Text: Romans 5:6-8
OPEN:
Have you ever noticed how frequently we use American idioms? I didn’t, until I moved to Kenya, learned to speak Swahili, and began translating for American volunteers from English to Swahili. Here are some of the most difficult:
I have butterflies in my stomach.
It's raining cats and dogs.
Make a mountain out of a molehill.
Thought I would lose my mind.
Washed me white as snow (I was in Africa, remember?)
Expressions like these often arise when we’re searching for superlatives, words to describe the highest or utmost degree of something. It’s not big, it’s gigantic. Or, for example, we attach “super” or “mega” to a word.
The ultimate is when something is so good, it’s “to die for,” “Oh that cake is so good, it’s to die for!” When we are trying to find a way to convey the height of our love for something, what stronger language can there be than that? “You should see his house: “It’s to die for!”
When it comes right down to it, no one would actually be willing to die for chocolate cake, or a great house, but it certainly expresses vividly the height of our appreciation for those things.
In today's text we encounter the magnitude of Christ's love for each of us. The bottom-line: The magnitude of love is demonstrated by sacrifice.
I. Christ Made the Ultimate Sacrifice (vv. 6-8).
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
1. What is ultimately most precious to us in this life is life itself.
1) So the giving of one’s life is the ultimate sacrifice.
2) If it’s true that love is demonstrated through sacrifice, and that the giving up of one’s life is the ultimate sacrifice, then the giving up one’s life is also the ultimate expression of love for another human being.
That’s what it says in these verses that Jesus did:
"In deed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."
Not, “once our good deeds had outweighed our bad ones.”
Not, “once he saw we were basically good people.”
While we were still sinners.
While we had not the slightest interest in Him.
While we were helpless to save ourselves
2. The highest, noblest expression of human love is the willingness to die for someone we find worthy.
1) Usually that worthiness is based on their relationship to us.
2) The only reason most people might die for another is out of love.
II. God’s Love Exceeds the most Noble Expression of Human Love.
1. He loved us enough to die for us, not when we were righteous or good, but JUST because He loved us.
John’s gospel tells us, that the night before He died, Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that (he) lay down his life for his friends.”
If it’s true that the ultimate expression of love is to give up one’s life for others, then the Cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love.
2. Too often we doubt or we forget God’s love.
That’s why we have this symbol (the cross) everywhere in the church.
That’s why the cross is the most obvious symbol of the Christian faith.
That’s why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
That's why we make such a big deal out of Ash Wednesday, and Lent, and Good Friday in preparation for Easter.
Not so that we always feel guilty that Jesus died for us.
But so we will never forget how much He loves us.
One author I read said this: "To stare at the cross is to get the clearest, deepest look into the heart of God."
1) And what do we see as we gaze into the heart of God?
Is it judgment? No, although those who reject His love will be judged.
Is it “You lousy sinner!”? No, even though all of us have sinned “and have fallen (so far) short of the glory of God.” We have all rejected Him at some time.
2) When we “get the clearest, deepest look into the heart of God” what we see and what we hear, is “I love you.”
God is saying, “When I think of what I love the most, I think of you!
You’re “to die for.”
“I Love you enough to die” to restore the relationship willfully broken by your sin.
CLOSE:
"God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The magnitude of love is demonstrated by sacrifice. The cross of Christ is proof positive that God loves you enough “to die for.”
(Dr. Dane Fowlkes)
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