1. Introduction
This is the third of a series of pages on how much God loves you.
In the first page we noted that one of God's main characteristics is
love. Everything
He does is generated by love, therefore everything He feels about you
comes from His love for you.
We
also considered the cost to the Father and Son, of being parted to bring
about the possibility of your forgiveness for all the wrongs you've
ever thought, said or done.
Finally
we considered that because of these things, and because the Bible tells
us, we know that God is FOR us, completely for us!
In the second page we saw the wonder of God's love as shown to us through
Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, a love that allows us to make our
own wrong decisions, yet which yearns for us to come back.
When
it sees us coming, it runs and accepts us back without blame or condemnation.
This page considers what happens when we get it wrong, when we fail,
when we sin.
2.
Suppose I Fail Again?
The New Testament indicates that Christians, although no longer under
the power of Sin, do sometimes still sin.
Consider
the following verse:
In
1 Jn 2:1
the apostle John, said he was writing so that we would not sin,
but if we did, then Jesus spoke to the Father in our defence.
This
verse tells us a number of things: first John, the writer, expects that
we won't sin as Christians, but acknowledges that it is always a possibility.
Having
acknowledged the possibility, he then tells us what will happen from
God's side - Jesus speaks up for us.
This
is where many of us struggle - look it up if you haven't done so yet
- Jesus speaks up for us in our defence.
What
Jesus Doesn't Do!
Many of us have such a bad view of ourselves and lack a proper understanding
of how God feels about us, so at this point we imagine the worst.
We
imagine Jesus, when we've just failed, saying, "Oh no, why did I ever
bother with them? I've had enough of them. I'm giving up on them", but
that's not what a defence lawyer would say.
So
What Does Jesus Say?
We're not told directly but Scripture, inspired by God, does give us
a clue. See what the apostle Paul said about someone who has just
failed:
In
Gal 6:1
the apostle Paul says that if we catch someone in sin, if we are
spiritual we will restore them gently.
Did you see that? Paul speaks about restoring this person,
and restoring them gently!
Jesus
shows us God's heart
If we want to know what God is like in His thoughts and feelings towards
us, we need to look at Jesus Christ.
Jesus
is the image of the God we can't see (Col 1:15) wrote the apostle Paul.
Jesus,
speaking of the person who believes in him said that when they look
at him they will see the Father. (Jn
12:44,45). In
other words the Bible declares Jesus to be God's Son and therefore,
when we see Jesus act, we know that is how God the Father acts.
So,
lets look at three examples of how Jesus dealt with people (you may
want to look them up in a Bible).
3.
Jesus and the Blind Man
At the beginning of John 9 (John 9:1-3) we find Jesus'
followers pointing out a man who had been blind from birth and asking
Jesus who had sinned, the man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Those followers were doing what we so often do, see something going
wrong and assume it is punishment. Jesus'
answer is interesting: It was not a case of who sinned, but a case of
taking the opportunity to do good and heal the man.
In other words Jesus refused to condemn this man, but instead basically
said, "Let's not worry about his past, let's heal him today" and that's
just what he did!
We
want to condemn, Jesus wants to heal!
We
want reasons why things happen, Jesus just wants to put them right.
We
worry about the past, Jesus is more concerned to ensure the future is
better.
We
assume God comes to judge, Jesus shows He comes to bless.
4.
Jesus and an adulterous woman
In John 8:1-11
we find the story of a woman who was an adulteress who was brought
before Jesus.
Now
in Jesus' time that was very serious and the Law required such a person
be stoned to death (it made for a very moral society!).
The
people who brought her to Jesus were religious leaders who wanted Jesus
to lose some of his popularity with the crowd. If he condemned her he
would be seen to be siding with the unpopular religious leaders.
So
what does he do? He writes in the sand on the floor!
Why?
We're not told, but perhaps he was writing a list of the sins in the
lives of those leaders, we don't know. After he wrote he stood
up and invited anyone who was without sin to be the first to throw a
stone at her. And then he carried on writing in the sand.
Quietly, one by one, the religious accusers left until only she and
Jesus were left.
"Hasn't
anyone condemned you," he asked her. "No one, sir," she replied. "Then
neither do I ," Jesus declared. Finally he told her to return home and
make sure she didn't sin like that again.
Earlier in the Bible we find God saying saying that He takes no pleasure
in the death of anyone ( Ezek 18:32
). Jesus confirms that. God is more concerned in leading people
into living good lives than in condemning them for failing.
5.
Jesus and Peter's denial
For this you would need to read chapter 21 of John's Gospel,
verses 15 to 22.
Peter
had been one of Jesus' closest followers, yet when Jesus was arrested
a situation arose whereby Peter denied Jesus three times.
In
the above passage, Jesus returned after his death and, in one of his
resurrection appearances, talked with Peter. Three times in that
passage we find Jesus asking Peter, "Do you love me?" and three times
Peter affirms his love for Jesus. Three times Jesus tells Peter to look
after his embryonic church.
Does Jesus condemn Peter for his failure? Does he rebuke him?
No,
instead, quite remarkably, he simply allows Peter to reaffirm out loud
his love for Jesus as if to wash over his three denials.
Then
he basically appoints Peter to be one of the main leaders in his coming
church. This is incredible! Peter has
failed Jesus, as badly as it is possible to fail him, and what does
Jesus do?
Makes
him a leader! What is this all about?
It's Jesus who knows our weaknesses but also knows our potential!
Jesus
knew what he could do with Peter. Peter went on to be THE pillar of
the early church, the number one leader.
Tradition
has it that he too was finally crucified for his faith - upside down
because he didn't want to die like his Master. Jesus' expectations of
Peter were fully realised.
6.
And You?
Are you in any worse position than the blind man? Is
your failure any worse than the woman's? Is
it worse than Peter's?
Does
Jesus love you any less than these three? You failed in life? Join the
human race! Jesus understands that. He loves you with your failure!
Remember the heart of these three illustrations - and there are plenty
more in the Gospels - Jesus was more concerned to restore than
to condemn.
This
is the nature of Jesus' (and God's) love. The apostle Paul was to write,
"Love… keeps no record of wrongs" (1 Cor 13:5).
One
critical condition
All that we have said is absolutely true - but it applies only to those
who have, like the prodigal son of the previous page, come to their
senses and gone to Father looking for forgiveness.
What
we've been talking about has been the love of God that is there for
you - but you have to come to the end of yourself first. You won't
be able to receive and experience that love of God if you keep holding
Him at arm's length.
When my children were small and I saw one of them fall, I wanted
to pick them up and put my arms around them, but if they said, "Go away!"
they stopped me doing that. It's
like that with God. It's very simple and straight forward.
You may never have let God come close because you've always held onto
the control of your life. You
may be a Christian who's never understood how much God loves you.
That
can change. Take in again what this page has said about how much He
loves you. Dare to believe it. Receive it. Live with it.
Allow Him to transform you.