The Price of Love
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· 8 viewsGazing on the beauty of God's love in Christ ought evoke joy, peace, praise, and grow is in Christ-like love
Notes
Transcript
Intro: There is a beautiful prayer in Psalm 27—a sincere, godly request that sets our heart in the right direction:
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
We may ask the Lord for many things—just like David did—deliverance—physical, emotional help.
But one thing stands out as supreme—to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
*We are going to focus on just one verse—, really just one word
worth soaking in— propitiation (ESV)
--With one purpose: to gaze on the beauty of the Lord.
Last week we saw that love benefits and blesses others; it’s not mere talk or emotion—
The benefits and blessings of love will involve a cost (sacrifice); it will come with a price-tag.
Outline:
—The price explained
—The price applied
—The prize prized
The price explained
The price explained
Just to be clear at the outset—when we are talking about the price of love, we are talking about the Cross.
**What Christ did on the cross cuts to the very heart of our faith.
To know the price of love, we will need be become familiar with one word—propitiation.
Some modern translations use “sacrifice of atonement”
But propitiation is an important word
It comes from the Greek word hilosmos—found either as noun or verb in the passes read (1 John 4; Rom 3; Heb 2)
It’s also found in my favorite grace-parable of Pharisee and Tax collector (Lk 18:13)
“Have mercy on me a sinner”
The tax collector is praying: Remove your wrath from me!
**That’s how undeserving and unworthy he sees himself
Def of Propitiation= It signifies the removal of wrath by the offering of a gift.
“The satisfaction of God’s just wrath toward sinners, accomplished through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ” —Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition
*But as I heard a preacher say before: God wanted to show us his love, he did not send a dictionary…he sent his Son.
Now to fully appreciate and understand the price, we need to see the problem (the just wrath of God)
For some, a God who shows anger and wrath is a very foreign idea—
But we need the Bible to define who God is
Scripture shows us, over and over that God has hot and holy anger—it’s not uncharacteristic of him
If you are reading through the Bible and have your eyes peeled for occurance of God’s wrath—it’s very pronounced (like when you buy a certain vehicle…once you see it, you start seeing it very often)
E.G.
God is a righteous judge
and a God who shows his wrath every day.
-We may get occasionally angry when we are wronged; but God is wronged constantly
—God’s infinite worth is continually devalued moment my moment; he is wronged by humanity over and over again a as the clock ticks
.....And it’s not “Ok”
Imagine that one sunny day your kids are out playing innocently in the front yard
A careless driver veered off the road and hits your mailbox.
The driver comes in to apologize; says he is sorry, hands you $20. You might say....it’s ok.
But change it a bit—the careless driver comes in and says…I’m really sorry, I veered off the road checking a text…and accidentally hit one of your kids…Doesn’t look good. But I’m sorry, here is $20 I’m late for a meeting
A simple “It’s ok” is not going to work. You would be right to be angry—the price/payment needs to be appropriate to the offense
**Even our smallest careless acts before holy God are in the “I hit your child” category.
God would not be right or just if he said “It’s ok” —it would devalue His holiness
“God is not be be accused of moral flabbiness” —Leon Morris
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Apply: God’s wrath his a very serious thing to consider. Until the wrath of God becomes a fearful reality:
— we won’t likely understand the true nature of the cross
—we wont see the true beauty of the price paid
—....we will not really begin to cherish the love of God
Apply: Is the wrath of God a fearful reality to you? Do you take it serious?
Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
There is a picture that has been used at Three Rivers to visually illustrate salvation. It the umbrella illustration,
God’s wrath is pictured as rain drops falling.
But some of you don’t carry umbrellas and don’t mind getting wet
My dad, an ex-marine would say “Marines don’t use umbrellas!” I wasn’t allowed to own one in his house.
What if we saw God’s wrath coming down on us like arrows, or large rocks? That’s a fearful reality!
and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
One the great day of God’s wrath…none of us will be able to stand. No one will tough it out…weather the storm.
The price is: Jesus steps in to become the wrath bearer;
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
“whom God put forward”
The payment that is needed for God, was also provided by God
OT Witness
The OT constantly foreshadows the cross
+Abraham offering up Isaac (then God providing he ram in place of Isaac)
+The Exodus-Passover lamb.
God’s wrath is the averted through the sacrificial blood of an innocent lamb
+The Day of Atonement—really emphasis penal substitution. Innocent animal dies in the place of guilt people.
+All sin offerings—substitution
Lev 17:11 says that God provides the animals in order to make atonement.
Now the in the pagan word, their religion and worship was often driven by propitiation.
IN pagan circles, if something bad happened—you fixed it by offering up a sacrifice. The gods must be angry.
But there is a massive difference: the sacrifice was provided by you…and there was no real love of God in it.
*The pagan view of propitiation sounds more like a bribe…instead of seeing the beauty of a loving God.
Sum: The price explained—propitiation is God provision, through is Son to put his wrath away
**Believer are not those who fear future wrath of God
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
But let’s not forget a key element:
Propitiation was to show God’s love (1 John 4:10)
Apply: At the end of the day, the price is best explained and understood through love.
Do you know God’s love through Jesus?
Is divine love the strongest foundation in your life?
The price applied
The price applied
Confession and contrition
First, when we understand the true weight of our guilt it should lead us to confess
In a sense, confessing is agree with God.
Confession is saying: “You are right. Your word is true—what your word says about my condition is also right”
—1 John 1:9: if we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive and cleanse
Contrition—a deep sorrow for sin.
“A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps 51:17)
2. Receiving and resting
The only way to apply the price is through faith (Rom 3:25)--”to be recieved by faith”
It’s really receiving and resting in God’s provision.
**With an inherited nature like Adam and Eve—who try to cover themselves before God—it can be hard to rest completely in the work of another
Yet this is the only way to apply the Redeemer works—rest and receive the Redeemers gift.
**Jesus was moved by a loving obedience where he would do everything necessary to save us
**It’s clearly the Father’s provision, and Christ’s love that are at work together together
You may have heard the bridge tender illustration from a preacher before. There are variations, but the most common one has a father who works as bridge tender. He sees a train coming and needs to get the tracks laid down so the train can pass safely
At the same time he notices his little son playing near the gears. He is faced with a deilma—crush his Son, and save the lives of many.
So he makes his choice. Out of love, he sacrifices his son to save the many.
It’s an emotionally moving illustration.
But does is really reflect how God redemptive, sacrificial love works?
Does is show a father-son united in love and sacrifice?
Is the Son merely passive; unaware of all that Father is doing?Is he a helpless victim?
**Scripture says that the Cross is the climatic act of obedience
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus knew his true identity and mission…as the righteous man man who meditated on the Law
The cross did not sneak up on Jesus—but was planned before creation
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
A more fitting illustration of sacrificial love looked like this:
When I was pastoring a very small church, we were on a very small salary. One loving couple decided to do something out of sheer generosity.
They said—we are going to Sam’s Club, and we want you to fill up a cart full.
We were still shy about it, so filled it up halfway. But the couple insisted. They would go down the isle and ask—do you like this—plop in the cart.
As could guess, when we got the the checkout the bill was very sizeable. The husband took out the debit card and paid it in full.
**The point being—they were united over their act of love and sacrifice. They did not argue over it; they were of one heart and mind.
We simply recieved the benefits and blessings of their sacrifice and love
We enjoyed and feasted on their grace. That’s how it was applied.
Conclusion
The price prized
The price prized
It’s not an understatement to say that Christians are a cross-centered people.
The cross is at the center of our hope—we understand the price.
Paul says in Gal 6:14 that that only thing he will boast in is the cross.
We prize the prize
Application:
—Have you prized the price? Is what Jesus did in the cross your hope, ,it is your only hope?
*The price is what saves lost souls. If are lost today, you can like the tax-collector cry out: Have mercy on me Lord Jesus. Take away God’s wrath! You can recieve the free grace of of God’s love
—Are you prizing the price? Even Christians need the simple reminder of the cross, over and over again.
**The price not only saves lost souls, but sustains the saints.
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Finally,
—If you are a price-prizer, will you proclaim it? When was the last time you told someone about what Jesus did on the cross?
Time is running out, the price needs to be prized and proclaimed by a Christ-loving people.
Go and tell