Various Passages | "The Love of Christ"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Would you pray with me before we open God's word together?

Lord Jesus, we come before you thanking you that you are worthy of all of our praise.

Where would we be if your mercy were not more?

We would have no hope.

Be worthy of all pity if your mercy were not more.

Thank you that you have paid the price for our sin.

And we can come before you, forgiven, to hear you speak, to hear your word opened to us.

I pray that your spirit would now give enlightenment to our minds, that you would enliven our hearts and our spirits to respond to what you have given us in your word, to what you've given us in yourself.

Help us to see more of you, to see you more clearly, we ask.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I have a question that I'd like you to consider this morning as we get started.

How do you live your life?

How do you live your life?

And can you answer that question with a single sentence?

How do you live your life?

Can you answer that in a single sentence?

Not one of Paul's run-on sentences, but a single fairly short sentence.

It's not an easy question.

It really isn't.

If we speak to philosophers, they might say that it's even an existential question.

It's a question of our present existence.

What defines our lives?

How do we describe our existence?

Upon what do we base the decisions of our lives?

What kind of boundaries do we set up in life and why?

Why do we place them there?

What serves as the foundation for everything that we think, for everything that we say, for everything that we do?

You see, the question, how do you live your life, is not by itself a foundational question.

You have to have other questions answered before you can answer how do you live your life.

Apologists might say that you have to have a worldview set in place before you can answer that question.

Everyone has a worldview.

Everyone has a perspective on life and the world or life in this world.

It may not be well thought out, but you have one.

And your worldview influences how you live within this world.

So some might say you need to have a worldview before you can answer the question, how do you live your life?

Theologians might ask, in what do you trust?

Or in whom do you trust?

Is it money?

Is it family?

Is it your abilities?

Is it your strength?

See, these kinds of questions and these kinds of answers will influence how you live your life.

No matter how you approach it, these are all issues that are all settled in one way or another in the very core of our being.

And it's from these kinds of issues that we find the answer to our question, how do you live your life?

How do you think the Apostle Paul would answer that question?

If you ask the Apostle Paul, how do you live your life?

What would he say?

I think at one point in his life he would have answered, I live my life according to the law of Moses.

Right?

In Philippians, he tells us that he was a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He was raised according to the strictest sect of Judaism.

And he said, According to the law, I'm blameless.

I live my life according to the law of Moses and obedience to that.

But then something changed when he encountered the risen Christ on a road trip to persecute Christians.

And in Galatians, we read what we might consider his new answer to that question.

You might be familiar with it.

It's in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

The apostle Paul said, the life that I now live, the life that I now live in my life, in my body, in my flesh, I live by faith.

That's how he lived his life, by faith.

In the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So there we hear how Paul lived his life.

He lived it by faith in Jesus, who is the Son of God, and we hear why he lived by faith in Jesus.

He lived by faith in Jesus because Jesus loved him.

Well, how did the Apostle Paul know that Jesus loved him?

He know that Jesus loved him because Jesus gave himself for him.

This is a communion Sunday, and in a few moments we will be reminded of the giving that the Savior did and shedding his blood and his body being broken.

And to get us from here to there, I want us to consider that phrase, who loved me?

Who loved me?

And as we do it, we ought to be driven to live our lives by faith in this one who loved us.

So think about this.

Why did the Son of God give himself for the Apostle Paul?

Why did the Son of God give himself for Paul?

The answer is right there in that verse, isn't it?

Because he loved him.

Because he loved him.

Why did Paul express his faith and devotion in daily life to Jesus?

Because Jesus loved Paul enough to die for him.

And that love motivated Paul to believe in Jesus and to live in faithful obedience to him.

So how do you live your life?

If you're not a Christian, you have no hope of having a well-lived life without trusting in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.

If you are a Christian, you are not living your life well if the love of Jesus is not the basis for everything you do.

Martin Luther wrote to a friend of his, another monk, the time.

He said, Meditate on this love of Christ's, and you will see his sweet comfort.

For why was it necessary for him to die if we can obtain a good conscience by our own works and our own afflictions?

In the same way, you will find peace only in him when you despair of yourself and your own works.

And besides this, you will learn from him that just as he has received you, so he has made your sins his own, and has made his righteousness yours.

My friends, how you live your life must begin with an application, an appropriation of the truth that the Son of God loved you.

I hope I don't embarrass her by this on a live stream, but for nearly 24 years now I've had the practice of making my wife a cup of hot tea or coffee in the morning.

Thankfully, she switched from tea to coffee.

Praise God, amen.

Now, why do I do that?

Why have I done that for so long?

It's because she loves me and I love her.

And that's the way we approach so many things in life, isn't it?

We will do things, we will take on things because we love somebody.

We will go out of our way, we will be inconvenienced, we will take on hardships in life because we love somebody.

But notice that's not what's going on here.

The Apostle Paul is giving up his life because somebody else loves him.

It's coming back the other way.

Why does Paul live his life by faith?

Because Christ first loved him.

Why do you do the things that you do?

Let's see if we can get a grasp on this love of Jesus.

Maybe you know that there are three places in the New Testament where we see the phrase the love of Christ.

The love of Christ.

I'd like to look at each of those three places briefly this morning.

The first, if you want to open your Bible or your device and make your way to the book of Romans and chapter 8.

Most likely a familiar passage to many of you.

Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 35, we're going to look at more than just this one verse.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

But the place where this is found in Romans chapter 8 is verse 35, where the apostle Paul wrote to this church, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword or 27 below zero?

No.

No.

This is a response to an incredible statement about the sovereign work of God.

Go back to verse 29.

You know verse 28, right?

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

But in verse 29, we have this incredible statement about the sovereign work of God.

For those whom he foreknew, that just means he knew them beforehand.

He also predetermined to be conformed to the image of his son.

So we see the intention of God the Father to conform all of his children to be like his only begotten Son.

Now that makes sense, right?

If we look at this in terms of all of Scripture, especially the New Testament, we know in Ephesians chapter 1, it tells us that in eternity past God determined to adopt certain people as his fully legal sons and daughters.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

That means that all who come to faith in him have full legal rights as sons and daughters of God.

That's why for John chapter 1 tells us that we have the right to be called children of God.

John 1 · chapter mention

It makes sense then that God the Father would work to make us more and more, moment by moment, day by day, week by week, year by year, to be more like his only begotten Son.

But understand this, that's a work of God.

You can't make yourself more like Jesus.

God the Father makes you more like Jesus.

He uses multiple means to accomplish that by the power of his spirit in your life, but it is his divine sovereign work.

He has determined that all who come to him by faith will be conformed.

Not to some arbitrary standard made by some sort of unknown person, not to some subjective description of what a godly person may be.

No, he's conforming us to the unchangeable, unmoving standard of his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then in verse 30, God says that that divine sovereign work is as good as done.

It says those whom he's predestined, he's also called, and those whom he's called, he's also justified, and those whom he's justified, he's also glorified.

It's as good as done.

See, when God starts to do something, it's going to be finished.

He has already determined the end for his sons and daughters by faith.

And that end is they will be glorified.

They will share in the glory of the only begotten of the Father.

Your future as a son or daughter of God is settled, it is completed, it is established.

Now, what does that mean?

Can anyone really be against us if that's true?

No.

Can anything hold the Father back from treating us as fully legitimate children and give us everything that is his?

No?

Can anyone bring an eternal charge against God's children in the courtroom of heaven?

No.

Can anyone condemn for eternity those whom God has purchased by the blood of his own son?

No.

Can anyone change the course of divine determination when the Son of God is the one who is standing at the Father's side interceding on our behalf?

No.

Who then, what then, can separate us from the love of Christ?

No one.

Nothing.

You are inseparable from the love of Christ.

If by genuine faith as a gift of God you have been drawn to trust in Christ alone for your eternal salvation from the wrath of God against your sin by the blood of the eternal Son, then not even your sin that you will commit this afternoon or tomorrow or next week will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord.

This is how all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

God's children are drawn by the Father.

They are purchased out of slavery by the sin, from their sin, by blood, the blood of the Son.

They are made new by the work of the Spirit and they are joined forever, bonded forever to him in the love of Christ.

In Galatians 2.20, the Apostle Paul said he lived a life of faith in the Son of God who loved him.

How much easier it is to faithfully follow Jesus when we know that nothing, no one can tear us away from that love.

Puritan William Perkins wrote The ground, the basis of our faith stands in this that we believe things neither seen nor felt.

And so we hope above all hope, even without hope.

In extremity of affliction, we believe that God loves us, and when he even seems to be our enemy, and we persevere in the same to the end, because if God is for us, who can be against us?

If he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us, how will he not also graciously give us all things?

Who can bring a charge against God's elect when God is the one who justifies?

Who is the one who will condemn when Christ Jesus shed his own blood?

Who can never separate us from the love of Christ?

Our second passage is 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Originally I was going to just preach on this passage this morning, and then decided, no, we need to cover all three of these passages together to see the whole picture.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14 says, For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

2 Corinthians 5:14

So much here, and it gets even more compelling when you grasp the bigger context.

You see, the apostle Paul is defending his right to be an apostle.

That's what this whole second book to the Corinthian church is about.

He's defending his apostleship.

There were apparently some folks in the church in Corinth that didn't think Paul was worth listening to.

They didn't think he was that much of a big shot, that he didn't have authority to direct them, that he was wrong, that he was leading the church astray.

Back in chapter 4, verse 2, then, he sort of defends their ministry.

He says, We have renounced disgraceful or secret, underhanded, shameful kind of ways.

We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

He says, listen, you can open up your Bible and examine everything that we've said and everything that we do.

And that's that's not an easy thing for the Apostle Paul to do because he says our ministry is not anything about ourselves in verse 5, but proclaiming Christ Jesus as Lord.

They do things honestly, openly, according to the text of Scripture, and they proclaim Jesus.

Well, what can be hard about that?

What can be dangerous about that?

Well, you go on and you see in verse 7 that he begins of chapter 4 that he says, we we do this in jars of clay.

Jars that will dry out and become brittle and crack and break.

He compares our physical bodies to these jars, and that means that serving Christ is continually difficult and in these frail bodies, and he knows what he's talking about, right?

This is the guy who was whipped multiple times.

This is the guy who spent years in prison, not watching TV and getting fed healthy meals.

This is the guy who was shipwrecked multiple times.

So he says in verse 16 of chapter 4, we do not lose heart.

We keep on going.

He says, Because even though this outer shell is wasting away, at the same time the inner self is being renewed day by day by day.

That means in chapter 5, verse 2, in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.

He says, Listen, we groan because we know that this is not what God has made his children for.

We know there's something more, there's something better, there's something more glorious as God's children because of the work that his Spirit's doing within us.

Ultimately, he says in chapter 5, verse 8, we are of good courage.

We'd rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

You see, when you compare today and tomorrow and this life with eternity, a Christian knows that because of the love of Christ, death is the very best thing for a Christian.

Because even death can't keep you from the love of Christ.

Instead, it ushers you into its very presence.

So in chapter 5, verse 11, that motivates the Apostle Paul to persuade others.

Later in Verse uh twenty, he uses another word, implore.

We implore people.

That's strong language.

So much more glorious and beautiful that it is worth living life today in worn down clay pots, having to deal with disingenuous, hateful, disagreeable people, so that some of them might, in God's grace, grasp the love of Christ and be reconciled to Him.

Now, what does that have to do with the love of Christ?

Look at verse 14.

For the love of Christ controls us.

Controls us.

That's a sermon in and of itself right there.

The word controls is used often in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Carries the idea of being pressed in so that you have no choice but to give in to the pressure.

Thankfully, we are in the opposite season right now from road construction season, right?

In road construction season, you have those those yellow-orange cones.

And they force you to go in a particular direction or to a particular space.

In Matthew chapter 4, the same word is being used by being oppressed by demons.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

That demonic oppression is so strong that a person cannot do anything but go in the direction that the demonic powers want them to go.

It's used in Luke 19 of an army surrounding a city and setting up barricades on every single side.

It's used of Peter's mother-in-law who had a fever when she was sick, and it speaks of her being controlled by that fever.

In Luke 8, it's used of people being seized by fear, being controlled by extreme fear.

The Apostle Paul uses it again in Philippians chapter 1, verse 23, speaking of dying to be with Christ and remaining for the benefit of the people.

Philippians 1:23

He says, I am hard-pressed between the two.

So try to visualize this.

I don't do this very often, but I decided I'll try it today.

Bring an object lesson.

Imagine holding a balloon between your hands.

Right?

This worked in first service, so hopefully it works second service.

Now, what happens as you apply pressure to the balloon?

The balloon is forced to conform to the pressure that's being exerted on it by your hands, right?

It has to conform to the pressure that's being put on it from my two hands.

It molds us, it molds itself to the pressure.

It's forced to go in a different direction.

That's what the Apostle Paul says the love of Christ does to him.

You were all just waiting for it to pop, weren't you?

Right in my face.

To mold you into his image.

Look even more closely.

For the love of Christ controls us because he died.

He died.

What did we see in Galatians 2 20?

The love of Christ was the driving, the motivating force in Jesus giving himself.

How did he give himself for Paul?

In death.

He died.

And because you are in Christ, that means you died.

He died in your place so that rather than you physically dying for your own sin debt, Christ died for you so that you died spiritually in him to yourself, to your sin by faith in him, so that you are no longer your own, but his.

You have been bought with a price.

And in being his, you are not dead, but alive to him.

And being alive to him, you live for him because he first loved you.

Do you get all that?

It's recorded, you can listen to it again.

You are a new creation.

Verse 17.

Therefore, in Christ, you are a new creation.

You are a son or daughter of the Most High God because of the love of Christ.

You stand before the Father, adopted, forgiven, justified, and yes, even standing in the glory of the eternal Son because the love of Jesus moved him to give himself for you.

Therefore, you are to be controlled by the love of Christ.

You are to be controlled by the love of Christ.

Return to our question: How do you live your life?

What controls you?

What motivates you?

What drives you?

Our third passage is in Ephesians.

Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Jeremy preached on this a few, well, a couple of months ago.

I'm going to return to just one element of this.

Again, it is the phrase, the love of Christ, but we need a little bit more context here, so we're going to focus on verse 19, but we need to understand a little bit about the background and what goes into that.

So we're going to start reading in verse 17.

And we have to remember that this is a prayer.

The Apostle Paul is praying this for the church in Ephesus, for the believers in Christ.

And his prayer is that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Some things are impossible to know.

There are new discoveries in our world every day.

Knowledge is being acquired at an increasingly rapid pace, but some things will never be known.

Some things are too great to be known.

Consider a different image for a moment.

Imagine being told, jump to the moon.

Jump to the moon.

Now it's it's one thing to be told jump across the Red River.

That we might be able to picture for a little bit, especially as we imagine getting soaked to the bone because we can't make it all the way across.

Now, for some of us, it's it's nearly impossible to even roll out of bed, much less jump.

But jump to the moon?

That's so dumb that we don't even give it a second of consideration.

Of course we can't do that.

But that's what it's like to know the love of Christ.

It surpasses knowledge.

There's only so much you can know about the love of Christ.

It goes beyond knowledge.

You can go ahead and jump, but you're only going to get so far.

You will never reach full comprehension.

You can't make it to the full understanding and comprehension of the love of Christ.

And yet, that is the prayer that the Apostle Paul makes for us, that we are to know the unknowable love of Christ.

Incredibly, somehow we can know the unknowable.

Notice the prayer being uttered, that you might comprehend, not just you, not just a select few, not just the really educated, all the saints, that you may comprehend with all the saints, the unknowable, the incomprehensible, the unmeasurable love of Christ that knowledge itself can't even contain.

Imagine, imagine if we were a church who knew the unknowable love of Christ, so that it controlled all that we did in life.

And so that we could live without fear of anything, knowing that we are forever secure in that love.

What a faith-filled church we would be, pun intended.

But it takes strength.

Did you catch that part?

Verse 18.

So that you may have strength to comprehend.

These aren't physical muscles.

You can't go and work out at the gym and come to know the fullness of the love of Christ.

It's not even an emotional fortitude that somehow enables you to bear up under the strain of knowing the love of Christ.

This is a strength that comes only when a son or daughter of the living God has been filled with the fullness of God through the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit, such that their spiritual muscles have been trained, have been stretched, and have been fine-tuned to squash out all human subjectivity, human endurance, and human performance and all sinful distractability.

Then all that's left is this unlimited awe at the love of Christ that would give himself for you.

Then, and only then do you begin to grasp the unknowable, the height, the width, the length, and the depth of the love of Christ.

J.I.

Packer wrote in Knowing God, the measure of love is how much it gives.

The measure of love is how much it gives.

And the measure of the love of God is the gift of his only Son to become human and to die for sins and so to become the one mediator who can bring us to God.

No wonder Paul speaks of God's love as great and as passing knowledge.

The love of Christ controls us.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

The love of Christ, unknowable, incomprehensible, can be known by his children.

What grace and mercy is there in that?

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus.

We come and we bow before you.

Confessing our inadequacies.

We are wholly, totally inadequate.

So often our other loves take priority before you.

The things that we think are important for us in this life, the things that are significant to us.

And all of a sudden we are distracted by the things of this world and are wondering, do you love us?

Forgive us for living in fear that somehow encountering an unexpected circumstance might make us think that you no longer love us when nothing can separate us.

We are so thankful that you do not change, that your love is forever firm.

That it is eternal in the heavens, that it is settled in the court where we have been justified, not by what we've done, but by the blood of the Son of God shed for us.

Thank you that we can come and stand before you.

Sinful, yes.

Rebellious, yes.

But by faith our sins can be washed as white as snow.

To you belongs all the praise and all the glory.

May you, as we come before this table to remember what you've done for us, may you may you make our capacity to know your love bigger.

May our capacity to know who you are and what you've done for us be enlarged to grasp the height, the width, and the depth, and the length.

To you belong all the praise and all the glory, and God's people said.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.