So many Christians today fail to fully understand the love of God. They know that God loves them and they profess to love Him too, but they quickly fall back into the same old way of life they had before they knew Christ. Sad, isn't it?
Why does this happen? Likely it's because many of us fail to see the whole picture of who God is.
Just in part
We can fail to see who God really is. We can see Him just in part: in other words, we can focus on His loving attributes so much that we forget many other things about Him.
While it's true that God is love, the Bible tells us that He is also holy, righteous, and just. When we fail to see the big picture of who God is, we tend to downplay, even ignore, His intolerance towards sin and His longing for us to become righteous and holy like He is.
Ignoring God's righteousness and holiness
Many Christians in church today don't know the big picture about the Gospel. They understand that Christ came to save them, but do not understand why it took Christ to save all of us. They understand that Christ died on the cross, but they don't understand the necessity of why He had to die that way.
Some of us understand that the Gospel is a message of love, but do we realize that it's also a message that should make us shiver or tremble when we understand it? It's a rescue message of divine proportions. Let me explain.
The Gospel as a whole
The Bible tells us that God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. No flesh can ever glory in His presence (see 1 Corinthians 1:29). No wickedness or evil can ever stand before Him (see Psalm 5:4). No wickedness can ever go unpunished by Him (see Proverbs 11:21).
Man, on the other hand, is unrighteous. We have fallen into sin, and have been separated from God (Romans 3:23). Our sins deserve the punishment that God has prepared for it: His wrath (see Romans 1:18).
In His love, however, God wanted us to be reconciled to Him. The only way for us to be reconciled with God is when we meet His righteous standards. Sadly, no man can ever reach His standards, because we have all sinned.
But God, in His great mercy, sent His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to save us (John 3:16). And this rescue mission wasn't without much pain and anguish (see Luke 24:26).
Jesus Christ came to fulfill God's standards of righteousness for all of us who are unable to fulfill it (see Matthew 5:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He came in the flesh so that He could rescue all of us who are living in the flesh (see Hebrews 2:17). He lived a sinless human life and was thus the only Person who could ever meet God's righteous standards (see Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
God's law required that blood be shed for the forgiveness of sins (see Hebrews 9:22). In the Old Testament, the blood of a spotless and flawless animal allowed the people's sins to be covered. Christ, however, did so much more than just cover our sins.
He bore our iniquities and carried our sins on the cross. Christ Jesus received the punishment that was for us, God's wrath being poured out on our sins. Christ became the sacrificial lamb whose blood was offered so that our sins could be forgiven, and our offenses blotted out.
To cut it short, God's wrath against our sin was poured out on the body of the sinless Son of God who carried our sins on the cross. (see Isaiah 53)
This is God's love: a love that destroyed sin through the death of the sinless Saviour, and gives life through His resurrection.
The whole picture
Friends, I hope we all understand it now. God's holiness, justice, and righteousness demanded that sinful man be punished with an eternal suffering in hell. But God's love in Christ Jesus received that punishment so that we could all be forgiven instead.
I hope that by now we understand that God isn't all about us. We should throw down every man-centered Gospel that we've heard because it's not about us.
It's all about Him: His holy, just, righteous, and loving Person. All glory to God.
I leave you with this message from the Bible:
"Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
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.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they[a] made His grave with the wicked - But with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin,He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
