1 John 4:10 - Doctrine of the Cross

Good morning everyone.

Good morning.

The reading is taken from 1 John chapter 4 verse 7.

1 John 4:7

! It's on page 1227.

! Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God.

! Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us.

He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love.

Not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us.

And his love is made complete in us.

Well keep your Bibles open at 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

Let me pray and ask for the Lord's help as we come to his word.

Let me pray.

Lord we do pray and ask for your help now as we come and look at your words.

We're very conscious of the slowness of our hearts to trust you, to listen to you.

And so we pray please that you would be at work by your spirit.

Please help me in the words that I say.

Help all of us in our hearts to trust you, to listen carefully and respond in obedience and faith.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So as Louise pointed out, it is Palm Sunday today.

We are in the build up to Easter weekend.

And what we've been doing the last couple of weeks is taking a pause from our regular working through a passage of the Bible

to have a think about the doctrine of the cross.

So what does the Bible say in greater detail about the work of Christ on the cross?

What is happening as Jesus dies?

And if you were with us last week, we considered the idea of substitution.

That Jesus died in our place.

And at the heart of the cross is this exchange, isn't there, between Christ and us.

You know, our sin for his righteousness.

So on the cross, Christ the innocent son is made sin for us.

Our sin is transferred onto him so that we in him might be made righteous.

And if you weren't with us last week, I'd encourage you to listen online if you can.

And this week I want to see how the New Testament builds on the idea

because I want us to see the fact that substitution means that Jesus necessarily on the cross

is paying the penalty that my sin deserves.

He is facing the punishment that I deserve.

Now, my hope is, and maybe this is an unrealistic hope,

that, you know, preaching is the art of unrealistic hopes.

You know, that's why I'm standing here.

I want you to be beginning to put those two things together

and see that to a certain extent the message of the cross can be summarized like this,

that Jesus is facing my penalty in my place, right?

That's the summary of the message of the cross.

It's what theologians have called penal substitution.

Penal to mean penalty and substitution to mean in our place.

Sometimes it's lengthened to mean penal substitutionary atonement.

That is the idea that through Jesus on the cross facing our penalty as our substitute,

we are made at one meant with God.

We are reconciled to God through the cross as Jesus faces our penalty in our place.

Now, there might be some of you here, I don't know who you are,

and I'm not going to look at anyone particularly as I say this,

but you might be thinking, oh, well, Steve, this is all a bit nerdy, isn't it?

I mean, who uses words like penal substitutionary atonement other than doctrine nerds?

Is it really necessary?

I mean, maybe if I was taking A-level theology, you might expect to have a lesson like this,

but why would we really need to do that in church?

Why are we doing this?

Why not just go through the stories of the Bible?

Well, let me try and answer that really quickly,

because I think it's a really important question.

So turn to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18.

1 Corinthians 1:18

It's on page 1144.

It's also on the screen behind me, if you don't have time to find it.

Let me read it to you.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 18.

1 Corinthians 1:18

We're told there by Paul,

for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Now, let me ask you a trick question as you look at that verse.

What is the power of God according to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18?

1 Corinthians 1:18

What is the power of God?

Well, notice that it's not the cross itself, yeah?

Notice that that's not exactly what it says.

I think that's what we would be inclined to think,

but it says that it is the message of the cross which is the power of God.

In other words, the power of God, God's saving of his people,

is seen in the message of the cross, the logos,

of what Christ has done at the cross,

because the power is in understanding what has happened there.

Of course, the message would have no power if the cross itself didn't happen, right?

It requires the cross to have happened,

but it is the explanation of what Christ has done and achieved on the cross

that is the power of God for salvation for those who believe.

So, of course, we want to take time to make sure that we get this right.

You know, if we are not clear on the message of the cross,

then we, well, the power of God is gone, isn't it?

The power is in the truth.

I think you could probably say with a fairly high level of certainty

that the death of a local church is almost always preceded

by a loss of the doctrine of the cross.

If we don't get this, we will cease to exist.

And to be honest, rightly so,

because this is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.

Now, with that in mind, and hopefully you persuaded

that it's worth listening for the next few moments,

turn back to 1 John chapter 4,

1 John 4 · chapter mention

and I want to spend most of our time in just verse 10,

and I want us to ask it four different questions.

So let's read the verse again.

1 John 4 verse 10.

1 John 4:10

This is love.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us

and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Let me ask four questions.

And the first question is this.

What is the penalty for sin?

What is the penalty for sin?

Really, you'll notice if you look down at the verse

that it is captured in those two words towards the end of the sentence

in the words atoning sacrifice.

Now, the NIV there is using two English words

to translate one Greek word.

The Greek word literally means to deal with anger

or to satisfy judgment.

If you've got a different translation, maybe an ESV,

I think it uses the word propitiation.

But that's not a word that we regularly use.

So the NIV picks up this kind of temple sacrifice language

where an animal is sacrificed in the place of someone else,

their life in place of others.

Now, think what this means.

It means, doesn't it, that the penalty for sin,

the price of forgiveness is a sacrificial death, right?

Not just a physical death, but a sacrificial death,

a death offered to God to face justice and wrath at sin.

And John is saying,

that is what Jesus is doing as he dies on the cross.

Jesus didn't die just because he kind of miscalculated

the hostility of the Jewish leaders.

Oh, whoops, I kind of got that wrong.

No, it's not that at all, isn't it?

It's not even just that he died to show you that he loves you,

although he does, and that's going to come out in this passage.

It's not just that, is it?

Rather, he died because the price of forgiveness is the shedding of blood.

Blood is life in the Bible, and God's wrath has to be dealt with,

and the price is life, a blood sacrifice.

Now, I don't know how you feel about that.

I think for some people, they think, well, you know,

sure, I don't really like the idea of an angry God.

I don't really like the idea of an angry God punishing his son

as a substitute for our sin.

I mean, demanding blood, that sounds kind of gross, doesn't it?

That sounds sort of medieval.

It's the kind of thing that you put on stained glass windows

to scare people into giving money to the church.

Doesn't our passage say that God is love, not angry?

Well, of course, you're right.

God is love, and the passage does say that.

God is the definition of love, the source of all love.

But it's important to notice here in this passage

that John doesn't seem to think that God's love and God's anger

are opposite to one another or exclusive of one another,

not least because God's anger is not the rage of a man or woman out of control.

It is the holy response of a holy God, a loving God,

to sin and wickedness.

And it's the satisfaction of this godly anger on the cross

that uncovers his love.

We'll think more about that in a moment.

But what we need to see and understand is forgiveness is never very easy.

Right?

I know we think forgiveness is easy.

Perhaps you think, oh, I'm a forgiving kind of guy.

You know, I have no problem forgiving others.

Let me suggest to you, if you think like that,

that's because no one's really wronged you very seriously yet.

And that will happen.

As soon as you've been wronged properly,

you know that forgiveness is very complicated and a lot more costly.

And when you've been betrayed or let down

or deserted by those who you thought loved you,

then you will be shocked at the emotional pain that you will feel.

The subtle ways that you'll find yourself trying to get back at them

to make yourself feel better.

And that's because forgiveness comes at a price.

Let me try and illustrate what I mean here to show you by an example.

Imagine that I came round to your house

and you were very kind and you offered me a cup of tea

as I came into your house.

And we were chatting with one another

and then sort of inexplicably as I finished my cup of tea,

I threw my cup at the television and broke it.

Imagine that the TVs aren't actually broken, Nick.

Don't worry.

Now, what does that mean if I do that?

It means I owe you a television, right?

Yeah?

I broke it.

My debt to you is to replace the TV.

But if you choose to forgive me,

if you say, don't worry, Steve,

I forgive you for breaking my television,

what are you doing in that moment?

What you are saying is,

I take on myself the cost of that.

I will replace it.

Don't worry.

I forgive you.

And if you don't replace the TV,

then you have the suffering of living without a television.

In other words,

my sin of throwing the teacup at the television

incurs a debt that must be dealt with

for forgiveness to take place

and for reconciliation to come about.

And that is always how forgiveness works.

There is always a cost.

It's not often one tangible like a television.

It is rare that someone comes around to your house

and throws a cup at the TV.

If you know that story and it's happened to you,

tell me, I'll be intrigued.

But it's more often than not something like

you break one another's happiness

and the cost of forgiveness

is that we have to voluntarily suffer the sadness

for a period of time.

The opposite of forgiveness in that

is to inflict unhappiness on the person

who has wronged you

to make them pay the debt.

But you can't ignore it.

It's more likely perhaps

that someone's damaged your reputation

and the cost of forgiveness

is for you to live through

the misunderstanding and misrepresentation

that will come.

Choosing not to slander them,

not to get back to them in like manner.

But whatever it is,

forgiveness is never free.

And to offer someone forgiveness

is in effect to say,

I will suffer for your sin

so that I can forgive you.

And if that's true between you and I,

it's even more true between God and us, isn't it?

You know, think about this.

What is our offense before God?

We were talking about this with the children,

weren't we?

We've not broken God's television.

We've not slandered him in the workplace.

We've not jeopardized his happiness.

What have we done?

Well, the Bible will tell you

that you and I have stolen something

that belongs to God.

What is that?

Our lives.

God graciously and generously gives us life

to live for him and his glory.

And yet we steal it back

and live it for ourselves

and for our own glory.

We've disobeyed his law.

We've run the other way.

And of course, God can't just say,

oh, do you know what?

Just forget about it.

There's no debt there.

Yeah, let's just pretend that never happened.

You know, if God were like that,

he wouldn't be God or he wouldn't be good.

You'd have no reason to trust him.

There's a debt and it needs to be paid.

And the debt for stealing life is life itself.

I know this is obvious,

but let me just rub this in if I can for a moment.

Imagine back in that scenario

that I threw that cup at the television

and broke the TV

and it incurs this debt

of needing to replace the television.

And I said, you don't worry.

You don't have to forgive me.

I'm going to repay it myself.

And I turn up the next day at your house

and I've got a brand new notebook.

I said, you don't worry about the television.

I bought you a notebook.

And if you like,

you can draw pictures in the notebook.

And if you flick through the notebook really fast,

it looks like they're moving.

And that will be an adequate replacement

for your television.

What do you say?

Well, I've added to my offense,

haven't I really?

I've offended you that I thought

that I could buy and replace your TV

with a notebook.

But that's what we do with God, isn't it?

All the time.

Nothing less than the sacrifice of a life

in the place of a life

could pay the debt that we owe to God.

It's underlined over and over in the Bible.

It's why God does not delight

in the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament.

Why?

Well, because really they're just the drama

of what will come

in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

A blood of a lamb can never swap in

for the life of a person.

And our good works,

our religious observance,

the idea that I can buy forgiveness from God

by my diet,

by my attendance at a special place of worship,

by my observation of particular spiritual days

or seasons,

that massively underplays the nature of my debt

before a holy God.

It's offering a notebook for a TV

when I owe him life, my life.

And so God the Son,

in human flesh,

the perfect one in the place of sinful ones

like you and me,

sheds his blood,

lays down his life,

breathes his last

to pay the payment

that our sin deserves.

And of course,

the death of the perfect son

is payment not just enough

for the salvation of one other person.

He is the author of life itself.

His death is of infinite value.

Salvation sufficient for all who would turn to him.

I want to move on.

There's other things I need to say,

and I'm probably running over time already,

but let's just pause

and just consider this for a moment.

Can I say to you,

have you considered

that the cross of Jesus Christ

says to you really loudly,

you matter,

and what you do matters.

Your life is a serious business.

God cares about what you do.

Sin is serious.

Punishment is real.

You know,

the Christian message

is not a message about self-improvement.

It's a message about rescue and escape

from the wrath of God that we deserve.

Because either we turn to the son

and the infinitely valuable

of the cross of Christ

pays for our sin,

or we spend eternity

under the just judgment of God

paying ourselves

the debt that we owe to God.

Here, forgiveness is being extended to you.

I will pay, says God,

but you must receive it.

Can I ask you if you've received it?

Have you received it from the Lord?

Second question,

who is it paid to?

Now, I know,

these are obvious questions, aren't they?

And you're probably thinking,

I know the answer already,

but let's just slow down

and make sure we've thought

about this carefully.

In the temple language

that John is using here,

Jesus, God the Son,

is the sacrifice.

Yeah, he is the atoning sacrifice.

And it would also be right

to say from the verse

that it is God

who is making the sacrifice.

So God is both the priest

and the sacrifice.

Yeah, you get that.

The Roman soldiers

might have been the people

who drove the nails

into the hands and feet of Jesus.

But if you look down at verse 10,

it's God who sent the Son.

God made the sacrifice.

He was the priest.

And he made the sacrifice

to himself, right?

Because he was the one

to whom the debt was owed.

It is before God

that we owe the debt of life.

In other words,

what you've got here

in these verses

is God making the sacrifice

of himself

to himself

for the satisfaction

of himself.

Do you get that?

It's incredible, isn't it?

God is satisfying

his own holiness

with his own sacrifice.

Do you just see

just how God-centered

the cross is right now?

This is not

us asking God

for forgiveness

and him going,

okay, let me see

whether I can make the way

for that to happen.

It's not even God

building a bridge

or opening a door

for us to kind of

walk across.

No, this is God

coming down

in the person of the Son,

taking the initiative,

sending, coming,

dying, paying

before we did anything.

I wonder whether

you really thought

about this.

You know,

the cross isn't

really about you.

I mean,

I know it is about us

and in a way

and we'll get to there

in a moment,

but it's really about

who God is first.

It's about God's holiness,

his just,

right,

wrathful response

to sin,

satisfied in himself.

You know,

the cross tells you

if you didn't know it

from anywhere else,

the cross tells you

God is absolutely

consistent with himself.

He is unflinchingly holy.

God will not,

even at the price

of his own Son,

for a moment

compromise his holy goodness.

He won't.

He can't.

And he is now able

to forgive sinners

with joyful liberty

and without any compromise

of his righteousness

or his goodness

because of the cross.

You know,

the cross of Christ

means that the forgiveness

that we've got from God

is not some kind of

back alley deal,

you know,

where God sort of agree,

I'll turn a blind eye

to that for the people I like.

It's not that,

is it?

No,

sin is always paid for.

And here it's paid

by Jesus on the cross

instead of us

in the judgment of hell.

And so because the cross

we can cry,

holy,

holy,

holy is the Lord God Almighty

and salvation belongs

to our God

who sits on the throne.

It means,

doesn't it,

if you're a Christian

this morning

that the holiness of God

is no longer

a danger to you.

In fact,

it's a joy to you.

Do you know that?

When you,

when you think

of the holy otherness

of God,

the fact that God

cannot even look on sin,

it's kind of scary,

isn't it?

How awesome he is.

But actually,

when you understand

the cross,

that everything

about his holiness

is satisfied

in the sacrifice

of his son

in our place,

that means his holiness

is no longer

terrifying for you.

It's a good thing

for us.

The cross means

that the goodness

of God

is now wonderfully

attractive to us.

Thirdly,

why does he pay it?

Why does he pay it?

It does beg the question,

doesn't it,

why?

Why would God

choose to go

to such lengths

to make a way

to save his people

without compromising

his character?

I have to say,

if you smash my television

with a cup,

that might be the last time

you came round to my house,

right?

Why does God

go to such lengths?

Well,

read the verse

and let's see.

This is love.

This is love.

Not that we love God,

but that he loved us

and sent his son

as an atoning sacrifice

for our sins.

Verse 11,

dear friends,

since God

so loved us,

we also

ought to love

one another.

I think of all

the aspects of this,

this is both

the simplest

to understand,

but the most astounding.

God pays the price

of our forgiveness

in the death

of his son

because

he loves us.

That's it.

In other words,

God's love

is not a response

to our love for him.

He loves us first.

It's not even

a general response

to the loveliness

of humanity.

No.

Rather,

God's love

is not that

we loved God,

but that he loved us.

So here,

John says

that God pays

for our forgiveness

in the death

of the son

because he loves

sinners,

people who don't

yet love him

in a way

that's completely

beyond our understanding.

This is so important.

Let me try and prove it

to you with another passage.

It's going to come up

on the screen.

You might want to turn to it.

Romans chapter 5,

Romans 5:6

verse 6.

It's page 1132

if you want to turn to it.

Paul writes this.

You see,

just at the right time,

when we were still powerless,

Christ died for the ungodly.

Very rarely will anyone

die for a righteous person,

though for a good person,

someone might possibly

dare to die.

Oh, they're good enough.

I might give my life

for them.

But God demonstrates

his own love for us

in this.

While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us.

It's exactly the same,

isn't it?

God demonstrates

his love

by Christ's death

while we were still sinners.

I said last week

that substitution

means,

the doctrine of the

substitution of Jesus Christ

at the cross,

means that

my contribution

to salvation

is my sin, right?

Because that's been

counted over

to the Lord Jesus.

Well, here,

if you like,

it's exactly the same story.

What is my contribution

to the love of God?

What is it that I have done

that's made myself

so attractive to God?

Well, nothing really.

I'm a sinner.

But God loves sinners.

He loves sinners.

Not because he approves

of their lifestyle choices.

Not because he doesn't

judge sin.

Not because sin itself

doesn't arouse

his righteous anger.

It's not because God

has no standards.

No, the cross screams

the moral justice of God.

Rather, the point is

that the God

who is love,

freely,

for reasons only

understood by him,

freely chooses

to love sinners

like you and me.

Incredible as that might be.

In fact,

according to John,

this is the very definition

of God's love.

God is love,

he says,

and the overspill

of his character

is as it overspills

onto the undeserving.

God's love

is by its very nature

not deserved

or earned

or merited.

Anything it is,

it's spilling out

from God's very character.

And so he lovingly

doesn't compromise

his justice

or act as if

sin doesn't matter.

He upholds

the holiness

of his character

while in love

saving the lost

by paying the price

for their sin.

Again,

can we just

pause there

and can I ask you

the question

whether you've seen

that God

really loves you?

God loves you.

And that's not

because he has

a gushy feeling

welling up inside of him

when he thinks about you.

It's way better than that.

God loves you

even in the depths

of your sin

and so provides

a way through

the atoning sacrifice

of the Son

to save you.

And you do know,

don't you,

as I say to you

that God loves you,

you know

that no one else

in the world

loves you like that.

No one else

loves you like that.

There is not a person

in your life

that if you didn't,

if you shared with them

exactly what was going on

in your head

at every single moment

that they would still

feel the same way

about you.

Maybe you're married.

You know that's true,

don't you?

You know that's true

of your parents.

And so,

to some measure

or other,

we are always going

about this process

of kind of hiding

ourselves from one another

in order to make sure

that we don't compromise

people's love for us.

Because we're afraid

if they really saw

what we were really like,

they wouldn't want

anything to do

with us anymore.

But God knows

all about you.

He knows everything

you've done.

He knows everywhere

you've been.

He knows the thoughts

of your heart.

He knows what you're

thinking right now.

He knows where you're

going this week.

He knows what you will do.

And He loves you.

He loves you.

There's no one else

like that.

Finally then,

what difference

does this make?

What difference

does this make?

Just as we finish,

I want to look

just a little bit

outside of verse 10

to see what difference

this penalty-paying love

makes to us.

Just have a look down

at verse 7.

Dear friends,

let us love one another

for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves

has been born of God

and knows God.

Whoever does not love

does not know God

because God is love.

This is how God

showed His love among us.

He sent His one

and only Son

into the world

that we might live

through Him.

This is love.

Not that we love God,

but that He loved us

and sent His Son

as an atoning sacrifice

for our sins.

Dear friends,

since God so loved us,

we also ought

to love one another.

No one has ever

seen God,

but if we love one another,

God lives in us

and His love

is made complete in us.

Notice what John

is saying here

about this love of God

in Christ's sacrifice.

Notice that he's saying

it changes us.

In verse 7,

he says that

encountering this love

is like being reborn

into someone

who then loves others

in the same way

that God has loved us.

He says,

verse 7,

everyone who loves

has been born of God.

The logic here

is that if we are able

to love like God,

it is because we,

not because we're good people

or because we're particularly

good at this kind of thing,

it's because that love

has not come from us,

it's come from God Himself.

We have been born of God

into these kind of lovers.

It's not so much that,

sorry,

so much so that the loveless

are those who haven't

encountered this love.

Those who are unable

to love like this

is because they haven't

been loved like this

by God.

Verse 9 pretty much

repeats the same point,

but here the image

is not birth but life.

So we live through

the one and only Son

who was sent into the world

to lovingly pay

the penalty for our sin.

The verses are really dense,

aren't they?

There's a lot going on here

but the big idea

is really simple,

that encountering

the love of God

in the wrath-bearing

penal substitution

of the cross

remakes us.

It remakes us.

John is like,

it's like saying

encountering Christ's cross

is as significant

as being created

in the first place

because you are being

remade.

You are being given

a new life to live

and you are now living it

not in that old way

but you are living it now

through the love of God

seen at the cross

bringing a life

that we've not experienced

before that's capable

of loving others

in a way that we were

not capable before.

You know,

we sometimes experience this,

don't we,

on a human level.

You know when you've

fallen out with a friend

and then you are able

to sit down together

and have a conversation

and you agree

that the debt will be paid

and that forgiveness

will mean reconciliation

for the two of you

and as you walk out

from that kind of meeting

there's a new kind

of freshness,

isn't there?

It's like you've been

reborn again

in your relationship.

This is that

but on a whole new level

that through the cross

we are reconciled

to the God who made us.

The death sentence

that was hanging over us

has been lifted

through Christ's

atoning sacrifice

and we are remade

to live new lives.

Coming to Christ,

trusting in him,

receiving the forgiveness

of the cross

is nothing less significant

than being made

completely new,

says John,

and new in a way

that is able to love

and forgive others.

A life that is even

able to do that

to the extent

to which it reveals God

to other people.

A love that can't

generate itself

but comes from

the power of the cross.

The cross, if you like,

is the kind of

moral capital

that pours into us

and flows out of us

to those around us

as Christ dies

facing my punishment

in my place.

Let's pause

and have a moment

for quiet prayer

and then I'll pray

for us.

Heavenly Father,

we thank you so much

that you love us.

As unlovely as we are,

you love us.

And not with a kind of

sentimental,

gushy love

but with a

committed,

active,

saving love

that you sent

your son,

the Lord Jesus Christ

to face

our punishment

and die

in our place.

How we praise

and thank you

for Jesus.

Give us, we pray,

just even this morning

a fresh grasp

on what he has done

that we might

love one another

as he has loved us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.