Our Epistle reading today is but a small part of Paul’s letter to the Christians of the Church of Rome. It touches on God’s irrevocable love for Jews and Gentiles alike. We see here that God’s love is given to and for all peoples.
That is indeed great news. But we must try to understand that when the Bible talks of “God’s love”, it is not speaking about the same “love” we humans speak of. Unfortunately, that human type of love is what many in the church leadership are pushing on the congregations today. This leads to the “it doesn’t matter what we do or say, God won’t send anyone to Hell because He loves us all” syndrome.
While it is true that God does indeed love us all, we need to understand what that means from God’s standpoint. Look closely at scripture and you will see that there are two sides to God’s love. On the one side of God’s love there is kindness, goodness, compassion and forgiveness. On the other side, there is strength, endurance, temperance and righteousness. The best and most beautiful demonstration of God’s love is the cross of Calvary’s hill.
If God’s love were too hard, that would also promote evil actions on our part. The feeling would be that it is impossible to please God, so why try? Fortunately for us, God’s love and His judgment are tempered with mercy. But even that mercy has a tough side. Sometimes the most merciful thing you can do is punish someone for doing wrong. Sometimes when we see the sternness of God’s love toward His children, we can start to think that God no longer loves His children. But His disciplining His children is not a sign of His love fading, it is rather a sign of just how deeply He loves them. It is His way of steering His children back onto the path of His righteousness in order to keep them on the road to abundant eternal life in His Kingdom of Heaven.
Unfortunately, there are many people who have this image of God in their minds that He is like an angry old man just sitting around on His throne, waiting for us to do something wrong, just so He can slam us with some sort of punishment. They think that God has great fun bringing trouble into our lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Scripture tells us that “God takes no pleasure in the punishment of the wicked.” Because He loves everyone, it grieves Him when He has to allow punishment to happen to a disobedient person, or when He sees someone make the choice to reject His Son, Jesus Christ, and thus make the choice of being eternally condemned to Hell. He would like everyone to choose life instead.
God’s love is never-ending and His gift of salvation is irrevocable. But we must understand that they are only available if we respond properly to His mercy and grace. His mercy, His grace, and the proper response to them is stated in John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
There you have it. Out of His mercy, grace and love for us God sent Jesus to live with us, be crucified and die in our place and provide for our salvation. Our proper response is to “believe on Him”, accept His works done in our place, and place Him in the position He deserves as our Savior and Lord.
God is not some tyrant looking for opportunities to condemn us. Rather, He is a loving Father seeking to bring the lost back into His family. God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s love is for all people, for all time.
When my son Alex was about 4 or 5 years old, one of his favorite things to play with was his Hot Wheels car collection. If he had one, he had fifty of those little cars. One day, he came to me and told me he couldn’t find his favorite car and he asked me to help him find it. We searched and searched, but that car was nowhere to be found. I had to do something else and asked Alex if it really mattered if we found that car then or not. Alex said it was really important, because that car was his favorite one. I had to go and do whatever it was that I had to do, but Alex kept on searching for that car.
About an hour later, Alex came to me with the biggest smile on his face, clutching his favorite car in his hand. He found the lost car and it was now back where it belonged. Alex rejoiced. But that is not the end of the story. Sometime later, Alex again came to me and said that he couldn’t find his favorite car. We began the search. I found the car that had been lost before and told Alex I had the missing car in my hand. He looked at it and frowned. I asked him what was the matter. He informed me that I had the wrong car in my hand, and his favorite one was still missing. Alex continued searching until he found the missing car. He showed it to me and it was a sight. “Well used” hardly describes the condition it was in. “Hold on a minute,” I said. “Isn’t this the car you told me before was your favorite one?” Alex answered, “Yes. But Dad, they are all my favorite one!”
That is how it is between God and us. It doesn’t matter if we are shiny and new, or well used and worn, or completely played out. It doesn’t matter what we have gone through. It doesn’t even matter if we have failed to live up to His standards (because none of can truly do that regardless of how hard we try). It doesn’t even matter if we have rejected Him in the past. We are all His favorite one! God loves us all, each and every person, with His undying, boundless love.
We can either choose to accept His love and reap the rewards, or we can choose to reject His love and reap the consequences. God wants every person ever born to experience all of the benefits, all of the gifts, all of the joy associated with His great love available to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. How about you?
Are you reaping the rewards of a close, personal relationship with God Almighty that is there for the asking? Don’t miss the boat. God sent His Son to die for you in order to provide a way for you to enjoy everlasting life in His Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy everything that He wants to provide for you, out of His love for you. All you need to do, to experience God’s love fully, is to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life, take control, and lead you to Heaven’s door. Ask and He will do it. But you must ask Him. God’s irrevocable love is right at your fingertips. Don’t wait a minute longer. Reach out and take hold of His hand. He will never let go. Amen.