St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church + Benton Harbor, Michigan
The 2nd Sunday in Lent, March 19, 2000
Romans 5:5b-11
"God demonstrates his own love for us!"
God has poured out his love
into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the
right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very
rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might
possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by
his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For
if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of
his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his
life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Dear Christian friends,
“Do you love me?” Have you ever asked someone that question before? I am sure all of us have. Why did you have to ask it? Was it because of something you did that you thought would keep a loved one from loving you? How did your dear loved one answer?
“Do you love me?” Have you ever asked God that question before? I’m sure all of us have. What motivated you to ask it? Was it because of something that you did, that you thought would keep God from loving you? Oh, dear Christian, nothing can ever keep God from loving you. Still, our evil nature plagues us with doubts.
“Dear God, do you love me?”
“Yes I do,” is God’s answer, “Let me show you how much.” Today, with St. Paul as our guide, we are
going consider how God demonstrated his
own love for us! 1)
Through the death of His Son. 2) For
the assurance of Salvation
1) Through the death of Christ
God demonstrates his
own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Three times, in our text, St. Paul defines
God’s love for us as the death of Jesus.
I think it is clear: if you love someone, you will be willing to
sacrifice your happiness for that person’s benefit, and ultimate love makes the
ultimate sacrifice. Jesus himself told
us this when he said, Greater love has no one than this, that he lay
down his life for his friends. Yes, Jesus’ death truly shows love, love
beyond our wildest imagination.
Now I think it would be
wrong to say that humans don’t show life-sacrificing love. I think ANY parent here would die for their
children, if that were called for. I
know that I would be willing die for my parents and friends. Even for certain strangers, like a child in
danger, we might consider dying. But
let me ask you this: How many of you would consider dying for the man who beat
up and paralyzed our teacher Don Habbek?
Who of us would consider dying for the people who burned our
Church? Who of us would die for our
enemies?
And this is what is so
amazing about God’s love: Jesus died for us while we were still ungodly, sinners and his enemies. To be
ungodly means to have absolutely no fear or respect for God. All people, outside of Christ, are totally
ungodly, including us, according to our sinful nature. “Hey did you hear the latest joke about
Jesus . . .” Telling or laughing at a religious joke is just one of many ways
our ungodliness shows itself. Our
ungodliness shows itself when we don’t take time to study God’s word regularly,
when we don’t witness Christ to others because we are afraid. Yes, every hate-filled thought of ours, every
slip of the tongue shows our ungodly nature.
Not only are we by
nature ungodly, but we are also powerless to save ourselves. We had no ability, what so ever, to improve
our relationship with God. We were dead
in our transgressions and sins. You
know as well as I do, that dead people can’t save themselves. They’re dead. And so, outside of Christ, we had absolutely no hope of becoming
God’s friends. Actually our condition
was so bad, that we did even want to be friends with God anyway.
But God demonstrated his love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Only when we understand our true condition
outside of Christ, does God’s love take on such vivid color in our minds. You see, while we were still powerless,
wretched God haters, who were running away from God, God decided to love
us. God decided to love us so much,
that he sent his Son into the world to die for us. Just think of it: Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! And in this way God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.
God punished his Son for us. He
did this without our begging or asking of him.
He did this while we still hated him.
He did this, to demonstrate his awesome love for us.
God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. For most of us here that happened first on the day that blessed baptismal water was poured on our heads. Through baptism the Lord clothed us in Christ’s righteousness, and put his name on our hearts by giving us faith in Jesus. At our baptism God declared in heaven, “You are my son. You are my daughter. Today I have become your Father.”
Every time we hear the Gospel, God pours His love into our hearts. Every time we go to Holy Communion God’s love flows to us in the forgiveness of sins through the true body and blood of Christ. God constantly reassures us of his love, which we receive through faith.
“God, do you love me? There are times when I doubt. I doubt because I know my sinfulness. Dear God, please tell me you love me.” Dear Christian, when your soul burdens you like this, look to the cross. God demonstrated his love for us there when Christ died for us. He chose to love us, even though we did nothing to deserve it. But that’s really the point of God’s love, isn’t it: To love us so as to reconcile us, and bring us into a new restored relationship with God. This is the purpose of God demonstrating his love to us in Christ’s death.
2)
For the assurance of
Salvation (9-11)
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him. Jesus didn’t just die for no purpose: He died for us so that we could be justified.
Do you remember last week’s sermon? Pastor talked about our great defense attorney: Jesus Christ. We learned how he is constantly speaking in our judge’s ear, pleading our case before God. We also learned that God listens to Jesus and acquits us. Here, Paul gives us the reason why we are acquitted (or justified): because of the blood of Christ.
Yes, God has declared us not guilty because our punishment has been paid in full by the blood of Christ. If our judge has already acquitted us, is their any reason we have to be afraid of God’s wrath? Is there any reason why we have to doubt God’s love? No. Through Christ we are saved from God’s wrath and there is nothing we must fear.
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Through Christ’s death, God brought us into a new relationship with him: instead of being God’s enemies, we are now his children. We enter this new relationship through faith in Christ’s salvation winning death.
Now that we have been reconciled with God, now that we have
this new relationship with God in Christ, is there anything we have to worry
about. No. We know that eternal life is ours. We know that we too will live eternally because Jesus lives, as
Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live.”
Isn’t it wonderful: the absolute love God has shown us
absolute sinners! Now that Jesus has
died for us, there is nothing we must be afraid of, as Paul says later on in
Romans: [If God] did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not
also, along with him, graciously give us all things? And God
promises to give us all things. He has
made us kings and priests in his kingdom.
He has given us eternal life, and there is no reason to doubt it. Jesus has already done the hard part for us:
he has already suffered and died in our place.
Because of that, because the hard part is already done, we know that
nothing can prevent our salvation, as was also said in our sermon last week: I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“God, do you love me? There are times I doubt.” Doubts about God’s love come from inside of us, and from people around us. There are many Christians who think that they have to do something to save themselves, and still have to keep God’s law in order to get to heaven. When we hear people talk to us about having to be good in order to get to heaven, we are tempted in one of two ways: 1) to try to earn Christ forgiveness too. 2) To despair because we aren’t good enough
But, do you know what: we aren’t good enough, and we will never be good enough to deserve God’s forgiveness. But that is exactly why he came into the world: to forgive us undeserving sinners through his death.
Let me illustrate it this way. Could I in anyway deserve it that you would kill your son or daughter for me? Obviously not! Then what makes us think that we can earn the sacrifice of God’s son? We can’t. But God did this for us willingly, because he loved us
Listen to what Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossi, who
were also being plagued with feelings of unworthiness: When you were dead in your sins and
in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He
forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations,
that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it
to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Therefore do not let
anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious
festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the
things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
“God, do you love me?” Yes, he loves you. He demonstrated his love in the death of his Son for the assurance of your salvation. “God, will you continue to show me love.” Yes God will. In a few moments he will give you the very body of His Son who died on the cross. In a few moments he will give you the very blood of His Son that bought your salvation. In a few moments, he will once again bring you to the cross to forgive you all of your sins. “Dear God, now I know that you love me. Thank you for reassuring me once again. Please let me never doubt your love.” Amen.