants me. No, we’re saying, ‘I know how bad I can be, and I feel like a disappointment. But God is so amazing, and so loving, and so powerful, and he says I am welcome. So I know I am welcome.’

God is welcoming you. God wants you. And God wants to do great things with you.

Next week, we’ll talk about how God wants to join with you in life, and do amazing things through you - but this week, I just really want you to understand this point. God loves you.

PRAY

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.