Scripture: John3:16-19; 1 John 4:7-10; John 20:10-16
In the second volume of his works emtitled “The Attributes
of God”, (page 196), A. W. Tozer writes “The love of God is the hardest of
all His attributes to speak about. You
may not understand God’s love for us. I
don’t know that I do myself. We are
trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.
It is like trying to take the ocean in your arms, or embrace the
atmosphere, or rise to the stars.”
Interestingly, we haven’t even begun to accomplish
the first two, but our rising to the stars has already experienced a humble beginning, It will be many years before we are able to cross
the millions of miles between us and the nearest star, but we have begun to
reach out to the planets in our solar system, and that is a huge step –
probably one that Tozer never thought possible! The point, though, is that the love of God is
so vast, so embracing, so consuming that, for many, it seems to be out of
reach, that we will never understand it, no matter how hard we try. So we settle for the one step that we can
imagine – that of considering how Godly love drives all that the LORD is
and does, and how those acts are intended to bless our lives. And could that be similar to taking our first
steps toward rising to the stars?
Some will say that scripture proves that God is not
always loving, but I would offer a personal experience to suggest
otherwise. Years ago, when our oldest
son was about 4 years old, we visited a mall near our home to do some
shopping. We had chosen several items
for purchase, and while we stood in the checkout line, we suddenly realized
that Chris was nowhere to be seen. He
had apparently wandered off, and we began to frantically search for him,
forgetting all about the items we had come to buy. It took us several minutes before discovering
that he was standing in the middle of several racks of clothing, watching
us. After letting him know how worried
we had been, and how he had to stay near us in the store, we got back in line
to resume our plan to pay for our purchases.
It didn’t take long, though, before he began to move away from us again,
and we quickly realized that he was playing “hide and seek” with us.
We decided to play the game with him, and when he
wasn’t looking at us, we snuck out of line, circled around, and got behind him
to watch his reaction. It didn’t take
long before he realized that we weren’t where he thought we should be, and he began
to get the most frightened look on his face.
Mom and Dad had disappeared! Oh
no - where did they go? My wife and I
stepped out and called his name, and the game ended with him running back to us
– at least for that day. He stuck like
glue to us for the rest of our time checking out!
Were we being hateful toward our little boy because we
had let him become so frightened? Not at
all – we loved him dearly, and still do, but we had to let him discover for
himself what might happen if we could no longer protect and guide him. We never punished him that day – he did that very
well all by himself.
Sound familiar to what God’s love does for us?
Read John 3:16-19
“For God so loved the world”, that He came to
live with us, to become part of our lives, and to die for us, so that we might know just how much He loves us
and cares for us, and wants to keep us close to the goodness that is in store
for all who do stay close to Him. And
the only way we can even begin to understand the love of God was for Him
to “give” us His Son. It wasn’t intended
to be a test, and it was never set up as a trap – it was, pure and simple, an
act of love designed to let us discover that the LORD only
has the best at heart for our life with Him in this place and beyond.
But why doesn’t everyone understand and accept this? Why do so many believe that God is vindictive
and angry and condescending toward us? Because
they have no relationship with God, and have never shown their love in
return. The love of God is offered to
everyone, but only those who accept the Son, the divine Gift of love, will ever
feel that love for themselves. And
without that gift, the world would still be lost and hurting, and wouldn’t have
the faintest understanding of why!
It all centers on whether we have accepted that
offer of a relationship with God, or not.
And without the LORD in our life, our only concept of love will
be that which is based on our own limited intellect and personal experiences. And that would be the only way we would ever
be able to show love –as a poor substitute for true love. But with the experience of God’s love playing
such an incredible part in our lives, whether we completely understand it
or not, we will begin to love others as only God can love - through the love He
has first shown to us.
And we have to make the choice to either experience the
incredible love of our Almighty God, or to manufacture one that reflects the
false image of earth - and which ever one we decide on, will be the one that will
decide our future.
Read 1 John 4:7-10
John is telling us that unless we love as God loves,
our life will be devoid of love, and without that pure love, we have no life in
Him. Remember Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35, when He told us to love others as He has
already loved us. It is His example and
gift that allows us to truly love the people of this world. Notice that Jesus didn’t say to love those
who also have God’s love within them. The
commandment is to offer God’s love to everyone we encounter, and to
never withhold it for any reason.
The example of this passage is explaining that God
is the only one who gets to define what love is, and His love is proven in that
Jesus was sent to us so that we might live through Him. Does this mean that there is not only no love
within us, but that there is no “life” either?
The key word in the last verse is “atoning” – a word that many have
chosen to either ignore, or flat out deny.
Atonement is, basically, God’s act of accepting our penalty for sin, while
never being guilty of sin Himself. By giving
our sin over to His Son, we can escape the sentence of death, and become worthy
of that holy relationship with Jesus, as well as the right to live in eternity with
Him.
This doesn’t mean that we will never sin again, but
rather that forgiveness for sin will be ours when we confess our failures, and
seek the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The hold that sin has on us has been broken –
not because of anything we have done, but by what Christ has done for us at Calvary.
But the Gift didn’t stop at Good Friday! It continued through the resurrection of Easter
morning, and it continued on to the ascension.
Easter has become the LORD’s promise that once sin has been broken by
faith in Jesus, eternal life, through the eternal love of our Almighty God, can
be ours once again.
Read John 20:10-16
If we read the few verses that precede this passage, we discover a very interesting truth. It tells of Peter and John’s arrival at the
tomb, and what do they see? An empty
tomb, and burial cloths, and nothing else.
Contrast that to what Mary sees.
She also saw the empty tomb, but she also sees the Risen Jesus, and recognizes Him after He speaks her name.
The two men only see an empty grave, but had no true understanding of
what it meant for them.
All too many people today know the Easter story, but
how many have discovered what it means for their own life? How many claim the truth of that holy morning
as the basis for their own eternal life?
How many experience the love of God at work, both then for those who
followed Jesus, and now for those who believe through faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:6-7). The
disciples believed because they saw; Mary
believed because she heard Jesus called her.
That was Thomas’s problem a week later – he wouldn’t
believe until he could see and touch the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side, and the
LORD would
call him to account for not believing by faith. (John 20:24-29)
Have you ever realized that your tomb can be just as
empty as this one is? Have you felt the
love of God at work within you and through you?
It isn’t simply by reading this story that salvation becomes ours
– it is by putting ourselves in Mary’s place, by taking her sorrow upon
ourselves, by accepting the realization that Jesus had to die to give us the chance to avoid
our own punitive death. By
faith in Christ, and by living in the love of God that can now be our own,
our self-imposed sentence of spiritual death, our “reward” for unrepentant sin,
can be replaced by the empty tomb that has our name chiseled into the stone
that once blocked its entrance.
Salvation and a divine relationship with Christ is
by faith, by call, by trust, and not by intellect, or proven fact, or by what
we can prove. Is your love of Christ that
strong? Let His Love roll the stone away from
your death, today!
