What Great Love

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

I John 3:1

How great is this love?! It is something to be marveled and wondered at that an immortal, infinite, perfect and holy God would choose to love us! It’s like a child choosing to love a blade of grass or a jar of dirt. What is there in us that could make God love us? Nothing! That is why this verse says God has ‘lavished’ His love on us. That word for ‘lavished’ can also be translated ‘given’ or ‘bestowed.’ It’s a gift! There is nothing in me that would draw God’s heart towards me. There is plenty in me to draw His wrath but not His love. I am unworthy of that. I am a child of God by grace.

John 1:12 puts it this way, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” If you have become a Christian, then God has adopted you as His own child. He didn’t have to do that. He could have saved you and taken you to Heaven as His servant. But no! He takes you as His child. This is a great privilege you have been given. The God of the universe has adopted you and called you His own!

One privilege of being a child of God is that you can trust that He will never abandon you. Perhaps you know what it means to be abandoned by a spouse or a parent. Abandonment scars us deeply and causes us to doubt people. If you can’t trust your mother or father or your own spouse, then who can you trust? God. You can trust God. Psalm 27:10 says, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” And Hebrews 13:5 reminds us that “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” No matter what, if you are a believer then God is your Father forever. He will never let you go, and no one can take you out of His hand (John 10:28).

What great love the Father has lavished on us!

Thoughts of God

   When I consider your heavens,

       the work of your fingers,

   the moon and the stars,

       which you have set in place,

   what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

       human beings that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

If we aren't careful our thoughts of God can become so centered on ourselves that they reveal an arrogant and self-important perspective. We wonder why God hasn't given us this or that thing we want. We wonder why God allows bad things to happen to us. We wonder why He isn't answering our prayers. We wonder why He doesn't make Himself more known to us. All the while what we ought to be wondering is why He would be mindful of us at all. 

Think about it. Not a single world leader knows that I exist. No governor or state representative would take my phone call. There's not a mayor in the United States that knows my name. None of my local council members have any idea who I am. But the Creator of Heaven and Earth knows me!? He not only knows that I exist, but He created me. He knows my name, and He invites me to call on Him in prayer anytime day or night. He invites me into a personal relationship with Him through His Son Jesus. The Bible would even have me believe that He loves me.

It is all almost too much to swallow. It's too good to be true! In fact, of all the reasons people struggle to accept the Christian faith, this ought to be the top reason. It is too absurd to think that an all-knowing, all-powerful, and eternal God could actually care for me. The people who live on my street barely care to know me, how unbelievable is it to think that He would care to!? 

Yet this is the undeniable truth of God's Word. I don't want you to doubt that God cares for you. I want you to marvel that He does. Because until you truly marvel that God loves you, your thoughts toward Him will continue to be as entitled and self-aggrandizing as above. 

It is only when I begin to see how insignificant I am in comparison to Him that I find the joy in worshiping God. So, pause for a moment and marvel that God knows you, that He loves you, and that He is mindful of you. And be moved to joyful praise.

Repeating Yourself

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

 Give thanks to the God of gods,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who alone does great wonders,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who by understanding made the heavens,

    for his steadfast love endures forever; (Psalm 136:1-5)

I don't know about you but I hate repeating myself. And now that I have kids I get to do that A LOT. There are only so many times a person can say "Don't touch that!", "Sit up in your chair", "Eat your food", or "Put your pants on" before they start to go crazy.

Thankfully God isn't like me. He doesn't mind repeating Himself for His children's benefit. He understands that we sometimes need to hear things over and over again before we get it. He also understands that sometimes we need to repeat things over and over again ourselves before they sink in. And that's what we find in Psalm 136. 

The phrase "for his steadfast love endures forever" is repeated in every verse of this psalm. That's twenty-six times! Nearly half of the psalm is the same six words repeated over and over again. The phrase is utilized as a type of refrain. Each verse consists of two lines. The first line reminds the people of who God is or of the great things He has done, while the second responds to that truth with the familiar phrase. The first lines function as proof of the second. They prove how good and enduring God's love is for His people!

Remember that the psalms were written to be sung. My hunch is that this song was probably sung responsively, so that a lead singer sang the first lines and the congregation took up the popular refrain in response. Either way we know that when they sang Psalm 136 God's people would have sung about God's love being steadfast and enduring forever twenty-six times. And you thought modern praise songs were repetitive!   

Why all this repetition? What is God trying so hard to tell us? He's telling us at least two things. 

First, He wants us to know what kind of love we can expect from Him. God isn't fickle or unfaithful. We can expect that His love (His goodness, kindness and faithfulness toward us) will never end. It will continue on forever. As Scripture says, "He will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). There is an amazing sense of security that comes from knowing that. Thank God that we need not worry about Him turning His back on us. We can expect an unending stream of good things from Him (James 1:17). Notice that I didn't say an uninterrupted stream of good things. We will still suffer in this world, but we know that God works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).  

Second, God wants us to know that it is well worth it to take time to pause and recount all the ways that He has shown His steadfast love. Not only will this strengthen your confidence that he will be there for you when you need Him in the future, but it will drive you to worship. Doesn't God deserve to be praised for all the good He has done for you? Doesn't He deserve to be thanked? Of course He does! 

So pause for a moment and do this. You don't have to count out twenty-six ways, but maybe you can count at least five ways God has shown His steadfast love for you. Thank Him and praise Him for all He has done and rest easy in the certainty that He will continue to do the same.

What does Jesus' death have to do with me?

Sometimes it seems a little hard to grasp just what Jesus' death has to do with me. I mean it is well documented that this man's death was a tragedy, but just what does the death of one man over two thousand years ago have to do with me?!

We can find the answer to our question in the last eleven verses of chapter three of Paul's letter to the Christians at Rome. Paul has spent the first two and two-thirds chapters of his letter arguing that every single one of us has rebelled against God and chosen sin over Him. Every single one of us deserves God's wrath and is under His wrath. He has explained that if God were to judge us based on righteousness established by keeping the letter of the law, that we would all fall far short. Then in the last eleven verses of chapter three Paul begins to share the best news the world has ever known.

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known. Paul says that God has revealed a new type of righteousness, one that is not dependent on keeping the law perfectly. How does one get this righteousness? This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ. To whom?! To all who believe. So then those who do not believe are not counted righteous and are still under the wrath of God. But is this all you have to do? Simply believe in Jesus!? You don't have to be from a certain group of people or meet any other requirements? There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We are all sinners. We all have the same disease so we all need the same cure. 

But this righteousness is costly. Our sin has racked up a great debt on our accounts, and that debt must be paid. God's wrath must be satisfied. There must be due punishment. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) But why must there be punishment? He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just. John Piper has said that because God is just, He demands a sacrifice for our sin. Because He is loving, He is willing to make that sacrifice Himself (Fifty Reasons p.20). If God were to let the terrible sins which we have all committed go unanswered, He would no longer be just. A just God must punish sin. 

That is why Jesus died that terrible death. Once again Piper is helpful. He notes that Jesus did not merely remove God's wrath from us, but He absorbed God's wrath onto Himself (Fifty Reasons p.21). While we were still God's enemies (Romans 5:8-10) in order to show His great love for us the wrath of God toward you and I was poured out on Jesus. And because of His death now all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. In other words a holy trade took place. Jesus took our sin upon Himself. The great debt of sin that we had all accrued was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). But Jesus did much more than simply cancel our debt. He credited to our account His own righteousness. So when God looks at those who believe on Jesus, He no longer sees an enemy lost in sin, but He sees one of His children covered in the pure righteousness of Christ.

But be careful to note, although this sacrifice of Christ is sufficient to cover the sin of all and is freely offered to all, it is only applied to the accounts of those who believe on His name and confess Him as Lord of their lives. One day we will all stand before God, and on that day there will be no neutral ground. There will be no agnosticism. God will look on us all and will see either an enemy who has incurred His wrath, or a loyal servant and adopted child made righteous by Jesus' blood. What will God see when He looks at you on that day? What will He see when He looks at your friends and family?

For further reading...

• Romans 1-3: Read the first three chapters in their entirety.
• Hebrews 9-10: Read why Christ's sacrifice is different than and superior to any and all other sacrifices. 

*John Piper's Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die is one of my favorite all time devotional books. I highly recommend it. 

Who is this Guy?

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Mark 4:35-41

Jesus is the one that told the disciples to set out for the other side of the lake. Obedience to Him put them right in the middle of a big problem and a dangerous situation. But God does all things for His own reasons. This was a divinely orchestrated teaching moment designed especially for the disciples (many of whom were experienced fisherman and sailors) so that God could begin to open up their understanding to who Jesus really was. So let's put ourselves in their place. Let’s learn their lesson and use it for our good today. Imagine that you are one of these disciples in the midst of the storm with Jesus and let's ask ourselves the same question that the disciples ended up asking themselves. “Who is this Jesus?”

We see first that Jesus is unmistakably human for He is sleeping (ESV Study Bible). Scripture speaks plainly that God doesn't sleep (Isaiah 40:28 & Psalm 121:4). Yet here we find Jesus, in the midst of a great storm as water floods in the boat all around Him sound asleep. However, the disciples needed no reminder that Jesus was human; they knew that full well. What they needed to know was what stands out most in this encounter: Jesus does something which only God could do (The New Bible Commentary by IVP). Only the Creator God has the power to command the wind and the waves. Yet, we find Jesus doing exactly this. So who then is this Jesus?

Scripture tells us that He is not only human, but He is also God the Son and the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created… all things have been created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16)

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3)

In his commentary on this passage, Matthew Henry rightly notes that had the disciples known the answer to their own question, they would have feared the storm less. They feared the wind and the waves more than they should have because they feared Jesus less than they should have. If they had known who Jesus really was, then they would have feared the storm much less and Jesus much more. It is easy though when the problems of this world are clamoring all around us and the lives which we have carefully constructed are crashing down upon us to focus exclusively on the storm and to think that it is ultimate reality... but it is not. No matter what your storm is, it is not ultimate reality. The most pertinent fact in the whole world to whatever problem you are facing is this: God loved you so much that He sent His Son to take on flesh to suffer and die in your place so that your sin could be atoned for and forgiven. God has accepted you in grace. Respond to Him in belief. If you will (or if you have), then He has promised your ultimate destination is heaven. He is in control of your journey. Each storm is allowed by Him to draw you nearer to Him and to conform you more into the image of His Son. If God is for you, then who can be against you? (Romans 8:31). No one!

So learn a lesson from the disciples today. Don't attack God with accusations and unbelief like they did Jesus (see vs. 38). Implore Him for help, but from a place of faith. If He has given His son for you, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give you all things that you need? (Romans 8:32). As your storm rages all around you, remind yourself who Jesus is. Remind yourself that no matter how big, loud, or painful your storm is, Jesus is bigger, He is more real, your destiny is in His hands, and He has already proven His love for you. So ask for help, but do so in faith.

For further reading...

• Romans 8:18-39: Read what Paul has to say about present suffering, future glory, and ultimate reality.
• John 1:1-18: John tells us who Jesus is.
• Colossians 1:15-20: Paul tells us who Jesus is.
• John 10:1-21 & John 14:1-14: Jesus tells us who He is.
• Revelation 5: The Revelation vision tells us who Jesus is.

Rules, Rules, Rules

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need. In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:23-28

The Pharisees were supposed to be experts in the law. They were one of the prominent and powerful religious groups in Jerusalem during Jesus' lifetime on earth. They not only "clarified" the law but also added their own traditions to it as a hedge around it. In my estimation they had started to see God's law as both a tool to gain power for themselves and as a weapon to attack other people. Here they try to use the law against Christ*, but it backfires.  Unfortunately, sometime Christians do this to. That's not what we are called to do. All of this reminds me of something Jesus said to the scribes (a separate but related religious group), "Woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them" (Luke 11:46). 

Jesus points out in verse 28 that the Pharisees (the experts in the law) don't rightly understand the law at all. Jesus says in essence, "God didn't create humans so He would have somebody to keep all these rules that He loved. No! He created humans and loved them, so He gave them the law as a blessing to help them." The law isn't intended to be a burden, though sometimes the devil tricks us into seeing it that way. God's commands show us how to live a blessed life... how to pursue joy and peace while we are here on earth. So God's law isn't a burden, it's a blessing. 

Moreover, since Jesus is the Son of Man (the one representative man from all of humanity who is our Lord and our representative before God), He is also Lord over this gift that God has given mankind. He has the wisdom and the insight to rightly understand the law and even to add to or take away from it. The Pharisees did not have that right and neither do we.

In a lot of ways I am very much like the Pharisees. It is easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking about God's law like it's a burden. Many in our day think this way. We think God gave us all these rules to keep us from having fun and living a full life. And for that reason many of us try to live life our own way and we pay dearly for it. We plant seeds in our lives that we think will bring us happiness, pleasure, and success, but we end up reaping a harvest of pain and frustration. That isn't the worst of it though. So many of us keep planting the same seeds over and over again, living life our way, somehow thinking that we will get a different result. We just can't bring ourselves to believe that God's way of living could possibly be fulfilling. So we do the same things over and over again expecting a different outcome. Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Over time, little by little, I have become less insane. I now believe that living according to God's commands, living for Him and not for myself, is the blessed life. This is the kind of life that brings true joy both now and in eternity. If you are tired of getting the same results over and over again in life, maybe it's time to try something different. 

For further reading...

• Psalm 119- I know it's the longest chapter in the Bible, but it is a love poem written about how wonderful God's law is. The psalmist loved the law so much and took such delight in it that he created an acrostic poem to show his love for it. (It has a stanza for every letter in the Hebrew alphabet [sin and shin share a stanza.])
• Psalm 1:1-3- The righteous man delights in the law.
• Romans 7:21-25- I want to do good, but evil is right there with me.

*It is important to note that Jesus wasn't actually breaking God's law. He was breaking their man-made tradition. As the ESV study Bible points out "Deuteronomy 23:25 implies that, in the case of hunger, it was permissible to eat heads of grain from any field one might pass by. Work, however, was not permitted on the Sabbath (Ex. 34:21). Pharisaic interpretation sought to guard against work on the Sabbath by prohibiting even the minimal 'work' involved in thus satisfying one's hunger." (ESV Study Bible footnote on Mark 2:23-24). 

A Father's Discipline

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord...Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you...He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 5, 16

When we suffer we must remember that God is a loving Father who disciplines us for our good. Sometimes this discipline is in response to our sin, a punishment. Other times it is discipline in a different sense of the word like a father teaching his son the discipline he needs to work hard and hold down a job. Sometimes God "disciplines" us in preparation for the good future He has in store for us. So it was with the people of Israel. As they walked through the dessert and hungered for food it wasn't discipline for some sin they had committed, rather it was preparation for the future. God was teaching them to look to him alone to supply their needs. God did this "so that it might go well with them" in their future. He knew that if they were to fight for the Promised Land and drive out the nations who were much stronger than they were, then they would need to have perfected the skill of trusting Him and looking to Him to supply their needs. 

It is the same with us. It is very easy to get frustrated with God when difficulty comes into our life, but the truth is that these challenges often cause us to grow in new ways. These challenges actually end up providing an opportunity for us to build up the endurance, strength and wisdom we will need in the future. We must remember that God is preparing us for a bright future just like He was the Israelites. Not only does He have plans for each of us here on earth (Ephesians 2:10), but He is also leading us to a "Promised Land" of our own - Heaven. Until the time that we receive this promise in full, He is working in us to conform us more and more into the image of His Son. He is purifying us from sin and teaching us to find our joy in nothing other than Him. But we can rest easy knowing that all the tests that He allows in our life were put there so that "in the end it might go well" with us (Romans 8:28). 

When was the last time you thanked God for difficulty in your life? Today take a moment to praise God for his Fatherly discipline in your life? 

For further reading...

• Romans 8:18-30- Predestined to be conformed into Christ's image.
• Genesis 50:19-20- See what Joseph said about all the suffering he had to endure in life.
• Matthew 4:1-11- See how Jesus used this passage to encourage Himself when He was experiencing a difficult time of His own.

God Loves You

This past week I gathered together some of the many Scriptures that attest to the fact that God loves us. Some of you really struggle with guilt and shame. You struggle to believe that a holy God could ever love you, let alone forgive you for all you have done. Whether you fall into that category or not, read these precious verses and be reminded of just how amazing God's love for you is.

 

 

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:26

The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…

Jeremiah 29:11

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.

John 3:16

 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:9-11

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1 John 3:1

 

But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him...

Mark 14:61-65a

 

The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him.

Luke 22:63-64

 

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Matthew 27:22-26

 

Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

Matthew 27:27-31

 

Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Matthew 27:38-44

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

 

 

There is no doubt that God's greatest demonstration of His love for you was in sending His Son Jesus to bear the penalty for your sin and die in your place. Note that He did this not after you cleaned your life up, but while you were still a sinner, still rejecting Him as God, still His enemy. So remember this week, as you struggle against whatever life throws at you, that if God loved you so much that He sent Jesus to the cross for you, then you can be absolutely sure that nothing can ever separate you from His love.  

 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:37-39