Awesome Love! (Romans 5:6-11)

In an international conference on comparative religions religious experts from around the world gathered and debated among themselves what belief, if there is any, is unique to the Christian faith.

They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions have different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions have their own versions of people returning from the dead.

The debate went on for sometime until the brilliant author C.S. Lewis walked into the room. “What’s commotion all about?” he asked. Someone told him that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among the world’s religions.

Lewis replied, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” After some discussion, the conferees agreed.[1]

What is grace? Simply put, it is “unmerited favor or love from God.” Someone said, “Grace is everything for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything.” [2]

The idea of God’s boundless and sacrificial love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every grain of human nature.

The Buddhist’s eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Muslim religious duties known as five pillars – each of these offers a way to earn divine approval. The concept of grace is distinct and unique to the Judeo-Christian faith.

And no other biblical author uses the word “grace” more often than the apostle Paul.

Approximately 80 times Paul used the word in his writings. And it appears the most number of times in his letter to the Romans (21 times).

Six times in 21 verses Paul used the word “grace”(charis) in the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. If Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter of the Bible,we may safely say that Romans 5 is the grace chapter.

It appears that to the apostle Paul, everything about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith is “grace”. Grace is the foundation on which our relationship with God is built and upon which our relationship with our neighbors is patterned.

What is so amazing and awesome about God’s love?

Romans 5:10 reads, “But God has shown us how much he loves us – it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.”

On the basis of this verse we find that God’s love is awesome and amazing for at least two reasons: The costliness of the gift to the giver and the unworthiness of the receiver.

THE COSTLINESS OF THE GIFT TO THE GIVER

According to the apostle Paul, the cost is this: “Christ died for us.” Grace is not cheap. Grace is expensive. It is costly. God’s love for us is sacrificial.

We hear of parents who sacrifice separation, loneliness, inhuman treatment of working abroad for the sake of their families here. I heard of a brother who gave up his other kidney for the sake of his sister who had to undergo kidney transplant.

But there is no greater sacrifice than when one gives his or her own life for another.

Jack Kelly, a reporter of USA Today, shares the following poignant first-hand experience:

“We were in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in East Africa, during a famine. It was so bad we walked into one village and everybody was dead. There is a stench of death that gets into your hair, gets onto your skin, gets onto your clothes, and you can’t wash it off.

“We saw this little boy. You could tell he had worms and was malnourished; his stomach was protruding. When a child is extremely malnourished, the hair turns a reddish color, and the skin becomes crinkled as though he’s 100 years old.

“Our photographer had a grapefruit, which he gave to the boy. The boy was so weak he didn’t have the strength to hold the grapefruit, so we cut it in half and gave it to him. He picked it up, looked at us as if to say thanks, and began to walk back towards his village.

“We walked behind him in a way that he couldn’t see us. When he entered the village, there on the ground was a little boy who I thought was dead. His eyes were completely glazed over. It turned out that this was his younger brother. The older brother kneeled down next to his younger brother, bit off a piece of the grapefruit, and chewed it. Then he opened up his younger brother’s mouth, put the grapefruit in, and worked his brother’s jaw up and down. We learned that the older brother had been doing that for the younger brother for two weeks.

“A couple days later the older brother died of malnutrition, and the younger brother lived. I remember driving home that night thinking, I wonder if this is what Jesus meant when he said, "There is no greater love than to lay down our life for somebody else." [3]

This and similar expressions mirror the great and immeasurable, awesome love God has for us. God proved his love by Christ’s death on the cross.

“God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” (John 3:16)

“The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galations 2:20)

God formerly sent prophets and at other times, angels. But God finally sent his own Son, Jesus. And in giving his Son he was giving himself. Jesus died so that you and I may have life.

Grace is free to the recipient but costly to the donor. It cost the life of God’s one and only Son – Jesus.

THE UNWORTHINESS OF THE RECEIVER

To whom does God give this one costly gift? We are those for whom God demonstrated his love. Mind you, we are not the most worthy recipients of God’s awesome and sacrificial love.

Paul describes us in the following four words:

Romans 5:8 reads, “But God has shown us how much he loves us – it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.”

In verse 6, “When we were still helpless…Christ died for the ungodly…” In verse 10, “We were God’s enemies…”

We have fallen short from God’s standard. We were helpless to rescue ourselves. We have not loved God as we should. By running our own life we have resisted God’s authority.

“Sinners”, “helpless”, “ungodly” and “enemies”. These are Paul’s description of who we are. Yet it is for us that Jesus Christ died.

We humans can be very generous in giving to those we consider worthy of our affection, support and respect. Human love says, “I will love and accept you,

IF you will excel in school or at work;

IF you will maintain your figure or good looks;

IF you behave;

IF you will love me in return.

Someone may possibly dare to die for an upright, good, kind and appealing person. A parent may die for a child. A friend may die for a friend. Or someone may even give his life for a stranger. That is truly remarkable!

But the majesty of God’s love lies in dying for His enemies. The fact is, while we were spitting on his face, he offered his life for us. That is amazing and awesome!

God’s love is illogical, beyond understanding. Bible commentator Franz Leenhardt writes, “God loves without rational justification.”[4] From a mere human point of view, it is insane.

There is nothing in us or we can ever do that can make God love us more. And there is nothing in us or we can ever do that can make God love us less.

That’s what John Newton was speaking of when he wrote the classic hymn, “Amazing Grace”. He was talking about the manner in which God acts toward sinners that don’t deserve God’s salvation and friendship.

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but am found, was blind but now I see”

Conclusion

A sign on a water cooler at a manufacturing plant reads, “Due to inflation and other rising costs, the water in this cooler is now twice as free as it used to be.”

God’s grace and love for us is twice as awesome and amazing! First, because of the costliness of the gift to God, the giver. And second, because of our unworthiness as receivers.

How should we then live in the light of God’s twice amazing and awesome love for us?

1. Live with joy, peace, confidence, and self-respect.

The assurance of the love of his or her parents is indispensable to the healthy emotional development of a child. To be sure of the love of one’s spouse or friend is conducive to the development of human fulfillment.

Conversely, to be sure of God’s unconditional love brings with it a sense of joy, peace, confidence and self-respect. We have all the reason to be the most positive people in the world.

2. Live with love for God

My favorite scripture verse is Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

We are invited to a love relationship with the one who loved us sacrificially and unconditionally.

You and I should live our lives until our last breath pleasing to the one who loved us enough to die for our sake.

3. Live with love and grace toward others

Is it enough to love Him in return? Jesus asks more than that.

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you….As I have loved you, love one another.” (John 15:9, 12)

Nothing less than this love for one another, this giving of self for one another, is expected of us. 1 John 4:19 reads, “We love because He first loved us.” Such love is a forgiving love.

Mandisa Hundley, a Christian gospel singer and contestant in the 5th season of the American Idol, met with judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, & Randy Jackson to find out if she made it through to the next round of the competition.

Simon had previously made a sarcastic remark upon seeing Mandisa, who is a heavy-weight woman: "Do we have a bigger stage this year?"

When she entered the room to learn the judges’ verdict, prior to the cut-down to the season's 24 semi-finalists, Mandisa looked right at Simon and addressed him: “Simon, a lot people want me to say a lot of things to you. But this is what I want to say…yes, you hurt me, and I cried, and it was painful. It really was, but I want you to know that I’ve forgiven you, and that you don’t need someone to apologize in order to forgive somebody. And I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you.”

Randy said, "Amen." Simon apologized, and Mandisa advanced into the next round and became one of the season’s 12 finalists.[5]

Philip Yancey said, “This above all should determine our attitude toward others: a humble awareness that God has already forgiven us a debt so mountainous that beside it any person’s wrongs against us shrink to the size of anthills. How can we not forgive each other in light of all God has forgiven us?”[6]

C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”[7]

When the renowned German theologian Karl Barth visited the University of Chicago, students and scholars crowded around him. At a press conference, one asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the most profound truth you have learned in your studies?” Without hesitation he replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Indeed, nothing can be more profound, more amazing, more awesome, than God’s love for us.

Read more of Rev. Deslate's Sermons at the Ellinwood Malate Church's site.

[1] Philip Yancey, “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”

[2] Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov. 1997, page for October 31

[3] "The Stories Behind the Headlines," given at Evangelical Press Association convention in May 2000.

[4] Epistle to the Romans, Lutherworth Press, London, 1957. p.136

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandisa

[6] Philip Yancey, “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”, p.63-64

[7] Philip Yancey, p.64