Demonstrated Love

K-Lai — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:29:00 -0700

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“
- Romans 5:1-8 (NIV)

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To me, Romans is a tough book to study through, mostly because of how densely packed Paul wrote out a very rational and well-reasoned exposition of basic Christian theology. But there’s so much depth and richness as I meditate on these thoughts, that I want to revisit the topic, “The Great Romance,” that I began nearly three years ago.

Just to review, I called this study “The Great Romance” based on a phrase used by one of my favorite authors, Ted Dekker. In Dekker’s Circle Trilogy, he uses the term “The Great Romance” to describe the relationship that God has with man – just as God Himself described Himself as the Bridegroom, and the Church as His Bride. I loved the imagery, which recaptures God’s passion for His glory as well as His passionate love for us. So at the beginning of my journey through medical school, I set out to examine the Bible and ask the question, “How does God demonstrate His pursuit of man, and by extension, the Church?” I wanted to discover more of how God pursues us and learn how to respond to His lead…and in learning that, I might also learn how to relate to people. Now with that frame of reference, I would like to consider this passage, particularly this middle section I have highlighted.

I’d like to start out by examining the context of what Paul’s writing. In the first four chapters, Paul begins by building a strong rational basis for our inherent depravity and need for God. He explains that between the natural law that God has written on our hearts and the law that He gave through the Hebrews, our rebellion was made known. We cannot find justification/perfection through the law; and apart from the law we perish. For this reason, Paul argues that we should not judge others, because we are equally culpable of breaking the law, whether we know it or not. And because God’s holiness and righteousness is shown by our sinfulness, it seems like it’s okay for us to continue rebelling and persisting in our sinfulness. But Paul says that this should not be the way we live – because to do so is to incur God’s judgment upon ourselves. We should be pursuing righteousness, but to pursue it through keeping the law is impossible. So God has given us a righteousness that is apart from the law – one that is based on faith in Jesus Christ. The idea is that God has made righteousness available to us by sending His Son to fulfill the requirement of the law, so that anyone who believes into Him will be justified and made righteous. Paul gives us the example of Abraham, who believed God and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. And so instead of our works and our own doing, it is by our faith and dependence upon Jesus Christ that reconciles this “falling short” in our lives.

And that is where this passage begins. Paul encourages the Romans to hope and rejoice in this faith that we now have through Jesus, so that they may persevere in the midst of suffering, because God has “poured out His love into [their] hearts” (v. 5). So what is this love that Paul talks about?

In verses 6-8 Paul describes the type of love that God has poured out into our hearts. And here is where I want to unpack my observations and meditations on God’s passionate pursuit of our hearts.

God has things timed perfectly. The phrase “at just the right time” makes me think of that scene in The Two Towers, when the forces at Helm’s Deep are being overrun and beleaguered by the unending hordes of Saruman’s Orcs and Uruk-hai. They remaining forces regroup to make their final charge, knowing that their doom has come, but that they must give it their all because their families’ lives are at stake. So they ride out to their expected deaths when the sun rises on the nearly-broken fortress. Aragorn looks at the rays of light and remembers Gandalf’s instruction: When the sun rises on the 5th day, look to the east. And when they look, they see Gandalf with the remainder of Rohirrim standing aglow in the sunrise. Reinforcements have come. Victory has come “at just the right time.”

God has orchestrated everything with an even greater precision of detail. This is true in the broad sense of salvation, but also with the minutiae of our lives. Salvation would not be as meaningful if we did not need saving. And so at exactly when we needed Him to rescue us, He did. We desperately were looking for Someone to depend on, and He chose that moment to intervene.
God took action before there was any initiative on our part. Not only did God rescue at exactly the right time, but He did so on His initiative. We were so lost in sin that we didn’t even know we needed saving, but God took the initiative. He pursues us, even when we don’t want to be pursued, even when we don’t realize we need Him.

I see this playing out in our lives as well – that if it is out of love that we pursue, then we need to take initiative to demonstrate our love to others. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily have to mean that we have to show our love in some extreme way, but love involves initiative. Love is not passive – it is active. It is a choice; it is an action. It is fueled by passion. It is grounded in revelation and truth. It gives and invites; it woos and desires. It hopes and creates. So as I think about those people I claim to love, I ask myself, do I take the initiative to show them that I love them, even when they don’t ask for my demonstration of love?
God loves the ungodly. God then took it to the next level with His demonstration of love – He died for the ungodly. He died for those who did not deserve to have their sentences commuted. He took the place of the worst people in the world, because of love. Paul states it simply in verse 7: “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.” Our concept of dying for someone else is that we would die for someone else if their life was worth more than ours. For example, the very famous scene from Spartacus, where all of the title character’s followers claimed to be Spartacus so that the Romans, their enemy, would not kill him. They believed that his life was worth more than theirs, so they gladly placed their own lives in harm’s way to protect him. Or, in a more modern film set in the same era of history, Gladiator, Maximus’ friends were willing to give up their lives so that Maximus would have the chance to do what he needed to do. We have a similar way of thinking now. We would gladly lay down our lives for the sake of our children or for our spouses. But, we would never think to give our lives in place of a serial killer’s, or to take the place of a child molester in prison. But essentially that’s what God did for us. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He protects us, even when we do not deserve it. He lays down His life for us, even though our lives are worth far less than His. God has made us worthy of His love, even while we were unworthy.
God demonstrates His love with His life. This last point I want to make, though already discussed to some degree above, is something distinct that I think needs to be pointed out. Like I said before, love necessitates initiative. Going along with that, love necessitates demonstration. You cannot say that you love someone but then do not act to demonstrate that love in some way. It reminds me of middle-school dating, when kids would become “boyfriend/girlfriend” for a day and sit on opposite ends of the lunch room and ignore each other. That may be cute, and somewhat funny in retrospect, but most everyone would probably agree that that is not true love. True love screams to be released in action. There is passion, and there is creativity when love drives a person.

To put it in practical terms, I’ll give a real-life example. My roommate just recently got engaged to his girlfriend. They love each other very much, and demonstrate it regularly in different ways. I had the honor of helping my roommate photograph the moments leading up to the engagement, and as we were planning this all out, I was struck by the great lengths and careful detail my roommate took to make the moment uniquely special to his girlfriend. From the choice of activities to the carefully chosen words he said throughout the evening to the ring that he secretly bought the day after his girlfriend told him that that was the perfect ring, to the utmost secrecy in setting it all up so that she could be surprised (in a good way), I could see my roommate’s demonstration of love to her. That’s the kind of love that God has for us – that He would go all out to show us and tell us that He loves us, even to dying on a cross and taking our punishment. There’s no price He didn’t pay, in the words of a Third Day song.

And so it should be with our love for God and for other people. We should have a love that is demonstrated in action and attitude, with our hearts and minds, so that there is no doubt that we mean it when we say we love. That’s the type of love that God desires – it is worship to Him when we lay it all down for Him. That’s the type of love the world hungers to see – “by this all men will know that you are [Christ’s] disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). For all of our posturing and rational arguments about God’s nature, there is no reason for God’s existence more powerful to the unbeliever than the demonstration of undeserved, unconditional love to those who do not deserve it.

The reason why I chose to revisit this topic, and why I chose this passage, was two-fold. First, a friend of mine asked me tonight what I have been studying in the Word. This topic has been a passion of mine for several years now, and now that the dry season that was last year has started to see fresh rains again, that friend inadvertently spurred me on to resume this study. Thanks! The reason why I chose this passage was born out of preparation for this week’s church service. My pastor is going to be teaching about God’s love based out of John 3:16, and as the lead worshiper this week, I was asked to choose songs that matched the theme of God’s demonstrated love toward us. This passage came to mind, and has been on my heart all week long. In fact, as part of this consideration, I composed a bridge section to the old hymn, I Stand Amazed In The Presence. I am posting the lyrics below, and as you read those words, I pray that your own reflection and response will be augmented. Thank you for your diligence in making it to the end of this post!

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I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean

How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me!

He took my sins and my sorrows and made them His very own
And bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone

How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me!

I stand amazed at all You’ve done
While I was lost You demonstrated by the Cross
Your everlasting, unfailing love
Unending grace, I stand amazed

And with the ransomed in glory His face I at last shall see
Twill be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me

How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be
How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me!

I Stand Amazed
Charles Hutchison Gabriel and Kevin Lai
© 2008 Kevin Lai

"Demonstrated Love" by Ronnica

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:01:34 -0700

Okay, I answered the questions.

"Demonstrated Love" by Theresa

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:29:10 -0700

This is very, very good, Kevin, especially point #2. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

k-lai.com: Demonstrated Love

Demonstrated Love

"Demonstrated Love" by Ronnica

"Demonstrated Love" by Theresa