IN THE NAME OF LOVE
This morning’s Advent Candle symbolizes LOVE. When we think of love during the Christmas Season, we naturally think of God’s love for humanity in sending His Son into this dark and sinful world. What verses from the New Testament best express this CHRISTMAS GIFT OF LOVE? Well, if you are looking for bible verses that tell us about the Christmas Story, you’d usually look to Matthew’s or Luke’s Gospels. They, of course, give us the details surrounding Jesus’ birth which certainly shows God’s immense love for us all. But, the Apostle John also provides two verses that clearly and concisely express God’s love in sending His Son. In 1st John 4:10, he tells us: “This is REAL LOVE—not that we loved God, but that HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON AS A SACRIFICE TO TAKE AWAY OUR SINS.” (NLT2) This verse is not so well known. But, there is a verse from John’s Gospel that is one of the best-known verses in the Bible. John 3:16 captures the essence of God’s great love in telling us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NASB)
Have you ever wondered exactly when it was that God decided to send His Son to this world? It’s not merely an academic question. As I hope you will see, its answer is of major importance to us as Christians. So then—when was it God made that decision? Was it just before the angels visited Mary and Joseph? In other words, did God summon each angel and say: “Look, I just decided to do something new and wonderful. I have decided to send My Son, Jesus, into the world to get things straight down there. So, go tell a teenager, named Mary, and her fiancé, Joseph, that’s the new plan I have just now decided upon.” No—that is definitely NOT the way it happened! Rather, God decided on sending Jesus to earth much earlier than that.
Let’s go back approximately 700 years before those angels visited Mary and Joseph. At that time, God spoke to two prophets about sending His Son into the world. One was the Prophet Isaiah, and the other was Micah. Listen to the following revelation about Jesus as recounted in the Book of Isaiah. There, it tells us:
“Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14 NASB)… 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever… (Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV)… 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on Him the sins of us all. 7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open His mouth… 8b He was struck down for the rebellion of my people. 9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But He was buried like a criminal; He was put in a rich man’s grave. (Isaiah 53:6-9 NLT2)
In addition to that passage from Isaiah, God’s revelation to the Prophet Micah tells us that God decided that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. In the Book of Micah, which was written around the same time as Isaiah, we find: “O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past!” Micah 5:2 (TLB) It was around the seventh century B.C. when God spoke these words as found in the Books of Isaiah and Micah. So, was it that point in time when God decided to send His Son into the world? Again, the answer is an emphatic, “No!” God’s decision was made long before that.
About 18 centuries before Jesus was born, another man was about to die. This man was Jacob. On his death bed, Jacob unknowingly gave a prophecy about God’s decision to send His Son into this world. He said: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from His descendants, until the coming of the One to whom it belongs, the One whom all nations will honor.” Genesis 49:10 (NLT2) You see, a “scepter” is a royal rod held by a king as he rules over his kingdom. So, when was it that Jesus held such a “scepter”? This prophecy became a reality in the cruelest of ways. It was fulfilled shortly before Jesus was crucified when the Roman soldiers were treating Him with extreme harshness. Matthew’s Gospel gives the painful details: 29 “They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on His head, and they placed a reed stick in His right hand as a SCEPTER. Then they knelt before Him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on Him and grabbed the stick and struck Him on the head with it. 31 When they were finally tired of mocking Him, they took off the robe and put His own clothes on Him again. Then they led Him away to be crucified.” Matthew 27:29-31 (NLT2) What a tragic irony it was that the unbelieving world used a “scepter” to strike the very One who will one day come again and wield a true scepter to rule all Creation as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! [1]
Clearly, this prophecy of Jacob tells the ultimate purpose of Jesus coming into the world. So, was it at that time of Jacob’s prophecy, that God made His decision to send His Son on that sacrificial mission? Once more, the answer is “No”—that decision was made much earlier in time. With that being the case, maybe we should go way back in time. In fact, let’s turn the clock back to the very beginning of humanity and ask the following question: Was it when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden that God decided to send His Son to make things right again between Himself and humanity? In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve were convinced by the serpent to sin against God, God turned to the serpent and revealed His plan for saving humanity. God told the serpent: “I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring’s heel.” Genesis 3:15 (TEV) Without getting into all the theological details, suffice it to say that most Bible scholars recognize this as a reference to God sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the Cross for the purpose of saving humanity from its sins. The woman’s offspring (referring to Jesus) would sustain a “bite on His heel” which references Christ’s death on the Cross. But, as Jesus’ Resurrection would prove, this “bite on His heel” would not prove forever fatal. On the other hand, Jesus’s work on the Cross and Resurrection would deliver a head-crushing death-blow to the serpent (referring to Satan) that would ultimately lead to his eternal fate in the Lake of Fire—known as Hell.[2] Now, let me ask you this: Was God’s announcement in Genesis 3 when He first decided to send Jesus on His earth-bound mission?
Once more, the answer is a resounding, “No!” But, don’t give up on trying to answer this question. The Bible provides a definitive response to this inquiry as to when God decided that Jesus would have to go to this earth for the likes of me and you. The answer is this: God decided to send His Son into the world to die on the Cross, even BEFORE He created the world! That is exactly what we find in Paul’s letter to the Church in Ephesus, Greece. Paul tells us very clearly:
4 Even BEFORE THE WORLD WAS MADE, God had already chosen us to be His through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before Him. BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE, 5 God had already decided that, through Jesus Christ, He would make us His children—this was His pleasure and purpose. 6 Let us praise God for His glorious grace, FOR THE FREE GIFT HE GAVE US IN HIS DEAR SON! 7 For by the blood of Christ, we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, 8 which He gave to us in such large measure! In all His wisdom and insight, 9 God did what He had purposed, and made known to us THE SECRET PLAN HE HAD ALREADY DECIDED TO COMPLETE BY MEANS OF CHRIST. 10 This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head. 11 All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be His own people in union with Christ because of His own purpose, BASED ON WHAT HE HAD DECIDED FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Ephesians 1:4-11 (TEV)
Even BEFORE God created anything—before time, space and matter existed, He made His decision to send Jesus to planet earth on a rescue mission. Now, when some people hear this, they ask: “But, why didn’t God create human beings differently than He did? When God created Adam and Eve, why didn’t He program them in a manner whereby they would have never sinned?” In other words, what they are asking is why God created human being with free will—the capacity to make freely voluntary choices on their own. They contend that if God had omitted free will as one of our human traits, then people would have always been obedient to Him. And if people had been created to be constantly obedient, sin would have never entered the world. Without sin, the world would have no diseases, natural disasters, wars, violence, sorrows and death. With no sin, Jesus would have never had to be born in that Bethlehem stable. And, what is more—Jesus would never have had to experience that excruciatingly painful death on the Cross. After all, since God knows everything—past, present and future, He knew that once humans were created with free will that first human sin was eventually bound to happen. So, why didn’t God make us without free will so that we’d never sin? The answer is simply this: GOD DID IT IN THE NAME OF LOVE!. . . Let me explain.
There is no question about it—if God had wanted to, He could have made humans differently. He could have made us like robots programmed to always be obedient to Him. But, a world filled with “human robots” would be a world without LOVE. LOVE cannot be compelled. It must be a voluntary, free will choice. Yes, a world of “robots” would be a safe world, but one without the joy that LOVE inspires. On the other hand, a world in which God created humans with free will would be a very dangerous world. By creating us with the capacity of free will, God enabled us to make one of two choices: We could choose to be obedient to Him. OR, we could choose to rebel and sin against Him. Of course, it would be a world like the one in which we live—one where sin could thrive. BUT, IT WOULD BE THE ONLY KIND OF WORLD WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF LOVE! Robots can’t sin. But, robots can’t exhibit LOVE either. You see, BEFORE God made anything at all—while He was still contemplating whether or not to create this world, He knew all about the consequences that would emerge from giving humans free will.
God knew something else as well that shows His infinite LOVE for us. God knew that, if He created a world in which humans were given free will by which LOVE might flourish, something terrible was bound to happen. He knew that sooner or later those same humans would exercise that free will to rebel against Him. In other words, God knew, in advance, that WE WOULD SURELY CHOOSE TO SIN. But, GOD IS LOVE.[3] And, He wanted to give the GIFT OF LOVE to humanity so that we could have the opportunity to experience what TRUE LOVE, through Him, is all about. The only way God could create a world with that potential was to factor in a way to deal with human sin. For once humans sinned (as Adam and Eve did), they (and all their descendants—including us) would be consigned to a fate of eternal death in a place of separation from God. This terrible place—known as Hell—would forever separate them (and us) from God. So, the pre-construction plan for Creation had to provide some way to redeem humanity from its sin. One way or the other, all that sin must be paid for to satisfy God’s pure justice and holiness. And, the only way it could be paid for was if God decided to send His own divine Son into this world to die on the Cross as a sacrificial payment for our sins. You see, what Paul is telling us is that God KNEW ALL OF THIS BEFORE HE CREATED THE WORLD! And yet, He went ahead anyway and created us with the free will capacity to LOVE. Again, God opted for LOVE, because GOD IS LOVE.
And do you know what the greatest expression of LOVE is? It is this: “Greater LOVE has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (NIV) Who said that?. . . Jesus did. He not only said it, He died showing us HIS LOVE! The Son of God left His glorious home in Heaven and descended to the darkness of this earth. He was born on a cold winter’s night in Bethlehem so that 33 years later He could demonstrate what PERFECT LOVE is all about. Jesus did this as He hung on the Cross outside Jerusalem for all of us. Christmas is a time for LOVE. But, it is not LOVE just for a season. It’s the kind of LOVE we are called to show for a lifetime. In a world in which LOVE is being actively pushed aside in favor of anger and hate, Christmas reminds us of a new commandment Jesus gave. Jesus said: 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, SO YOU MUST LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 (NIV) Why is this a “new commandment”? Because until Jesus came into this world to fulfill His sacrificial mission His Father had decided to implement eons in the past, we could never know what GOD’S GREAT LOVE is all about. Our “new commandment” is to imitate CHRIST’S PERFECT LOVE wherever we go, with whomever we meet. And so, all that we do this Christmas, and in the days to come—do in the name of GOD’S LOVE!
Let us pray.
Darvin Satterwhite, Pastor
Forest Hill Baptist Church
December 17, 2023
©2023 All Rights Reserved as follows:
Anyone is at liberty to use this sermon or any portions thereof for educational or religious purposes, with or without credit. The pastor believes the material presented herein to be true to the teaching of Scripture, and desires to further, not restrict, its potential use as an aid in the study of God’s Word. The publication of this material is a grace ministry of Forest Hill Baptist Church in Louisa, Virginia.
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[1] 1 Timothy 6:15 “For at just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords.” (NLT2) See: “What does it mean that the scepter will not depart from Judah (Genesis 49:10)?” Got Questions Ministries, accessed December 14, 2023, [https/www.gotquestions.org/scepter-will-not-depart-from-Judah.html.
[2] Coffman, James Burton. Coffman Commentary: Genesis, Chapter 3: Vol. 1. Abilene, Texas: ACU Press, 1985. WORDsearch CROSS e-book, page 8.
[3] 1st John 4:16-19 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. (NLT2)
