To the Christian, there are few things more upsetting than knowing another human being hates you. That is also true of most non-Christians. Most Americans do not like to be hated! We find something disconcerting about knowing someone else despises us without cause. That realization touches our personal, hidden, sense of insecurity in a powerful way.
Some people find pleasure in being despised by others. Yet, even among those who seem to enjoy others' spite are those who seek acceptance. Often those who hate were moved to hate because someone who should have loved them hated them instead. Others include hate in their "outer crust" in a deliberate desire to repel anyone who might care about them because they do not wish to risk being hurt again.
Those who feel a sense of success through the realization that others despise them are relatively few. However, this is not true of most people. It is never true of the person who knows the peace produced by the knowledge that God loves them. It is one thing to realize a person or a group hates you. It is quite another to know God is angry with you! To some, having people as an enemy is tolerable. However, having God as an enemy touches our deepest level of terror.
Most people find it acceptable to have a personal enemy "if I am in control." Most people find it unacceptable to have an enemy "when I am NOT in control." It is sheer terror to have an enemy when "I am helpless." To know God is my enemy is sheer terror because I am helpless. What can a person do to God? It is not and can never be "a level playing field" when we oppose God. Why? Because of this: God always knows me completely; I always struggle simply to grasp God's nature.
The key for each of us is knowing God's character as revealed in His nature. Is God primarily spiteful of us? Is God primarily loving of us? How a person views God will determine how that individual understands God's actions. The distinction between seeing God's grace or God's wrath in God's actions is commonly determined by the person's understanding of God's character and nature. If a person only sees a God of wrath venting anger on people, everything will be connected to divine wrath. If a person sees a God of love seeking to save people from evil, everything will be connected to divine grace.
Three understandings are essential for understanding God's actions. (1) God and evil are at war [not God and humanity]. (2) God's nature first seeks to be compassionate to people (see Exodus 34:6, 7; Numbers 14:18, 19; Deuteronomy 4:30, 31; Isaiah 55:6-11; Joel 2:12, 13). (3) People are difficult to love because they so easily yield to evil motives, deeds, and values.
In our text, Paul affirms God through Christ sought to establish peace between Himself and people through Jesus Christ. Note what God did.
1. He made possible justification by faith in what He did in Jesus Christ. What Paul said is much deeper than is reflected by the standard "faith versus obedience" arguments. Human behavior--no matter how obedient--could never achieve justification before God. God made justification dependent on trust in what He did in Jesus' death and resurrection. Confidence in what God did, not in what we do in human acts, makes it possible for us to appear before God as a person who never violated God's expectations. Obedience is never an attempt to earn, but always an expression of appreciation for what God did for us.
2. We can "stand" before God because of God's grace revealed through Jesus Christ. We never deserve God's forgiveness. We never deserve God's compassion [mercy]. We never deserve any of God's blessings. There is nothing we can do to deserve God's consideration. Appearing sinless before the Holy God in Whom there is no sin is His gracious gift to us.
3. Our hope is confidently placed in the glory of God, not in the merit of human endeavor. It is God's glory revealed in Jesus Christ that provides us the assurance of hope. It is not based on a human deed or a collection of human deeds.
4. As a result, we are confident that God's eternal blessings come through physical hardship. Physical hardships do not prove God is absent or inactive. Every form of difficulty merely produces spiritual benefits to the believing.
5. Jesus Christ was sent by God to die for us when we were helpless and ungodly. He came as an expression of God's love for us. When humanity was everything that God is not [the ultimate contrast is provided in unholy versus holy or sinful versus sinless], He sent Jesus to die for us. In an undeserved act of love, God was extremely compassionate toward a humanity that was repugnant.
6. The overall result of Jesus' dying for us was reconciliation with God. God was no longer to be seen as the enemy! God's objective was NOT to conquer and punish us for our rebellion, but to forgive us on an ongoing basis as we seek to follow God (see 1 John 1:5-10). Even after accepting Jesus as God's gift to us, we are incapable of being sinless. Remember, Paul wrote to Christians. Reconciliation is not an "off and on" again matter. To those who seek God to escape evil, it is a constantly "on" condition.
7. When we understand what God did for us in Jesus' death and resurrection, we praise God [never ourselves] because God, not our deeds, is the foundation of our confidence. We are who we are as Christians because of God's gifts to us in Jesus Christ.
We are hard to love! Yet, God loves us! An essential expression of our love for God is found in our loving people. Never will it be as hard for us to love and bless people as it was for God to love and bless us!
For Thought and Discussion
Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 5