Before I copy tomorrow's lesson over, I wanted to give those of you who might be reading a quick update. Richard's (my stepdad's) mother passed away today around 12:10 or so. He seems to be at peace about it and is confident of her salvation, so we can praise God knowing that she is with Him and much, much happier now. Her joy is complete. That being said, please continue to keep the family in your prayers as they go through the next weeks, as we all know these times can be hard. Even keep them in your prayers at holidays, since we know we miss our family most at those times. Thank you again for your faithful prayers.
And now for the lesson..
Oh, How I Love Jesus
Week Three
To quickly review, over the past two weeks, we’ve been talking about what it means practically to have a relationship with Jesus. We’ve discovered who He is, what a relationship is, and what you do in a relationship. Then last week, we talked about two of His attributes, namely, His righteousness and His holiness. We discussed what those things are and how they affect our relationship with Him.
Today’s lesson is a tough one. We’re going to talk about two more of His attributes, love and justice. The reason this is so tough is because there’s so much to say about both and I want to tell you everything that I can, but we have a limited amount of time, so we’re going to just dive in.
The reason I wanted to talk about these two together is that, at first blush, these two look like entirely different things, and almost as if they’re in opposition to each other. We think if God is just, He must be busy running around punishing everyone, but if He’s loving, He has to forgive everyone. The reality of it is that these are two sides of the same coin. Let me show you how; we’ll start with His justice.
What is justice? What does it mean to be just? How does that affect my relationship with Jesus?
To be just is to be guided by truth, reason, or fairness. It is to be in keeping with the truth. We know that God is the Author of Truth, so we know that He must be just. Not only that, but Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.” Let’s also talk about that word justice. Justice brings to mind the idea of giving out a deserved punishment or reward. Keep that in mind while we talk about this, because it’s going to be important. In fact, God’s justice is so important to Him, that He actually demanded it of His people a little earlier in Deuteronomy as a condition of entering the promised land (16:20). (Justice, and only justice, you shall follow that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.)
So we know that God is just and we know that His justice is important to Him - but what does that have to do with us and our relationship with Him? Well, here’s the issue: we are not just. In fact, we’re the opposite of just - we’re sinners. And who have we sinned against? Others, sure, but ultimately against God. Psalm 51:4 - “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.” You see, we are separated from God by our sin, which means we can’t have a relationship with Him. That makes His justice seem like a scary thing, then, right? That means we deserve only punishment from Him. Okay, now stay with me here, because we’re going to go back and forth between two books in the New Testament to make a point here. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Uh-oh. We can all find ourselves on that list somewhere, so we’re in big trouble! But wait, surely we can do some good things to make up for it, right? I mean, we can volunteer at the local soup kitchen, we can go to Sunday School and church every Sunday, we can go to every youth group function and sing and listen to the sermon and we’ll be just fine, right? It all balances out in the end…or does it? Flip over to Galatians 3:10-11: “For all who rely on works of the law (trying to do the good things that God commands us to do) are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” Pause there for a second: did you catch that? You have to abide by all the Law. So if you mess up in one little thing, you’re out of luck; you’re done; you’ve got the curse. Pick it up with me in verse 11: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Okay, so those good works we thought would balance out our sin? They’re nothing before Him. So we’re still in trouble here.
But keep reading in verse 13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’-so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” And then back in 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse 11: “And such were some of you (remember that list from before?). But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” So do you see what just happened? We are justified through Christ! What does that mean? It means that if we repent of our sins and believe in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, when God looks at us, He sees that His justice has already been achieved. He didn’t set it aside, He poured out our punishment for our sin on the body of Christ on the cross. So Christ did what we couldn’t do - He lived sinlessly, and was therefore able to pay the price for our sins, because He did keep every commandment of the law. And now, when God looks at me, He sees Christ’s blood over me, and I am safe from the curse.
Listen to this from Romans 3, verses 21-26: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Now do you see what I get excited about His justice? What should bring me to my knees in terror instead brings me to my knees in humility and thankfulness. God never set aside His justice for me; if He had, He would no longer be God. Instead, He chose me before the foundation of the world and sent His son to die for me so that He would remain just and I would be justified. Praise God! What love that shows! Which brings us to the next attribute…
What is love? What does it mean that He loves me? How does that affect my relationship with Jesus?
I love the definition of love I found: “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person” (dictionary.com). I love this so much because it’s the perfect description of Christ’s love for me personally.
Look at this. First Chronicles 16:34 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!” The love that He has for me is never-ending and all encompassing. It cannot be shaken. That is amazing. There is no other love out there like this, not even the love your parents have for you. Yes, they love you and would do anything for you and will hopefully never stop loving you; but it is not the same unconditional, undeserved love that Christ demonstrates for us.
Having said that, I think you know about Christ’s love. There’s no way to describe the depth and the quality of it, because it is so far beyond us. Instead, I want to show you how He demonstrates that to us and what we are called to do because of and with it. So look first at Titus 3:4-7. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Here’s what I want you to see from these verses. First, His love is unconditional. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve it. It comes forth solely because He wants it to. That’s it! Second, He lavishes His love upon us. He richly blesses us and has given us the greatest blessing of all in our salvation through Jesus. Third, His love for us is so great, that He has made us as His own sons and daughters; we are not left orphans or set aside from His table to be tolerated, but we are made welcome and are heirs with Christ. How amazing!
So what does this love mean for us? It means that we have a responsibility to honor and share it. First, we are to love God. (Deuteronomy 6:5 - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”) Jesus expounds upon that by telling us that it is “the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:38). This means that our love for Him cannot be a hidden thing, it cannot be on the periphery of our lives; it must be central to it, the foundation for all that we do. Our love for Him must consume us!
Next, it is to create a deeper love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This should also spur us on to love those who are lost even more as well, because it is through us and our love for each other and for Christ that they will see their need for Him.
Now turn to 1 John with me. We’re going to start in chapter 4 and work through a few verses, because we’re going to see how His love for us and our love for Him and how we show that all joins together. This is so awesome how it’s all laid out for us right here! Look at verse 7: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.” Okay, so we see here again that we are commanded to love one another, because God is love and our expression of that proves our love for Him. Pick up in verse 9: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Here we are reminded of the ultimate expression of love on both the part of God and Jesus - God sent His only Son to die so that sinners that would believe in Him might be saved, and we see Jesus willingly fulfilling His Father’s plan. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” So again, we see John reminding us that the work of Christ produces more love in us, and should cause us to spread and grow that love. Jump down to verse 16: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.” Then verse 19: “We love because He first loved us.” So here we see how our relationship with God started in the first place - because He loved us. We didn’t love Him first, but because He loved us, if we repent and believe in the work of Christ on the cross, we will love Him. That love for Him will cause us to abide in Him and in return, He will abide in us. Isn’t this amazing? Christ died for us while we still hated Him, mired in our sin, and then turned that into love that just keeps growing. Wow!
Conclusion
I realize that there isn’t a lot of personal application in this lesson for you, other than that we try to follow His commandments to honor His justice, and we love our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as the lost, that we might abide in Him and our relationship be deeper. However, these two attributes are just so amazing that I couldn’t talk about having a relationship with Him without making sure that you would understand why they are so amazing, and how they draw me to Him, how I’ve learned to appreciate them in more than just a superficial way. So my question to you this morning is this: Which side of His justice are you on? Are you deserving of punishment, or are you covered by Christ’s blood? Do you love Him? Or are you still mired in the muck of your sin? If you are His, abide in Him. Get to know Him more deeply through His word. Actively find ways to love your brothers and sisters in Christ and to honor Him by obedience to His commandments. Seek opportunities to tell others about Him. If you are not His, consider where you are today. Consider what you deserve from a just God: punishment for your sin. You can do nothing to earn heaven or salvation; it is a gift freely given out of love by Christ. However, you do have to take ahold of that gift. You must repent, or turn away from, your sin and turn to the only One who can save you. You must believe that Christ lived the sinless life that you can’t, and that as a result, He was the perfect and only sacrifice acceptable to God for sin. You must believe that He took the full measure of God’s wrath against your sin on the cross and that it was fully paid for. You must believe that He died, but rose after three days to conquer over your sin and over your death. Then you must take up your cross, daily dying to your flesh, and follow after the One who saved you, in full confidence that when God looks at you, He no longer sees a sinner, no longer sees your sin, but sees a son or daughter, sees the blood of His righteous Son covering over you, and knows that His justice against you has been satisfied.
Lord, I praise You for being a just God. And Lord, in spite of the fact that Your justice convicts me, I love it. Because of Your justice, You sent Your Son, and now I can know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. It just blows my mind, Lord, that You would love a sinner like me that much. Forgive me for the times that I have disregarded or ignored Your love and Your sacrifice, Lord. Thank You for loving me in spite of my sin. Thank You for saving me while I was still stuck in it and not even looking for a way out. Help me, Lord, to love You more each day and to abide in You. love You more than words can say, yet I know it's only a fraction of a fraction of the love You hold for me. Thank You! In Your name I pray, amen.
And now for the lesson..
Oh, How I Love Jesus
Week Three
To quickly review, over the past two weeks, we’ve been talking about what it means practically to have a relationship with Jesus. We’ve discovered who He is, what a relationship is, and what you do in a relationship. Then last week, we talked about two of His attributes, namely, His righteousness and His holiness. We discussed what those things are and how they affect our relationship with Him.
Today’s lesson is a tough one. We’re going to talk about two more of His attributes, love and justice. The reason this is so tough is because there’s so much to say about both and I want to tell you everything that I can, but we have a limited amount of time, so we’re going to just dive in.
The reason I wanted to talk about these two together is that, at first blush, these two look like entirely different things, and almost as if they’re in opposition to each other. We think if God is just, He must be busy running around punishing everyone, but if He’s loving, He has to forgive everyone. The reality of it is that these are two sides of the same coin. Let me show you how; we’ll start with His justice.
What is justice? What does it mean to be just? How does that affect my relationship with Jesus?
To be just is to be guided by truth, reason, or fairness. It is to be in keeping with the truth. We know that God is the Author of Truth, so we know that He must be just. Not only that, but Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.” Let’s also talk about that word justice. Justice brings to mind the idea of giving out a deserved punishment or reward. Keep that in mind while we talk about this, because it’s going to be important. In fact, God’s justice is so important to Him, that He actually demanded it of His people a little earlier in Deuteronomy as a condition of entering the promised land (16:20). (Justice, and only justice, you shall follow that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.)
So we know that God is just and we know that His justice is important to Him - but what does that have to do with us and our relationship with Him? Well, here’s the issue: we are not just. In fact, we’re the opposite of just - we’re sinners. And who have we sinned against? Others, sure, but ultimately against God. Psalm 51:4 - “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.” You see, we are separated from God by our sin, which means we can’t have a relationship with Him. That makes His justice seem like a scary thing, then, right? That means we deserve only punishment from Him. Okay, now stay with me here, because we’re going to go back and forth between two books in the New Testament to make a point here. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Uh-oh. We can all find ourselves on that list somewhere, so we’re in big trouble! But wait, surely we can do some good things to make up for it, right? I mean, we can volunteer at the local soup kitchen, we can go to Sunday School and church every Sunday, we can go to every youth group function and sing and listen to the sermon and we’ll be just fine, right? It all balances out in the end…or does it? Flip over to Galatians 3:10-11: “For all who rely on works of the law (trying to do the good things that God commands us to do) are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” Pause there for a second: did you catch that? You have to abide by all the Law. So if you mess up in one little thing, you’re out of luck; you’re done; you’ve got the curse. Pick it up with me in verse 11: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Okay, so those good works we thought would balance out our sin? They’re nothing before Him. So we’re still in trouble here.
But keep reading in verse 13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’-so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” And then back in 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse 11: “And such were some of you (remember that list from before?). But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” So do you see what just happened? We are justified through Christ! What does that mean? It means that if we repent of our sins and believe in Christ’s atoning work on the cross, when God looks at us, He sees that His justice has already been achieved. He didn’t set it aside, He poured out our punishment for our sin on the body of Christ on the cross. So Christ did what we couldn’t do - He lived sinlessly, and was therefore able to pay the price for our sins, because He did keep every commandment of the law. And now, when God looks at me, He sees Christ’s blood over me, and I am safe from the curse.
Listen to this from Romans 3, verses 21-26: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Now do you see what I get excited about His justice? What should bring me to my knees in terror instead brings me to my knees in humility and thankfulness. God never set aside His justice for me; if He had, He would no longer be God. Instead, He chose me before the foundation of the world and sent His son to die for me so that He would remain just and I would be justified. Praise God! What love that shows! Which brings us to the next attribute…
What is love? What does it mean that He loves me? How does that affect my relationship with Jesus?
I love the definition of love I found: “a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person” (dictionary.com). I love this so much because it’s the perfect description of Christ’s love for me personally.
Look at this. First Chronicles 16:34 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever!” The love that He has for me is never-ending and all encompassing. It cannot be shaken. That is amazing. There is no other love out there like this, not even the love your parents have for you. Yes, they love you and would do anything for you and will hopefully never stop loving you; but it is not the same unconditional, undeserved love that Christ demonstrates for us.
Having said that, I think you know about Christ’s love. There’s no way to describe the depth and the quality of it, because it is so far beyond us. Instead, I want to show you how He demonstrates that to us and what we are called to do because of and with it. So look first at Titus 3:4-7. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Here’s what I want you to see from these verses. First, His love is unconditional. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve it. It comes forth solely because He wants it to. That’s it! Second, He lavishes His love upon us. He richly blesses us and has given us the greatest blessing of all in our salvation through Jesus. Third, His love for us is so great, that He has made us as His own sons and daughters; we are not left orphans or set aside from His table to be tolerated, but we are made welcome and are heirs with Christ. How amazing!
So what does this love mean for us? It means that we have a responsibility to honor and share it. First, we are to love God. (Deuteronomy 6:5 - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”) Jesus expounds upon that by telling us that it is “the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:38). This means that our love for Him cannot be a hidden thing, it cannot be on the periphery of our lives; it must be central to it, the foundation for all that we do. Our love for Him must consume us!
Next, it is to create a deeper love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This should also spur us on to love those who are lost even more as well, because it is through us and our love for each other and for Christ that they will see their need for Him.
Now turn to 1 John with me. We’re going to start in chapter 4 and work through a few verses, because we’re going to see how His love for us and our love for Him and how we show that all joins together. This is so awesome how it’s all laid out for us right here! Look at verse 7: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.” Okay, so we see here again that we are commanded to love one another, because God is love and our expression of that proves our love for Him. Pick up in verse 9: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Here we are reminded of the ultimate expression of love on both the part of God and Jesus - God sent His only Son to die so that sinners that would believe in Him might be saved, and we see Jesus willingly fulfilling His Father’s plan. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” So again, we see John reminding us that the work of Christ produces more love in us, and should cause us to spread and grow that love. Jump down to verse 16: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.” Then verse 19: “We love because He first loved us.” So here we see how our relationship with God started in the first place - because He loved us. We didn’t love Him first, but because He loved us, if we repent and believe in the work of Christ on the cross, we will love Him. That love for Him will cause us to abide in Him and in return, He will abide in us. Isn’t this amazing? Christ died for us while we still hated Him, mired in our sin, and then turned that into love that just keeps growing. Wow!
Conclusion
I realize that there isn’t a lot of personal application in this lesson for you, other than that we try to follow His commandments to honor His justice, and we love our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as the lost, that we might abide in Him and our relationship be deeper. However, these two attributes are just so amazing that I couldn’t talk about having a relationship with Him without making sure that you would understand why they are so amazing, and how they draw me to Him, how I’ve learned to appreciate them in more than just a superficial way. So my question to you this morning is this: Which side of His justice are you on? Are you deserving of punishment, or are you covered by Christ’s blood? Do you love Him? Or are you still mired in the muck of your sin? If you are His, abide in Him. Get to know Him more deeply through His word. Actively find ways to love your brothers and sisters in Christ and to honor Him by obedience to His commandments. Seek opportunities to tell others about Him. If you are not His, consider where you are today. Consider what you deserve from a just God: punishment for your sin. You can do nothing to earn heaven or salvation; it is a gift freely given out of love by Christ. However, you do have to take ahold of that gift. You must repent, or turn away from, your sin and turn to the only One who can save you. You must believe that Christ lived the sinless life that you can’t, and that as a result, He was the perfect and only sacrifice acceptable to God for sin. You must believe that He took the full measure of God’s wrath against your sin on the cross and that it was fully paid for. You must believe that He died, but rose after three days to conquer over your sin and over your death. Then you must take up your cross, daily dying to your flesh, and follow after the One who saved you, in full confidence that when God looks at you, He no longer sees a sinner, no longer sees your sin, but sees a son or daughter, sees the blood of His righteous Son covering over you, and knows that His justice against you has been satisfied.
Lord, I praise You for being a just God. And Lord, in spite of the fact that Your justice convicts me, I love it. Because of Your justice, You sent Your Son, and now I can know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. It just blows my mind, Lord, that You would love a sinner like me that much. Forgive me for the times that I have disregarded or ignored Your love and Your sacrifice, Lord. Thank You for loving me in spite of my sin. Thank You for saving me while I was still stuck in it and not even looking for a way out. Help me, Lord, to love You more each day and to abide in You. love You more than words can say, yet I know it's only a fraction of a fraction of the love You hold for me. Thank You! In Your name I pray, amen.
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