The unconditional love of God.
These verses are just outstanding as far as communicating what
the love of God really is, the nature of that love. And I'm
gonna make this point in the message. Most people, when they
talk about the love of God, they really don't understand the nature
of that love, what it's about, what it involves. Most people, when they speak
of the love of God, they're really speaking of their own kind of
selfish, sinful human love. And we do have that. But this
is talking about something that is beyond the scope, the ability,
and even the understanding of natural man except the Holy Spirit. gives him a revelation from God. And that's why he starts out
here, he says in verse six, he says for when, or verse five
rather, he talked about hope maketh not ashamed, that hope
is the assurance, the expectation of salvation, and maketh not
ashamed. In other words, we have the assurance
of salvation, in Christ, and the way the Holy Spirit gave
us that assurance, he says, because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts. Now you know what the heart is,
it's the mind, it's the affections, it's the will, it's the whole
person. It's the inner man. And so, he says, the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given
unto us. Now how does the Holy Ghost do
that? He doesn't do it mystically or magically, he does it by a
powerful, sovereign, invincible application of the word of God
in Christ, giving us a new heart to receive Christ. And you can
think about passages of scripture like 1 John 4 and verse 10, where
it says, herein is love, not that we love God. You see, the
love of God is not enacted by anything we do or think or say
or feel. The love of God is something
that is expressed by God to his people without any consideration
of what we do. So it's not that we love God.
God's love is the source of all of this. Our love is not the
source of it. We by nature don't love God.
We by nature don't love Christ. We by nature don't love his word
or his truth. And so in order for us to love
God, his love has to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit in the new birth, as he brings to our hearts, our minds,
affections, our wills, the word of God. And so he says in 1 John
4, 10, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved
us. And how do you know he loved
us? He gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And so keep that in mind as we
go through here. Look at verse six now. He says,
for when we were yet without strength, what does that mean?
That means without power, without ability. We didn't have any ability
in us. We fell in Adam into sin and
death. All we could do in God's sight
was sin. Even our best efforts to be good
are sinful in God's sight because they don't equal up to righteousness. They don't equal up to the perfection
of righteousness which can only be found in Christ. And then
we don't have the ability to think, to believe, to know, to
reach out for God. Man doesn't have that natural
ability. That's why he says no man can come to me. except the
Father which hath sent me draw him. That's why the natural man,
that's how we are naturally born, fallen, spiritually dead in Adam,
ruined by the fall, that's how we naturally are. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
And so at that time, you see, when we were without strength,
in due time, what's the due time? That's a God's appointed time.
In due time, what happened? Christ died for the ungodly.
Now what's the crux of the matter here? What's the basis of it?
What's the power of it? What's the issue of it? It's
the fact that Christ died. And why did he die? Well, This
verse, as I said in your lesson here, describes the unconditional
love of God towards all whom God saves. And who are they? Well, they're without strength.
We'll see later on, he talks about how, well, we were yet
sinners, falling short of the standard. So whatever he's talking
about in God's love, God's salvation, God's power, is something we
don't earn and something we don't deserve. This, I'll tell you
what, this totally obliterates this notion that people have
of condition or election. God looking down through a telescope
of time and foreseeing who would believe or who would cooperate
with him and making his choice of whom he would say based upon
what he foresaw. That's not biblical, that's heresy.
That's totally against grace. It's totally against the scriptures.
When we were yet without strength, without power, without ability,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now what does this mean?
It means this, salvation as it applies to us, the love of God
as it applies to us is totally unconditional towards us. There's
nothing in us, there's nothing about us, There's nothing that
we do or can do or will do or promise to do or try to do that
would motivate God to love us. Does that cover about everything?
Nothing. Somebody says, well, God loved
Jacob, but he hated Esau. And you know how the world thinks
about that. If they really understood God's love and God's hatred,
they say, well, I can understand why God loved Jacob, because
he's a human being, but how could God be so unfair to hate Esau? Well, my friend, listen. If God
gave Jacob what Jacob deserved and earned, it would be the hatred. And we'll talk about that in
just a moment. it would be hatred. That's what we deserve. We don't
deserve God's love, we deserve his hatred. But his hatred's
not like ours. All right, but hold on to that
thought. When we were yet without strength,
the only thing we can and have earned from God is his hatred,
his wrath, eternal damnation. Bible says it. There's none righteous,
no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. There's none that seeketh after God. But here's
the point. The issue here being Christ died
for the ungodly. Now why did he have to die? Well,
because there are conditions that must be met for God to love
us. I think it was Brother Jim Bird,
he was talking about hearing another preacher say that. God
has to do something for himself before he can do anything for
us. Now what does that mean? That means that this, whatever
God does in saving, loving, blessing his people, He has to do it in
a way that honors his glory, honors himself. He cannot do
it in dishonoring himself. That's why people who talk about
God loves everybody and he's trying to save everybody, Christ
died for everybody, that's dishonoring to God. That's not just a segment
of true Christianity, that's false Christianity. And that's
what it is, it's heresy because it dishonors God. So what has
to happen? Well, God has conditions, and
what are the conditions? His law and his justice must
be satisfied, must be honored. For God to love me, a sinner,
he must do it in such a way and be just in doing so. He must
do it on a proper and just and right ground. So what did he
do? He conditioned salvation. His
love, you could say. And his love is equivalent to
salvation. You understand that? It's not
God trying to do anything. His love's not like our love.
In our love, we would think about your children. You'd do anything
to save your children, wouldn't you? But you can only go so far. I found that out. I would've
done anything to save my son, to keep him here, but I couldn't
do it. I was helpless. But now is God's love like that?
And then people come along and they'll say something like this,
well, God could if he wanted to, but he doesn't want to step
on your dignity. Will you show me one scripture
from Genesis to Revelation where it talks about fallen sinners
having any dignity before God? Where is that in scripture? I
heard a preacher say one time, he's a debater, they call him
a biblical scholar. And he was talking about how
God brings sinners to himself. And he said, well, God's love
is not a forced love, like he forces love upon you. That's what he says about what
we believe. You know, that God brings us to himself, he draws
us, He says, well, he brings you against your will. Well,
first of all, God doesn't bring us to himself against our will.
He changes our will. That's what he does. By a powerful
work of the Holy Spirit, shedding abroad his love in our heart,
he changes our will. He can do that. He can do it. But he draws us to himself. And this preacher was saying,
well, that's forced love. And he said, forced love is rape.
That's what he said. Well, first thing I thought of,
I said, listen son, there's no love in rape. Rape is not about
love, it's about power. But God doesn't force us against
our will, he draws us with cords of love. He makes us willing
in the day of his power, doesn't he? He shows us our sinfulness
and depravity, and our need of his grace. He shows us that without
Christ and his blood, We're doomed. Without Christ and his righteousness
imputed to us, we have no hope of salvation. We've got no place
else to go but Christ. And that's what he does. But
God cannot love or save sinners apart from his holiness, his
justice, his truth being satisfied and honored. Therefore, verse
six, where when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died. Why did he die? His death was
not just a token, of God's love. His death was not just something
that God did to show how much he wants us to do something. No, his death was a perfect satisfaction
to law and justice which established righteousness out of the love
of God that demands the salvation and final glory of every sinner
for whom he died. That's what it is. And that's
the love of God. Now, I've got in your lesson,
there's so many people today, they don't understand the true
nature of God's love. And the reason is, is because
they liken it to our own love. Even sinful, selfish love. Our
natural inclination, our natural human reasoning and misconception
is stated in Psalm 50 and verse 21. where God told the people,
he says, thou thoughtest that I was altogether such in one
as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them in order before
thine eye. You thought I was like you. You know, that's what
men do, men and women do naturally. They take what they see as good
in themselves and they attribute it to God and they say, well,
God's not like, I wouldn't do this, oh God wouldn't. Well,
here's the thing about it. The only way we're gonna know
the true nature of God's character, God's glory, God's love, God's
mercy, God's justice, is as God reveals it in his word. And what
that is, it's a literal invasion into our natural way of thinking.
It's a literal conquering how we naturally think. For example,
this is why people have a hard time considering that God could
hate anybody. Well, God couldn't hate anybody
because he's like me. Well, here's the thing about
it. Our hatred, if we harbor any
hatred in our heart towards another individual, it is sinful because
it's the product of selfishness, of self-love, of prejudice, or
whatever. But God's hatred is not like
ours. It's not based upon sinful feelings,
sinful notions, sinful thoughts. God's hatred is his just wrath
against sin. It's righteous hatred. It's righteous
indignation. Now the closest that we come
to that after God brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ
is what David said in the psalm when he said, I hate every false
way. I can say I hate every false way. There's only one way of
salvation. And there's no other way of salvation. And I hate
every other way because they're false ways and they lead sinners
to hell. That's what they do. And so we
do hate every false way. But I've got a list of scriptures
here that talks about God's hatred. Psalm 5.5, God hates all workers
of iniquity. Well then how can God love me?
Aren't I a worker of iniquity? Well, God must find a way that
he can look at me and not see a worker of iniquity. And how
does he do that? Based upon Christ and his righteousness
alone. I stand before God in Christ.
And so you can look at Proverbs 6, Hosea 9, Malachi 3, Romans
9, 13, all of those scriptures. But God's hatred is righteous
and just. It's only right. God has to hate
all workers of iniquity. What is a worker of iniquity?
That's those to whom sin is imputed. That's what he's talking about
there. So what's my hope? That sin not be imputed to me.
That's why David said in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. If God doesn't charge you with
sin, you're blessed, but how can he not charge you with sin
and be just? Blessed is the man to whom righteousness
without works is imputed, in Christ. Now, with that in mind,
look at these next two verses. He says, verse seven, for scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now what Paul's doing there is
he's using an illustration to heighten and illustrate this
great unconditional love of God towards his people. And here's
what he's saying, and he's using a hypothetical. How do you know
it's a hypothetical? Well, look at what he says. Scarcely
for a righteous man will one die. Now, if you look back in
Romans chapter three in verse 10, what does it say there? There's
none righteous, no, not one. So what does that tell you? Well,
this is a hypothetical. If there were a righteous man
or a good man, it says there's none good, no not one. In God's
eye, we're talking about God's measure here, God's standard.
So, but in human ways of thinking, we can understand, we could certainly
see how somebody would die for a righteous or a good person. Somebody that we see naturally
deserved it. We hear people, for example,
in the military dying for their country. I thank God for them. They give their life. We hear
all the time of fathers and mothers giving their life for their children,
all that. And we admire that. That is a
great love. That's not the love of God now.
But the thing about it is, If there were a righteous person
or a good person, we could certainly understand reasonably in our
human way of thinking somebody dying for them. You could see
it. But here's the love of God. God
commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Now if you go through the Bible
and you look at what that really means, it means Equivocally to
be an enemy of God. Christ died for his enemies. Now what the Bible says we are,
before we're reconciled to God in our minds, Christ died for
us. He died for his enemies. He died
for sinners. God justifies the ungodly. Now what love is that? God's
love is given to sinners, those who do not deserve and cannot
earn his love. God did not look down through
the telescope of time and foresee who would cooperate or believe
or do anything. In fact, in Romans chapter nine,
look over there. Listen to what he says here about
Jacob and Esau. He says, He says, verse 11 of
Romans 9, he says, for the children, being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It's the sovereignty
of God. That election is God's election
of grace, it's electing love. So it's not conditioned on or
based upon anything we do, it's the unconditional love of God
towards his people. And so again, let's emphasize,
the death of Christ was not a token of God's love for everyone without
exception, wherein God was trying to save everybody without exception,
if they'd do their part. The death of Christ was the assurance
of God's love and salvation for all whom he had chosen and given
to Christ before the foundation of the world. Sovereign, unconditional,
electing love. Now look at verse nine. Much
more than being now justified by his blood, what is it to be
justified? It's to be forgiven of all of
our sins. It's to have our sins imputed,
charged to Christ. It's to have his righteousness
imputed to us. And so what he's saying when
he says justified by his blood, that God justified us, made us
right with him based upon a right, just ground. Justified by his
blood is the same as being justified by his righteousness, Romans
chapter three. Christ died for us. to establish righteousness based
upon which God loves, graces, has mercy upon, blesses his people. And so he says, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. The wrath of God is God's just
judgment against all to whom sin is imputed. The wrath of
God can only be seen in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody
says, well, I'm under the wrath of God because they're having
a hard time. My friend, you haven't begun to see the wrath of God. If you want to see the wrath
of God, look to Christ on the cross dying for the sins of his
people charged to him. That's the closest we'll get.
Now, the wrath of God is impending against those who live and die
in unbelief, John 3, 36. The wrath of God abides on them.
But thank God that Christ took our wrath. And because he died,
we cannot perish because our sins have been purged away by
the blood of Jesus Christ. We cannot perish because we stand
before God in the righteousness of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so on your last paragraph, justified sinners have no warrant
to fear God's wrath because wrath cannot abide where righteousness
is imputed. Wrath cannot abide where the
blood, somebody talked about being under the blood of Christ,
where you're under the blood, that's what that means. Wrath
cannot abide where we're under the blood of Christ. and he took
our wrath. It's impossible, that's what
Paul's saying, it's impossible for us to perish. You know what
he's headed toward here as we go on through in Romans chapter
eight, nothing, look over there at Romans eight, we'll just,
cause talking about the love of God. You know he starts off
there in verse 33, he says, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect, it is God that justifies. How does he justify
it? By the blood of Christ, based
on Christ's righteousness imputed. Verse 34, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Well,
how did Christ die for his people? He died for us when we were yet
sinners. And he says, yea, rather that
is risen again. That's his life. That's the next
lesson that I've already done. talked about his life. Christ
is living. He arose from the dead. Why?
Because he finished the work. He satisfied justice. He purged
our sins. He established righteousness.
So he arose from the dead. He ascended into the Father.
He's seated at the right hand of the Father on high, ever living
to make intercession for us, and that's what he said. He's
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. And he says, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? You know, people today, they
believe that their decision, their faith, their sins can separate
them from a God who loves them. That is not so. Not in the Bible. He says, shall tribulation, that's
trouble, distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
so as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day
long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him, through
Christ that loved us. For I'm 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 creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.