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God, Sinners and You

Romans 5: 1–11

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 09 Apr, 2006

RICHARD DAWKINS, author of The Selfish Gene, recently criticised St Paul’s view of what Jesus did for us on the cross as ‘essentially, psychological and emotional child abuse’. Does the God of love abuse anyone?

If there is anything that the Cross demonstrates it is God’s amazing and unfailing love. It is far from a comforting, fuzzy, feel–good story. But it has all the power of any story of sacrifice and suffering on behalf of other people.

I won’t turn this into an anti–Dawkins rant. In fact, I think that, as an evolutionary biologist, he says some important things — at least, as far as he has been reported in New Scientist magazine.

You know the story of Titus Oates, who, when he was dying of cold, starvation and frostbite, chose to sacrifice himself so that his fellow Antarctic explorers could survive. You’ve heard about the bravery that inspired the Australian soldiers, most of them volunteers, to struggle across the Kokoda Trail. Surely the message of the Cross is every bit as inspiring and life–changing.

The message of the Cross picks up the same ideas as these everyday stories hold. Yet it transcends them all; it far surpasses them in terms of absolute unshrinking love and commitment.

Today, we will look at the cross and the death of Jesus. We will see what it reveals about God. We sinners will see what it reveals about God and sinners. In fact, we will learn what it says about every single human being, and how much God loves us all.

Let’s understand this: the cross is the demonstration of God’s love, it is the justification of sinners and it is the positive valuation of all people. When you think of Jesus’ death you see how great God’s love is, how extensive is his reach to those who reject him, and how greatly he values us, despite ourselves.

Demonstration

The Bible says — in modern versions — that

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

I am a great believer in modern versions. We must communicate the gospel in such a way that any person could pick up a Bible, begin reading it, and immediately grasp most of what it teaches.

So I would rather a modern translation than an ancient one any time. For example, when I read the words of institution of the Lord’s Supper, I paraphrase the King James Version English as I go. I want to make as clear as I can, what we are doing.

And that is what modern translators have done with that verse.

The translation is not wrong. And it is clear and intelligible. But this is one instance where the older translation got it better. The King James Version says,

God commendeth his love...

We don’t use the word, commend, very often. We use demonstrate and we use recommend,but commend is mainly a specialist word these days,

But demonstrate is a far less personal word than commend. It misses the personal aspects of the original Greek word.

When I was at school, we had to demonstrate geometrical theorems or chemical formulae. I couldn’t really care less if the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes find it useful to know about, of course!

I could demonstrate it — at least, I used to be able to, but I wouldn’t commend it.

Back when my father went to school, they would set a problem, and, when the schoolboy finished the problem and got the answer that proved the proposition, he would write the letters, QED at the bottom, which was for the Latin tag, Quod erat demonstrandum — that means, “Which was to be demonstrated.”

But the Greek of this verse implies that God really does care about his love. He wants to demonstrate it, and he cares about it, and about our response to it.

He doesn’t merely say, “This is my love: the cross demonstrates that I love, QED.” He is saying, “This is my love. The cross demonstrates that I love. I want you to see how good and perfect and acceptable my love is. I am committed to that love. I have a burning passion for it, and I want you to feel that and experience it.”

Do you see the difference?

I have used the illustration of the oriental merchant, unrolling his bag of goods, saying to the prospective purchaser, “This is the best I have. Look at it! See how good it is! I want you to see in it the value that I see in it.”

God demonstrates his love to us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The truth of the matter is that, if God didn’t love sinners, there would be nothing else he could get from the relationship. It doesn’t say,

“God commends his business sense...”

Nor does it say,

“God commends his persuasiveness.” What could he get from rebellious sinners before they even turn to himself, in the way of trade or in the way of being persuaded by fine words? But he loves, without any guarantee of a return. He loves freely; he loves graciously; he loves even when the most likely result is that we will not even kick him in the face: we will just turn our backs and walk away. That is what true love is like.

When a couple comes to me for marriage, I ask them to see me a few times before the wedding, and I usually ask some questions.

They probably wonder why I do it.

Mostly I see people who truly love each other. However, what I am trying, in a rough and ready way, to do is to make them think about areas in their lives where perhaps they don’t love one another so much.

If they really did totally love each other, they would never need any kind of pre–marriage work. But finances are an area where people are usually quite selfish; sex is an area where they are usually selfish; relationship with kids is often an area of selfishness.

If I ask questions to get them thinking and talking, I might help them a little bit.

God’s love is total. It is not selfish. And that is why it will work if we tap into it.

As Christians, that must always be our goal, to love more purely, to love in a self–giving way, to love those who don’t repay us by being loving in return.

God loves the unlovely: we must, too.

God’s love it totally self–giving — not selfish.

The cross proves God’s love and shows that it is good.

Justification

The second thing to see is how the cross justifies the sinner — that is, you and me.

People sometimes get upset to be called “sinners”, but I am not accusing anyone of being worse than anyone else. You don’t say, “Sin, sinner, sinnest”: there is no comparison in sin. We are all equally sinners. The word, sinner, is an explanation, not a condemnation. Why can’t we find a satisfactory relationship with God? It’s because we are sinners. Why do people try the occult or religious cults? Why are there are so many self–help books? Why do people look for a feel–good faith? It’s because of sin. It’s because we are sinners, cut off from God by our own rebellion.

The times are out of joint, not just now, but always — for all people in all places.

But Paul writes,

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Many people become Christians and then wonder why life hasn’t become more peaceful, but that’s not Paul’s point. Chapter 5 is largely about legal, technical and theological matters.

To be justified in this context doesn’t mean to be given a good reason why it was OK for you to rebel against God. We use the term fairly loosely. People seek to justify themselves by giving themselves an excuse. God does not give us excuses, but gives us exemption from prosecution. To be justified by faith is to have no case to answer in God’s court.

Several years ago, there was a great Royal Commission into Police Corruption. Several corrupt police turned State‘s Evidence in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

What that means is that they agreed to make a complete confession and entrust themselves completely to the Royal Commission.

That’s what being justified is in this context. You have agreed to confess everything to God as he brings it to mind, and you trust entirely in God’s grace, knowing that the Christ who died for you will never let you down or abandon you.

And, being justified by faith, we have peace with God because God is no longer our enemy. He no longer pursues us to judge us for refusal to obey him and misdeeds against each other.

This message of the cross teaches us always to be hopeful for ourselves and for others. We can no longer afford contempt for criminals and rejection for sinners. We are criminals and sinners, yet God has justified us, and he may yet justify them, if only they repent and believe.

Behind all the illustrations and the metaphors and similes of Biblical language, the fact is that someone who loves us enough to give his best gift will never abandon anyone to destruction if they come in trust.

The message of the cross is a message of justification for us all, of justification and of an end to enmity.

Valuation

On Monday, the front page article in the Brisbane Courier Mail paper was about the sentence of a young man who had killed another young man while stealing his shoes.

The sentence was quite brief — 18 months, or something — and the journalist was outraged, as were the dead young man’s parents.

“Is this all our son’s life was worth” they asked.

What is your life really worth? On Judgment Day, if you had to stand before God and bargain for your life, what could you offer to have your life returned to you?

Some people under–value themselves. I tend to do that. Others have an inflated idea of their own worth. They are always pushing themselves as better than others.

God’s valuation of our worth is amazingly different from both under–valuation and over–valuation.

Someone calculated that the elements which make up our bodies are worth a pittance, maybe a couple of dollars. We are mainly hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon — plentiful elements anywhere. The traces of other chemicals hardly rate a mention, if you just think about elements.

Of course, just as a heap of building materials gains value when it is put together properly to form a house, so we are far more than a mere shoebox full of ashes and gases.

But that still doesn’t define our value.

Perhaps our value is in what we have created during our lifetimes. But most of that doesn’t even belong to us personally. We signed it over to someone else.

But when God commends his love to us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, then our real worth — your worth and mine — was defined beyond all doubt.

I once had an argument with a green grocer who wanted to expand his shop. He had to lodge a Development Application, and the fees were based on the value of the extensions.

The extensions were possibly worth around $20 000. I calculated his fee.

“Oh, no!” he said. “My cousins and my brother will work with me: it will only cost us $10 000 to build!”

We argued for a while. I was telling him the value based on average costs, and he was telling me what he would have to pay if he didn’t pay his relatives for their labour.

Finally, I said, “You are a greengrocer. What is a lettuce worth?”

“About $1,” he said — or whatever it was in those days.

“But sometimes there are lots of lettuces and the price is less, sometimes the price goes up. What is the value of a lettuce?”

It began to dawn on him. “The value of a lettuce is what people will pay for it, I suppose.”

I said, “If I grow the lettuce at home and don’t pay myself for gardening and watering and fertilising, it’s still worth the same as a shop lettuce, isn’t it?”

He agreed.

“And it’s the same with your building,” I said. Its value is not what you might manage to pay for it if your relatives and friends are generous to you, but it’s what you would pay if you were buying it from an estate agent.”

He went and paid his fees. He understood.

So what is your value?

You are not your own — you were bought with a price.

Your value is the price of the life of Jesus. Your price — my price is what God paid to redeem you and me.

When God looks at you, he doesn’t see a bundle of cheap chemicals. God doesn’t even see a valuable combination of elements. He doesn’t value you according to what you have produced or how much your friends like you.

His valuation of you and me is the value of his one and only son.

God values you — Christ much! His love to us is measured by Jesus; the value he places on each of us is the value of his son.

There is not a single person outside that truth, because

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

No one is exempt, no one is excluded.

Conclusion

God demonstrates his love to us in the cross. He reveals his justification of the sinner and his valuation of every person as we reflect on Jesus, dying on the cross, God and human eternally united for us and for our salvation.

As we approach Easter, we must reflect on the message of the cross, and determine to live that message out, because it must be our message, too.

Jesus held nothing back, because his goal was our salvation. What are we holding back that prevents the salvation of the world we are placed in?

Today, let’s give thanks for all that He has done for us, and determine to live for him for the rest of our days.

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2006. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)