"The Sacrifice of Love"

      We may suppose that before the creation of angels, and particularly, of human beings, no sacrifice existed in the fact and expression of love.  Three pristinely perfect Persons, united in one Divinity, loved each other with the same determination of affection, devotion, respect, and good will.  "God is love" twice declared the Apostle John in his first epistle (I John 4:8; 16).  The Apostle Paul enhances our understanding by declaring that love "seeketh not her own," thus confirming the wonder of our God's sublimely unselfish nature, character, and way (I Corinthians 13:5).  No sacrifice was necessary, or even possible in such a perfect God, and such a perfect triune relationship.

     This love in the hearts of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ultimately led to the determination to create.  Perfect foreknowledge meant that before creation, God knew of sin's origin in the angelic race, and of its transmission to human beings by Satan.  Sin would mean that love must involve sacrifice, resulting one day in the horrors of Calvary, where God the Father smote God the Son with untold torrents of wrath, judgment, and condemnation as the Lord Jesus bore our sins, and was "made... to be sin" (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21).  Of even greater magnitude of sorrow, the Father and the Holy Spirit abandoned the Lord Jesus to die in an agony of brokenhearted loneliness, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?!" (Matthew 27:46).  Thus, the creation of angels and human beings introduced sacrifice into love.  Love would bleed.  Love would sorrow.  Love would cry out in pained perplexity.  Love would lead the Prince of life to experience an aberration completely foreign to His vital nature.  Indeed, love would die.

    When we consider that God loves us, we embrace a reality far beyond our full comprehension.  Certainly we ponder Divine pleasure, for God so wills to love us that of the Lord Jesus, the writer of Hebrews exults, "For the joy that we set before Him, He endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2).  However, we must also understand that creating us meant that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit would make sacrifices regarding their relationship with each other for the purpose of redeeming us.  How does perfect Love smite the eternal Object of its devotion?  Indeed, not long before the cross, the Lord Jesus affirmed to His Father, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).  Not long afterwards, our Savior would cry out in untold agony, and into the blackness of darkness, seeking His Father and the Holy Spirit.  "My God, My God..."   But no answer would come.  No answer could come if humanity was to be redeemed. 

     Our existence introduced sacrifice into the love of God.  Or perhaps it brought forth into realized experience this aspect of selflessness that always existed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The message for us involves a greater worship of our wondrous Lord, whose love for us made necessary solemn realities heretofore unknown.  Moreover, we must understand that the love to which He calls us also involves sacrifice.  "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (I John 3:16).  Our Heavenly Father honors us by calling us to the same quality of character and life that He lives, and by inhabiting us to make possible our path of self-sacrificial devotion to Him and to others...

"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."
(Romans 5:5)

Weekly Memory Verse
    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.
(Romans 5:7-8)

"The Gift and the Cost"

      The thinking, feeling Christian possesses two sensibilities regarding God's forgiveness.  First, we rejoice in the freely given pardon He provides through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  "I have trusted in Thy mercy.  My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation" (Psalm 13:5).  We solemnly remember, however, the cost of such gracious pardon.  "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (I Peter 3:18).

    We do not blithely ask for forgiveness when seeking it through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus.  We make our request in great confidence, determining to "come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, and to find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).  God desires to forgive us more than we desire to be forgiven.  "He delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18).  Nevertheless, we come in remembrance always of the cost.  Our Savior suffered more than we can imagine suffering to involve.  We've never hurt like He hurt on the cross of Calvary, either emotionally or physically.  "His visage was so marred more than any man" (Isaiah 52:14).  The Lord Jesus was smitten and forsaken by His Father as He bore our sins, thus breaking His heart even as the wrath of God ravaged His entire being.  "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?!" (Matthew 27:46).

    No supplicant lightly approaches the throne of grace who realizes and remembers the sacrifice that constitutes the grace of the throne.  Yes, we come rejoicing that we can come, but sorrowful that we must.

I come to You, o Lamb of God,
for the mercy You provide.
I see the wounds of Calvary
in Your hands, Your feet, Your side.

And the mars bring to remembrance
the sorrows of that Day.
They also give assurance
of free and boundless grace.

So I come with joy unspeakable,
"Forgiven!" I gladly cry.
But I will not fail to remember
the bloody sacrifice

That purchased my redemption,
that  made forgiveness free.
I come to You, o Lamb of God,
The Gift and the Cost I see.

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever."
(Revelation 5:9-14)

Weekly Memory Verse
  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
(Psalm 126:5)

"A Battle Lost, the War Won"

      The wicked win a lot of skirmishes and battles in this life.  King David cried out in the pained recognition of such reality, "LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?" (Psalm 94:3).

     Doubtless, we've all wondered the same with David.  Why does God allow the wicked to prosper, whether we reference things that impact us personally, or those of a larger scale (such as world events)?  The Bible actually addresses this question in a number of ways.  We don't have time for all of them, so I'll suggest the one that, in my mind, seems to bear the greatest significance.

    "And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulcher. But God raised Him from the dead" (Acts 13:28-30).

    Unjustly accuse the Lord Jesus.  Condemn Him to die.  Kill Him.  Bury Him.  Commit the worst atrocity of history by slaughtering the only perfectly innocent human being who ever lived.  Do your worst, world, devil, and flesh.  And then witness your victory celebration cut short as God raises His Son from the dead.  A temporary skirmish victory forges the nail in the coffin of those who used those same instrument to impale the Savior upon His cross.  God's allowance of wickedness thus becomes the basis upon which the greatness of His redemption and power are more clearly known.  A battle seemingly lost results in the war won.  "The Light shineth in the darkness" (John 1:5).

    Skirmish defeats become opportunities for the revelation of Christ's ultimate triumph in the lives of those who remember that the cross served as prelude to our Lord's resurrection.  Whatever the nature of our loss, arising to remember the empty tomb and the occupied Heavenly throne of the Lord Jesus places us in position to see yet again the glory of His triumph.  Indeed, the appearance of catastrophic defeat at the cross served all the more to spotlight the victory of resurrection.  The same will be true in our lives as we remember and affirm the risen Christ.

Sometimes it seems that the enemy of our soul wins
over and over and over and over again.
But if we could see the truth much more clearly, my friend,
we'd see Christ triumph over death, hell, and sin
over and over and over and over again.

The tomb is empty, the throne above occupied,
for Christ is risen again, from death glorified.
Oh remember when hot, stinging tears fill your eyes
the triumph He's shown so many times in our lives,
over and over and over and over again.

Forever draws nigh, we will be with Him there soon, my friend.
The trials of this life will be gone when we're with Him in Heaven.
Glories we'll see, majesty without end,
that sing the glad hymn, Christ is risen again,
Over and over and over and over again.

"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place."
(II Corinthians 2:14)

Weekly Memory Verse
  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
(Psalm 126:5)