THE LOVE OF GOD
J.A.Gardiner
Romans 5: 7-10; Mark 15: 33-39; Exodus 30: 11-16
I would like to say something about the love of God. It is very gracious of God to commend it to us. Paul speaking here says, “Hardly for the just man will anybody die, but for the good man someone may also dare to die”, and then he says in comparison to that, “God commends his love to us in that we being still sinners Christ has died for us”. God’s love has been greatly questioned, indeed God himself has been greatly questioned in these days. Men trying to work out, to reason out the whys and the wherefores of this terrible disaster in the East, the tsunami, when about one hundred and fifty thousand persons perished. They are anxious to know why God did not intervene. He has power creatorially to do it. Why did he not do something about it? The top men and the ecclesiastical hierarchy have spoken about it, written papers about it, trying to reason out the whys and the wherefores of this awful tragedy. But I have not heard anyone write, or say, that God commends his love to us in that we being still sinners Christ has died for us. To question God’s love, in the face of what He has given, in giving up his beloved Son, is surely the evidence of darkness, because, if we look at the cross of Christ, God not sparing his own Son, we can see the manifestation of a heart of love in fulness, in order that righteousness might be accomplished and that love might have full play in blessing, and that blessing for us. How wonderful that is! He commends His love to us, Paul says here, not in the hope that we might do something to merit it, or that we might be more accommodating to Him, but He did it when we were still sinners. It goes on further. It says, not only were you sinners, but if being enemies we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Think of the natural man, God’s creature, an enemy of his Creator. Do you believe that? The enmity in the heart of man is such that, he has become an enemy of God. You read what all those learned men say, and it is very sad to see the depths, the intensity of the darkness, whereas the scripture is very plain. It says that, “God commends his love to us in that we being still sinners Christ died for us”. Beloved, if you feel that you are unconverted, that you are not saved, that you have not been reconciled to God by Him, and saved from the coming wrath, it speaks of that here in this verse. That is the second time that wrath has been mentioned in this epistle. The wrath of God from heaven is revealed in the glad tidings, Paul notes earlier, in chapter 1. Now he is speaking of being saved by Him from wrath, that is by Christ. If you belong to the Lord Jesus, if you are saved, if you are under the shelter of his blood, as it says here, justified in the power of His blood, saved by Him from wrath, what a happy person you must be, what a thankful person you must be to be conscious of your being saved from wrath. Christ is your Saviour, the burden of your guilt that lay upon you is gone. He has borne it in his own body on the tree. He has set you free and set you at liberty with God. Is that you? Is that me?
Am I happy with God? The glad tidings of glory of the blessed God. (I understand that could be interpreted as happy). God is delighting in Christ sitting on His throne. He has sat down with His Father on His throne. This is all very wonderful and very blessed. And how has this been wrought out? It has been wrought out through the depths of unmitigated sufferings. How soberly, therefore, we should consider how God has wrought in order that we might be saved, that we might not only have the guilt of our sins removed from us, a clear conscience with God and have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Think of what I have read in Mark’s gospel, the holy intimacy between Christ and his Father. That is why I read it. The Lord Jesus did not go into death, and such a death, without knowing where He was going or what was coming upon Him. Think of this situation in Gethsemane when He goes through the whole matter in His spirit, ‘He began to be amazed and oppressed in spirit’. The devil would be there bringing before Him the awfulness of what crucifixion was. That is terrible in itself to be crucified, put on a cross, nailed on a cross. He did not have to go that way. He had power to walk away and leave them, those evil, wicked men who sought to take Him captive and deliver Him up to the Romans. He manifested that in the garden. But then He says, “If ye seek me, let these go their way”. Think of Jesus alone there delivering Himself into the hands of the wicked people. The Psalmist says, “he gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor”, Ps 78: 61. Why? In order that the gospel might be preached here in Peterhead, in order that you might hear it, and that I might hear it and that I might hear about Him and what He has done in the manifestation of God’s love in its fulness, prepared to undergo the awfulness of the trial and all that was before Him, not only the cross, but the awful judgment of God, that wrath that we read of in Romans, poured upon His head.
I read this scripture in Mark because it brings out the holy intimacy that was between Jesus and the Father. He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: take away this cup from me”, Mark 14: 36. “Abba, Father” – I suppose it is probably impossible for creature understanding to appreciate the intensity of that relationship, and the fulness of the love that existed between Christ and the Father. And He is facing this cup. He is going to drink the cup of wrath, in order that the glad tidings may be available to you and me. And this is testimony to God’s love. Why should persons question God’s love if they read the scripture? Satan, the devil, the great source of darkness would seek to darken your heart. The Spirit of God would enlighten us and let us see the greatness of the love that is manifest here. He says, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: take away this cup from me; but not what I will, but what thou wilt”. He is subject to the will of God – pure, holy, perfect Man. So He had no reason whatsoever to die except that He loved the will of God and He thought about you and me. That is what is called “acting vicariously”. How wonderful that is. He is submitting to this. The power of the devil is there bringing it all before Him, on His spirit. And He bears it all and goes through with it. Further on it says, “And when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour”. He had been on that cross for three hours, suffering the awfulness of that physical suffering, feeling the awfulness of the reproach that was being poured out upon Him. He despised the shame. It was below his dignity. I love to think of that.
All the awful things, the taunts and the jeers that were being poured out upon Him, He despised. He endured the cross, despising the shame. There was joy set before Him and He is going into that joy. But I am not thinking of that at this moment. I am thinking of depths of sorrow and suffering that He endured, that He bore. At the sixth hour there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. That is three hours. And during that time, during those three hours He was bearing the wrath of God for my sins, and I thank God, and will do so eternally that that is the case. And during those three hours – and you think of the compression that must have gone into those three hours because during that three hours, He exhausted the judgment of God against sin, the wrath of God completely exhausted, so that God has nothing more to say to sin – but during those three hours He was bearing the judgment of God that you rightly deserve. He was bearing it vicariously. He was bearing it for you, to be your substitute; to take your place. He took my place and He never wilted. He never faded. He went through these three hours in the strength of a sinless, holy humanity. Think of the terribleness of what that was. Never forget that during those three hours, He bore your sins and He bore mine. He bore the wrath of God against them. You say, ‘But I was not born; how could that be?’ Peter tells us that He bore our sins in His body on the tree (see 1 Peter 2: 24). He is thinking of a whole race. Jesus was making propitiation for God, clearing the way for God. And as soon as the three hours are over, and He goes into death in power, He cries with a loud voice – “Jesus having uttered a loud cry expired”. There has never been a death like the death of Christ. You may have seen persons die. Some people die suddenly, others have a prolonged time of weakness and they die. But the whole thing is weakness. The sentence upon fallen man is death, and nobody dies in power, physical power. You may think of Moses of whom it says his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated but that may be an exception. They died in weakness. But not Jesus. He retained His strength through these three hours when God was pouring out His wrath upon Him. He was maintaining and sustaining that in the strength of a holy, incorruptible humanity. There is the true sin offering, exhausting the judgment of God in order that you might be saved. God commends His love. God is saying ‘this is My love’. Here in this chapter, ‘this is my love’. I was prepared not to spare mine own Son, but to freely deliver Him up for you all. So the great matter of atonement has been made during those three hours of darkness. A soldier pierces His side with a spear and the blood comes out. The blood is carried right into the very presence of God and God is glorified immediately. What happens next? The veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. God does not delay. Jesus bore the judgment. As soon as that judgment is exhausted, God is free. He is free in love and He is free in grace and free in blessing to men. His grace, His love, His concern was as much for that soldier whose spear pierced the side of Christ. It was available to him as to you and me tonight. That is the God of the Gospel. That is the God that men have queried, Does God love? Why should this be? Why should that be? Man has cast out God’s Son. They do not want him. They say, “We will not have this man to reign over us. Away with him”. You say, But that was the Jew. That is your heart, the same as mine, unless God does something, unless there is a change and a new beginning. He has the wherewithal to give you a new beginning. He said to Nicodemus, you must – it is essential – you have to be born anew. Unless you are born anew you will never see the kingdom, you will never see this rule of blessing and wonderment that is going to be brought in. You will never see persons wholly in subjection to God, delighting in God. Nicodemus could not follow it. Maybe I cannot. But the facts remain. God has prepared by His Spirit, and the Spirit acts sovereignly in the new birth. How blessed that is. All of God. The gospel asks nothing of man at all. Not one thing. God has provided everything. If you need faith, ask God. It is the gift of God. If you feel you need the Spirit to change your attitude, your outlook, He is available. Think of the riches of God’s love poured into the glad tidings, so much so, that it comes right down to where you are. It speaks to your heart. It speaks to your intelligence but He wants your heart. He wants your heart to be like His heart, a heart of love. How blessed. Oh let His good news lead you to repentance.
I read in Exodus, because that is your answer to it. The ransom money is very precious. The rich shall not give more, the poor shall not give less. How beautifully it has been said that you sitting there, and me standing here, cost the Lord Jesus the same as it cost Him to secure the apostle Paul, the same as it cost to secure the apostle Peter, and John and James, all the worthies of the testimony. You were the same cost. They did not cost more than you cost. So you have a half shekel. What does this mean? It is to be contributed for the service of the sanctuary. Oh, you say, all these persons you speak of are great persons and very able and so forth. What am I to do? You are to be moved in your heart by the compassions of God, you are to take your body and present it as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your intelligent service (see Rom. 12: 1). You do not have to be clever to understand that. It is your intelligent service to present your body. Do not let the plague come upon you. The plague abounds, and the plague at the moment, I feel, is a materialistic plague. You go back sixty or seventy years and it was a different plague. It was not a materialistic plague. You never thought in your life that you would be so well off as you are now. All you need to do is look at the cars outside the meeting rooms. It was not always like that. Do not let that overcome you. Piety overcomes the plague, “it is profitable for every thing”. Jesus went about here in poverty. I am not saying that there is virtue in poverty, but I am saying, do not let the materialistic plague affect you and your links with the sanctuary. That is important. You are to contribute your body a living sacrifice, your intelligent service. Start with the Lord’s Supper and proceed with the meetings that follow it and there you are with your body. You are available. This is the working out of Christianity. This is the answer to the manifestation of God’s love in Christ. ‘You belong to God, you are not your own’, Paul says. You do not do what you like. You are not your own. You have been bought with a price, and we have seen something of the cost. Then he says, “Glorify now then God in your body”, 1 Cor 6: 19. Let us be in the testimony.
I hope I have been able, in some measure, to show the wonder of God’s love. Its holy constancy never changes, God has never changed. God has never altered His outlook, He has never needed any adjustment. He remains what He always has been. God is light and that is relative because there must be darkness if there is light. But then He is also love, and that is what I have tried to speak to you about: the love of God is manifest in Christ and available to you and me; to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Is that not something great? You do not have to try to arrive at this. Christianity involves responsibility. The Spirit of God is here so that responsibility might be fulfilled. But it is not a burdensome thing like the law. You have to do this and you have got to do that and you have to do the next thing and you have to come to the meetings and you have to come to every meeting during the week, every one. That is not in itself Christianity. Christianity is that the love of God is shed abroad in your heart, while you should be there and you delight to find your life amongst God’s people, find your life in relation to the sanctuary. You are delighting in it. The extension of that, according to John’s epistle, is the extension of what came out here in Christ. They saw that life, they handled, they touched, they saw how the Lord lived, what He did, what He did not do. How He enjoyed life. Not one enjoyed life as Jesus did. That is why he said, “Cut me not off in the midst of my days”. God wants you, not only saved and clear of the world, but He wants you to enjoy Himself in His home.
May it be so for His Name’s sake. Amen.
Peterhead
16th January 2005