HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 5, 2024 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message from May 5, 2024 from Romans 5:6-11

Theme: If you want to be assured of how much God loves us, simply look at the cross.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This morning, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to encourage you with how much our heavenly Father loves you. And to show you how much He does, I ask that you turn with me to Romans 5.

In the Book of Romans, the apostle Paul was writing to his beloved fellow Christians about the great doctrine of ‘justification by faith’—the wonderful truth that a man or woman is made 100% righteous in God’s sight by faith in the cross of Jesus Christ. What a love-filled doctrine that is! On the cross, Jesus bore the guilt of all our sin on Himself and paid the death penalty for us in our place. And now, when we place our trust in Jesus, God can justly declare us to have been forgiven of all our sins, and to now be ‘righteous’ in His sight.

And so, in Romans 5:1-5, Paul wrote;

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:1-5).

And please especially notice those last words; that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit …” That’s an affirmation of encouraging truth to us, dear brothers and sisters. God’s love is not a thing that’s far away from us … or a thing that’s hard for us to obtain … or a thing that we must labor hard to become worthy of. Having declared us righteous in His sight, His love has already been abundantly poured out in us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

But we need the assurance of that love, don’t we? It’s a wonderful thing to know and experience the love of God. And we especially need the assurance of it in these difficult days—and the midst of all our troubles and trials. So; how then can we be certain of it? What is the objective proof that we can look to that assures us that God loves us? Well; Paul then went on to tell us;

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (vv. 6-11).

Do you see it? God “demonstrates His own love toward us” by the cross of His beloved Son. It’s the objective evidence we need of God’s love for us. Sometimes, of course, we enjoy the assurance of God’s love subjectively. We can experience the certainty of that love inwardly. The Bible tells us that the subjective assurance of God’s love can be communicated to us through the Holy Spirit who has poured that love out in us. As it says in Romans 8:15-17;

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8:15-17).

When we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. And the indwelling Holy Spirit ministers the love of God the Father to our spirits. It’s as if He whispers deep within us, “Dear child; be assured that God is your Father. He has adopted you to Himself through His Son. You belong to Him and you are very precious to Him. You may call Him ‘Abba, Father’; because in the truest sense, He is your loving Father”. As those words from Romans 8 suggest to us, the Holy Spirit’s internal assurance of the Father’s love is given to us even while we suffer for the Lord Jesus.

But even then, how do we know objectively that God the Father loves us? How do we know that our sense of the Father’s love is more than an unsubstantiated feeling? That’s a very important question to answer—and especially at a time when we’re suffering for our Lord. And the answer to that question is found in our passage in Romans 5:6-11. God has not only granted us the internal ministry of the Holy Spirit to assure us of His love, but He’s also given us objective proof of His love.

So; my proposition to you from the word of God this morning is this: If you want to be assured of how much God loves us, simply look at the cross.

* * * * * * * * * *

So then; with that in mind, let’s look at what the apostle Paul declares to us in Romans 5:6-11. First of all, let’s consider what we’re told in verses 6-8. That’s where we’re shown that the cross is …

1. THE PROOF OF GOD’S UNDESERVED LOVE FOR US.

Paul began by describing to us what our condition was when He first demonstrated His love to us. In verse 6, He wrote, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” You and I, dear brothers and sisters, are the ‘ungodly’ ones identified in that situation. In fact, if you look through this whole passage, you’ll see the desperate condition we were in. Verse 6 says that we were ‘the ungodly’. Verse 8 says that we were ‘still sinners’. Verse 9 suggests that we were deserving of God’s ‘wrath’. And verse 10 says we were God’s ‘enemies’. It’s no wonder that it says, in verse 6, that we were ‘without strength’; or—as it puts it in the New American Standard translation—that we were ‘helpless’. In absolutely no way could we have ever made ourselves worthy of God’s love.

And dear brothers and sisters; before we can even begin to appreciate the greatness of the proof of God’s love for us, we need to first appreciate how utterly unworthy of that love we were. There was nothing about us that could possibly have commended us to God, or that could have moved Him to look upon us and say, “How lovely that man or woman is! They are truly lovable. They definitely deserve My love!” The greatness of God’s love for us is made to stand out to our attention by how hopelessly undeserving we were of it. In fact, we deserved the opposite. We deserved to suffer His righteous anger and wrath for our sins.

Please turn to Ephesians 2. In the first half of the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave us a dreadful picture of how unworthy of God’s love we were … but also of how great His love for us is. It says;

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Think of it. When God—the righteous, holy, almighty God of heaven—looked down upon us in our sins, He didn’t see anything in us whatsoever that would have been appealing to Him. Quite the opposite. He saw us as ‘dead’ in our trespasses and sins. And worse, He saw us as ‘the walking dead’; because we walked according to the dictates of the devil—fulfilling our impure lusts and sinful desires as the devil’s helpless slaves. And worse still, God saw us as destined for His just and holy wrath. So just think of how truly unworthy of His love we were.

And yet, it’s in the light of our deep unworthiness that God’s love for us shined through. Paul went on to say;

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (vv. 4-7).

When it comes to you and me, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God has truly shown the greatest degree of love, toward the most unworthy of people, in order to bring about the most glorious of outcomes. And we didn’t deserve any of it. Our good deeds and our religious works couldn’t have earned that love for us. It was all because of His rich mercy, “because of His great love with which He loved us”. So; that’s what Paul was telling us in Romans 5:6; that “when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”.

And do you notice that Paul said Jesus died for us “in due time” or “at the right time”? Those important words may mean that, at just the right time in human history, Jesus was born into this world to redeem humanity. And that would certainly be true. But I think it’s more likely that it means that, at just the right time in the desperation of human need—and at the right time our helplessness, and of the frustration of any efforts we could put forth to make ourselves worthy of it—Christ died for us.

Let me try to illustrate what I mean. Have you ever heard of how an experienced lifeguard saves a drowning person? That drowning person is often thrashing in the water in a state of wild panic; and if the lifeguard swam out directly to their rescue too soon, the person who is drowning may grab hold of them, and clutch onto them with almost superhuman strength, and then drag them both down under the water. And so, an experienced lifeguard will often wait until the drowning person has become exhausted enough to be almost completely limp and helpless … and then they can be safely pulled along and brought to the shore. And I believe that’s what these words are telling us. For centuries, humankind sought to make itself worthy of God’s love. The Jewish people in particular sought to make themselves worthy of God’s love by trying to keep God’s law. And that reflects how, even in our own personal lives, we try to make ourselves worthy of God’s love. But all those efforts fail. And when there was no other hope—in due time—God demonstrated His love for us in that Christ died for the ungodly. You and I cannot be saved unless we set aside all our own efforts and place our trust in Jesus alone. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

And that underscores to us how unworthy we were—and how great God’s undeserved love for us is. Paul went on to give us a further illustration of this. In verse 7, he wrote, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.” There are such stories in history; aren’t there? There are tales of great heroism in which someone willingly and sacrificially laid down their lives for a good and worthy person. Many have laid down their lives to save a family member or a child; and that’s because they were thought naturally to be worthy of such a sacrifice. There are even stories of someone who laid down their lives for someone else that they believed very strongly to be bad and unworthy, but those kinds of stories are somewhat rare.

“But”, as verse 8 says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In our case, we were not worthy at all. We were very bad in His sight. We were ‘sinners’ who were justly worthy of the dreadful judgment of God’s wrath. And yet, God the Father gave up that which is most precious to Himself—His only beloved Son—for us. As it tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Do you really want to know how great an act of love this was? It’s shown in the fact that we’re told that, while we were still sinners, Christ died “for” us. And what that means is that the holy, sinless, glorious Son of God died in our place and on our behalf as a substitute for God’s just judgment upon our sins. He, who was without any sin at all, and who was in perfect fellowship with God the Father, willingly came to earth on our behalf at the Father’s command, became one of us, and took the guilt of our sin upon Himself; and all so that He could pay the death penalty “for” us—that is, in our place and as our atoning Substitute.

Think of what it tells us in Isaiah 53. That’s a passage in the Old Testament that prophetically describes the meaning of Jesus’ death for us. In verses 4-6, it says;

Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6).

And that passage also highlights the greatness of God’s sacrificial love for us. In verse 10, it says;

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him (v. 10a).

So there it is. The objective demonstration of God’s love for us is in the sacrifice of His beloved Son for us. If you want to be assured of how much God loves us, simply look at the cross.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; it’s very important, dear brothers and sisters, that this particular affirmation from God be applied carefully. There’s definitely a sense in which God loves all people of the world. As the Lord Jesus Himself has testified, God the Father “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 7:45). Even the cross itself is a display of God’s love for the whole world; just as it says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son …” But for much of the world, that display of love is—we might say—’unrequited’ love. For many, God’s display of love is not responded to by a genuine faith in the sacrifice of His Son. And as it says in John 3:36; “he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

The display of God’s love that the apostle Paul describes in our passage is a love that’s responded to by a genuine faith in the sacrifice of Jesus His Son. And that makes Paul’s words a kind of argument from ‘the harder thing to the easier thing’. If God would love us so much that He would give His precious Son for us as our atoning Substitute, then we can rest assured that—if we have received that love by faith, and are now made righteous in His sight—He will love us in every other possible way and will welcome us fully to Himself forever.

You see; this specific description of God’s love is meant only for those who have been justified—declared righteous in God’s sight—by faith in the cross of Jesus. The good news is that anyone who wishes to may be made righteous in God’s sight by faith in Jesus. But it’s only those who have done so—those who have been made right with God through a sincere faith in Jesus—that can claim any assurance of God’s love through the cross.

But the fact that God thus makes it possible for us to become right with Him, and to become welcomed to Himself, shows us another way that He demonstrates His love for us through the cross; and that is that …

2. IT’S THE BASIS OF GOD’S RECONCILIATION TOWARD US.

Before we can be assured of God’s love for us, and experience the depth of that love in our lives, we need to be objectively ‘reconciled’ to Him. We were sinners before Him—in alienation from Him—in a condition of being His enemies—worthy objects of His holy wrath. We needed to be made righteous in His sight—that is, declared “justified” before Him—before we could have peace with Him and experience His love. And because He wanted that to happen, he provided full atonement for our sins through the cross of Jesus so that we could be declared righteous before Him.

In verse 1, we’re told, “Therefore, having been justified”—that is, declared officially ‘righteous’ in God’s sight—“we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ …” Now that our sins have been taken away, God the Father is able to extend His welcoming hand to sinners like us and invite us to come to Him and enjoy peace with Him. He has reconciled us to Himself.

And so; with that in mind, notice what Paul then went on to say in verses 9-10. He wrote, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Now; the Bible warns us clearly that God’s wrath for sin is a serious reality. In Romans 1:18, we’re told;

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Romans 1:18).

In fact, God has appointed ‘a day of wrath’ in which He will fully punish sin. In Romans 2:5-6, the apostle Paul speaks to those who reject His Son and persist in sin; saying,

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds” … (Romans 2:5-6).

But Paul assures us that, being justified by the blood of Jesus, we are delivered from God’s wrath. It’s truly a great demonstration of His love; because He didn’t simply ignore our sin and choose not to punish it. Instead, He sent His Son for us, who willingly endured His Father’s just and holy wrath for our sins upon Himself on the cross. It’s an argument from the harder thing to the easier thing. Paul wrote, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The debt has been paid. God’s wrath is now satisfied. We can now be reconciled to Him! What love!

And notice that it’s not only Jesus’ death that delivers us. It’s also His life; because Jesus rose from the dead. When Jesus was raised from the dead, it was proof to the whole world that God the Father was completely satisfied with the sacrifice He made for us on the cross. And so, in verse 10, Paul went on to say; “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Dear beloved brothers and sisters in Christ; just think of how the very same Jesus who died for us now lives for us! He ascended to the Father, and now sits at the Father’s right hand—forever advocating for us—forever praying to His Father for us—forever pleading for the sufficiency of His own blood for us. That too is a demonstration of His love. Romans 8:31-39 says;

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39).

Dear brothers and sisters; it’s really true: If you want to be assured of how much God loves us, simply look at the cross!

* * * * * * * * * *

And let me share with you one more way that we see the love God demonstrated to us in the cross, and that’s how …

3. IT’S THE FOUNDATION OF GOD’S GIFT OF JOY TO US.

Paul describes it for us in verse 11. He said; “And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

God the Father has not only given us proof of His love for us in the fact that Jesus died for us. And He’s not only given us further proof in that Jesus’ death reconciles us to Himself. He gives us even further proof of His love for us in that—through our resurrected and living Savior—we have ongoing joy in the difficulties and trials of daily living. Nothing of the troubles of life can ever separate us from God’s love through Jesus His Son.

Think of what the apostle Peter affirmed to us at the beginning of his first letter. He told us;

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3-9).

Or even think back again to what the apostle Paul has told us at the beginning of Romans 5;

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:1-5).

When we’re going through trials and difficulties, we should be realistic about them. They’re hard and painful. But we’re not fully being realistic about them if we only look at those trials and the difficulties as things in and of themselves. Instead, the thing to do is to see them in the light of the cross of Jesus Christ—where God’s immeasurable love has been demonstrated to us. It’s in the light of His cross that we see the love of God even in the midst of our trials; and, as a result, have joy.

If you want to be assured of how much God loves us—especially in the midst of trials—simply look at the cross.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sometimes, when I’ve done something special for my wife—or have gotten a gift for her that she was wanting—I’ve heard her quietly say, “Now I know he loves me …!”

And dear brothers and sisters, we can say the same thing about God our Father when we look at the cross. He has demonstrated His love to us objectively—in as plain a way as it can be shown—through the cross of Jesus. He’s shown that He loves us by the fact that Jesus died for us. He’s shown that He loves us by the fact that, through Jesus, He’s reconciled us to Himself. And He’s shown it by the fact that the crucified Lord Jesus is the cause of our joy in all our trials. When we look at the cross, we can say, “Now I know God loves me …!”

So; let’s keep our eyes focused on the cross of Jesus. That’s the greatest and most objective demonstration we could ever find of how much God truly loves us.

AE