The Gracious Power of the Cross 6. Shows God’s Love
Ps 103:1-12 Ex 12:21-27 1 John 4:7-14 Matt 26:17-30
Introduction
In our dreadful time in history “God is love” has been exchanged for “love is God”. Not only do people “love” their dog, nation, sport, chocolate, more than the Lord, but recently when same-sex marriage was legalised the cry was “Love Wins”, or in the last few days, on the same issue, #Love is No Sin has appeared, where “love” really means sexuality. Educated people regularly doubt God’s love[1]. David Attenborough, for example, can comprehend that hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things can point to a belief in a loving God, but not a parasitic worm boring through the eye of a little boy in Africa making him blind[2]. Apart from the life and death of Jesus there is no indisputable evidence that “God is love.”
[Some scholars have worked hard to demonstrate the uniqueness of God’s love by arguing that of all the Greek words for love (eros, philia, agape), only one, agape, can be used for the unique love of God. This is both false linguistically[3] and more seriously leaves Christ out of the centre.] Only God’s own special act in the world[4] can testify that “God is love.” Anything less than this cannot reveal this most profound of all realities[5]. The link between sacrifice and love in God is unmistakeable in the New Testament. Who doesn’t know John 3:16; “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16); Romans 5:8 is even clearer, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)[6]
Cross reveals God
Given the upside down the nature of the kingdom of God, we should not be surprised that the full and final revelation of God’s love, which is the root of every other of his perfections,[7] is the death of a single person over a few hours virtually unnoticed by the political powers of the day. It is the cross that teaches us that love is not a feeling but an action that does the very best for someone else, no matter what the cost to yourself.
Apart from the cross we would have a vastly deficient understanding of God and a completely different faith. Even in eternity the sufferings of God in Christ gave substance to the love of God. This is the audacious meaning of Revelation 13:8 which speaks of “the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world” (cf. 1 Pet 1:20)[8]. Love is clearly part of the fabric of creation but very few understand where it ultimately comes from. In all cultures husbands and wives love one another, but few see in this a reflection of the eternal sacrificial love of Christ for his Bride the Church (Eph 5:2-27), parents/grandparents love their children/grandchildren but without special revelation no one can “see” this natural love is grounded in the love and unity of the Father and the Son[9]. Love is grand, but only the revelation of Christ crucified[10] unfolds a love that is essentially unbreakable and eternal[11]. I remember dealing with a situation of family breakdown where the (Christian) parents emphatically declared that had always loved their son “unconditionally”. The more I talked with the son the more it became clear that they had only loved him when he was “good/doing the right thing”[12]. Only God can love purely and the death of Jesus reveals this.
Cross Achieve
Love is the willingness of God in Christ to sacrifice his own life for us on the cross (2 Cor 5:19)[13]. [14]. A famous theologian once said, “[It is in] the Cross of Christ that [the utterly astonishing nature of the Love that God is has been fully disclosed, for] in refusing to spare his own Son [whom he delivered up for us all,] God has revealed that He loves us more than he loves himself.” (T. F. Torrance)[15]. This first sound ridiculous but it simply applies to God what Paul teaches on the human level[16], “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather,] in humility value others above yourselves.” (Phil 2:3).[17]
The wisdom unveiled in the death of Jesus is how the Father communicates his glorious life to a hostile, ungrateful, rebellious world[18]. In the agony of the cross Jesus loses his whole self-identity for us so that he might give his whole self to us. In being the one person who always knew he was loved by God as Father, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…” (John 15:9), Jesus is the sole revealer of what it means to love the Father, at whatever cost[19]. In plumbing the depths of the cross we see into the very being and depths of God (Rom 11:33; 1 Cor 1:10).
The profound declaration in 1 John 4:8, “God is love” cannot be separated from what John says next, “God…loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (v.10)[20], this testifies that the essence of divine love is sacrifice. God loved the image of himself he had created (Gen 1:2-28; 5:1; 9:6; 1 Cor 11:7; James 3:9) in humanity so fully, that he was willing to become one with it, even in its fallen form[21], at the total cost of setting aside his own glory (Phil 2:6-7).] In order to save us to the uttermost (Heb 7:25), on the cross Christ took on our lostness that we might be found by the Father in him and raised to the glory of eternal life. The life of Jesus did not “consist” (cf. Luke 12:15) of his marvellous teachings, extraordinary miracles or any human acclaim, his life was in the Spirit empowered love he and the Father shared. The cost to the Son of God in communicating this highest good of love[22] to fallen creatures is to lose it. The indescribable anguish of the loud cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), means that at this point the Son of God has no experience of being loved by the Father[23]. In refusing to turn away from his first love of God on the cross, despite having only a negative experience of life, but in crying out to God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength in the midst of limitless agony (cf. Lam 1:12; Isa 53:6), he loves God for no apparent reason[24], this is the one place where a human being loves like God loves, in a fully unconditional way. This perfect love of God as a human being for lost unloving human beings is the substance of our salvation.
No wonder, “the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8 cf. 1 Pet 1:20) is the alpha/first/beginning of God’s plan to reveal his loving essence to the world and that the Lamb on the throne (Rev 22:3) is the omega/last/end is the consummation of this love. We are those who will forever gaze upon the “glorious scars”/bodily marks of crucifixion of the Son of God (John 20:27 cf. Rev 1:7) and be eternally assured of God’s triumphant saving love. If all of this is so wonderfully true, why is it that so many Christians seem no longer to be living in the flush of their “first love” (Rev 2:4)?
Christian
Whilst nothing can ever alter the reality of God’s love for us, there is much that can stifle the experience of God’s love in us (Rom 5:1-5). When Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” (John 10:17) he meant that the eternal love of God was like a river coursing through his heart to the cross and beyond that to resurrection and glorification (cf. John 7:37-39)[25]. Since sacrifice for others is the core of the love of God a life this is the key to an ongoing revelation and reception of divine love (cf. Rom 9:2-3; Phil 3:10 etc.). “Love talk” is easy, but to “walk in love” (Eph 5:2; 2 John 2:6) requires supernatural grace. When John tells us in 1 John 4:17-18 “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. [For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.]” he means that in the eyes of the Father we have the same measure of love in us in Christ which led Jesus to the cross and into resurrection. For us, suffering is no longer a sign of punishment[26], but of our identification with the love of God revealed once and for all in the cross.] suffering in this love is the highest calling of a Christian, it is our glory (Eph 24:2; Eph 3:13).
A famous theologian once said, “Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will be we to uplift. Wherever men succeed, there will we be to rejoice. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows: it means absorption in them…It means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings and despairs:” (B.B. Warfield). A previous mentor of mine was starving in Changi prisoner of war camp (Singapore) during WW II, he was part of a little group of Christians who would sell whatever belongings they had on black market to buy food for others. This he said, was an undeniable testimony to the “down to earth but mysterious true love of God”. Sadly, these are the ways of true love that the Church of our day has so successfully avoided[27].
Conclusion
Any image of God that leaves out the revelation of the suffering love of the Father in the Son by power from the Spirit (2 Cor 5:19; Heb 9:14) is an image unworthy of submission and worship[28]. Only a powerful revived revelation of the depths of the love of the crucified God[29] can move the Church today into sacrificial mission. The pioneer evangelist C.T. Studd put it well, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” Speaking personally, there is a purity about God’s love (1 Tim 1:5 cf. Eph 5:26; 1 Pet 1:2) revealed through the shedding of his own blood (Acts 20:28) that is far beyond the sincere but smothering love of many mothers or the real but distant love of many fathers, this love sets our hearts free for sacrificial action on behalf of others. Such painful love alone can turn a society far from any godliness back to its Creator-Father, Redeemer-Son and Sanctifier-Spirit. Our prayers must be that such ever-real love invade/flood the churches to the glory of God. “Love so amazing so divine…demands my soul, my life, my all.” (Isaac Watts)
[1] It was certainly unintelligible to ancient religions predating Christianity. And in those influenced by Christianity, like Islam, it means something radically different from the New Testament.
[3] Philia and agape can be used interchangeably e.g. John 21:1-17; 1 John 2:15.
[4] In special revelation as an act of God personally.
[5] There are hints of what this act might look like in the Old Testament, when for example Moses said, “But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.” (Ex 32:32-33). Reading the Bible backwards we can see Moses’ sacrificial love is a reflection of the eternal cross in the heart of God (Rev 13:8).
[6] Cf. John 13:1; Galatians 2:20; Eph 2:4; 5:2; 25; 2 Thess 2:16; 1 John 4:10-11; Rev 1:5
[7] Such as wisdom, righteousness, peace, goodness, unity etc.
[8] The glory of the cross (John 12:27-34) is not a separate glory from that between Father and Son in eternity (John 17:1-5), but its expression and actualisation for humanity in Christ.
[9] The inevitable result is idolatry. God satisfied the hearts of the nations with food and gladness but they worshipped false gods (Acts 14:17).
[10] “Christ crucified…the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24).
[11] Compared to human relationships which are fallible, for example the breakdown of marriage, family and friendship, the covenant love of God is total, permanent and exclusive.
[12] Of course, this meant that was how, in their hearts, they perceived God as Father and Judge. They were people who had not yet had a revelation that it is mercy that provokes repentance (Rom 2:4-5).
[13] The intensity and extensity of the cross must never be limited. The love of Christ extends beyond the measure of heaven and earth. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:19-20) The “fullness of God” is everything that makes God to be God.
[16] At the introduction to his great teaching on the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus in Phil 2:5-11.
[17] Christ’s unselfish self-sacrificing life reached the height of limitless beauty at the cross.]
[18] Whereby, God gives God. Otherwise he doesn’t really give at all. He had nothing higher to give than himself.
[19] “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 14:31)
[20] Whatever the debates about the exact meaning of the word translated “propitiation” E.g. “atoning sacrifice” (NIV), “expiation” (RSV)
[21] John 1:14; Rom 8:3; Heb 2:14-15
[22] The love which constitutes God is the glory of God.
[23] Of course he has never been loved more by the Father, and so never more the true Son.
[24] Which is not to deny that he remembered the goodness of the Lord or that he looked forward in hope to the resurrection.
[25] see http://cross-connect.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Renewal-Word-and-Spirit.pdf p.77 for an interpretation that this means the rivers of the Spirit flow out of Jesus to the believer.
[26] That is, of being under the wrath of an angry God. Suffering in/for Christ expressing a sacrificial life is now an essential part of our new creation identity.
[27] There are of course exceptions, like the Salvation Army.
[28] what I see in this painting of the death of Jesus is a weeping Father, https://pixabay.com/illustrations/art-artistic-painting-digital-2092530/
[29] An emphasis especially in Martin Luther.