“The Greatest Giver of Gifts:” by Romans
Opening Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
Simulcast Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxEjDr6IAgQ
I am going to continue to suspend our “Light and Darkness” Series until, very likely, the second week in January, 2020. As in years past, I have some Thematic and Seasonal Discussions that I would much prefer to present to you. Some of these Discussions were previously presented, at least in part, but I am, instead, going to use past Discussion notes as skeletons and build them into fresh Discussions, with new “meat” added to those “bones.”
This is the time of year when the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated. We hear in sermons, or see images on the Christmas cards we send or receive, images of the wise men bringing gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child. And, as a part of the celebration, we have adopted the cultural practice that includes the giving of gifts. We make our lists of people that will receive cards or gifts or both from us.
That particular aspect of this season is observed by both believers as well as those who do not believe in God or Christ, and, who never go to Church even if they were raised in a Christian home. We are almost never out of sight or ear shot of reminders about giving. Many stores that we go to have a Salvation Army “bell-ringer” our front with their little red-kettles so that people might give donations to them.
Besides the unceasing reminders that we get on TV and the radio, and the mailed circulars filled with pages of Stocking Stuffers, there are tables and displays appear in many stores and supermarkets with various and sundry Gift Ideas. The one thing that we likely have in common with our non-Church-going neighbors and co-workers is that we recognize and observe that the time from Thanksgiving Day (here in America) through the whole month of December is “The Season of Giving.”
But in every mention of gift-giving during this Season that I have heard, I have never heard anyone acknowledge God being, not only a Giver of Gifts, but “The Greatest Giver of Gifts,” tonight's title for this Discussion. First, before I begin, I would like to give full credit for many of the verses that I will use, tonight, in the basic Outline found in Torrey's Topical Textbook, under the heading: “The Gifts of God.”
First, I would like to offer what may be a Scripture that is more familiar to more people than any other Scripture: John 3:16. It speaks of Giving: John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
I try to be as good to people as I can possibly be. I have even had a few successes in turning the other cheek and doing good to those who were not so good to me. But I can tell you that I do not have it within me to offer my own son to die in the place of anyone else. That will never happen, even if it were to save someone I considered a close and dear friend. But I would like to point out that God did not give His Son for close and dear friends, or even for those who obeyed and believed in Him.
When we think of John 3:16, we focus on God's love” “For God so loved the world...” In his devotional, “My Utmost For His Highest.” Oswald Chambers makes the startling declaration that God does not forgive us because He loves us. When I first read that, I had to hit the brakes and think about what I just read. I didn't understand it or like it. But I read on to give him the chance to defend that very unexpected claim. He went on to say that, if God simply forgives us because He loves us, He would never have sent, or needed to send Jesus to suffer the savage beating, and experience the most heinous execution ever devised by man. To be sure, God forgives us! But His love is manifested when we read in John 3:16 that He gave His only only-begotten Son to take the full penalty for our sins ~ to experience the Death Penalty that we brought on ourselves for our sins ~ in our place. (See Romans 6:23)
The Sermon Bible has this to say regarding John 3:16: “I. A difficulty arises in considering this text. If God so loved the world, why did He allow the fall of man. I answer, Never was a kinder act in God’s whole government than that fall of man. For, from what did He fall? A garden. To what does he rise? A heaven. But how can a loving Father permit so much pain, and sin, and misery among His creatures? Two keys unlock that mystery.
(1) One is Christ. This world of ours was made to be a platform for the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will never read rightly the history of this earth till you adopt that as your first principle—this world was made to be a platform to show Christ. To that manifestation of Christ in His redeeming work, pain, and sin, and misery were absolutely essential.
(2) The other key is eternity. We do not yet know how that world will explain and rectify this. We do not yet know how the discipline of this world is bringing out the joy of another; and how the rough and noisy quarry of this Lebanon is giving effect to that temple which is now rising in its calmness upon the hill of Zion. When we behold all its balanced action, and its perfect unity, and its grand results, I am quite sure that we shall say of it all, "God is love."
II. God does not give many things. He lends many; and what He lends, He recalls. He lends everything that has not Christ in it; and therefore He recalls everything that has not Christ in it. But Christ, and what has Christ in it, He never recalls. A Christian affection—a Christian union—a Christian peace—He never recalls! Christ fills it. God gave Christ; therefore that affection, that peace, that union is for ever and ever. You will observe that the promise is twofold—one negative and the other positive.
(1) The negative we owe, strictly speaking, to the death of Christ. Our punishment having passed on to Christ, it would not be just in God to punish us also, for that would be punishing the same sin twice. (2) The positive boon, our admission into heaven, we owe to the meritorious righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us. And when in that righteousness, we have an actual claim... of admission into the heavenly kingdom, because Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1865.
The Atonement. I. There is a side of the Atonement which, when we contemplate, we can understand, and not only understand, but adore; for it is revealed to us not only on its transcendent side, but also on its human side—not only in its relations to God, but also in its effects on man. And on this side you will see, if you search your Bibles, that there are mainly four metaphors by which it is shadowed forth.
The Atonement of Christ is described (1) as a sin offering; (2) as our reconciliation to God; (3) as a ransom from slavery; (4) as the release from a debt which it was wholly beyond our power to pay.
Now here we have no doubt, no mystery, only blessing and peace. Christ is our sin-offering. When the ancient Israelite had brought his sin-offering, and seen the flame consume it on the altar, he believed that in some way, he knew not how, his sin would be forgiven; but for us, Christ, by the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God. Christ is our reconciliation, not in type and shadow, but in very truth. He, as a mediator, stands in the place of God to man, and in the place of man to God. Christ is our ransom. Would you be grateful to one who, finding you chained in a dungeon, broke your chains and flung open your prison doors? Here is a redemption which delivers you from the captivity of sin and Satan, the worst of all captivities.
Christ paid our heavy debt. If with a hearty repentance and true faith we turn to Him, the debt—the debt of the horribly wasted and desecrated past—the debt of the miserably blighted and wasted present—is cancelled, and we are free.
F. W. Farrar, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 1,024.
References: Joh_3:16.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 6; Homilist, vol. iv., p. 112; Ibid., new series, vol. ii., p. 526; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 424; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 400; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1850; R. Glover, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 170. Joh_3:16-21.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 274; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 271.”
We read in Romans 5:9-11: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”
The Preacher's Homiletical tells us of this: “Christian assurance.—The Roman Christians would require all the helps which could be furnished. The apostle seeks to surround them with all safeguards, and to bring forth every argument and every consideration to strengthen them in the faith and prepare them for all trials.
There are for us also peculiar trials, and we must seek to strengthen and encourage ourselves by the consideration of our privileges. Let us strengthen ourselves in the faith by taking account of the grounds of our assurance.
I. Confidence from the initial process.—“When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God.” If the divine Being considered us kindly and compassionately in a state of enmity, surely He will not forsake when the alienation has been removed and a state of friendship has been established.
II. Confidence from the further development.—Being justified, delivered by the blood of Christ, we shall finally be saved from wrath through Him. If grace has begun, surely grace will consummate. Can there be unfinished works in the divine path ways? Can it be said of God that, having begun to build, He was not either able or willing to finish? Let us have confidence in God’s good-will. Let us believe in His omnipotence and in His ever-enduring mercy.
III. Confidence from the unseen.—Reconciled by the death of God’s Son, saved by His life—saved by His earth life as a stimulating example, as an elevating and sanctifying influence. From the death of Christ we go backward and forward—backward to the earth life, forward to the heavenly life. Saved by His earth life as our example—saved by His heavenly life as our intercessor, as our appropriator, as our guide and protector. He ever lives to intercede. We have a great High Priest.
Let us have holy boldness. He appropriates not to Himself but to believers the benefits of His mediatorial work. Sacred and benign influences come to us from the mediatorial throne. He is our guide and protector. He is the Good Shepherd guiding the sheep to the sweet pastures, where the verdant glades are ever green and refreshing streams are ever flowing. Let us follow where He leads, being assured that He will lead aright. Our times are in His hands. He is watching over our welfare.
IV. Confidence from the inward.—The emotional is to be watched, but not to be ignored. Our own thoughts, feelings, and experiences are to be reckoned. Some there are who make light of inward experiences; but here St. Paul seems to make the inward the climax of his argument. Not only so, but we joy in God, we exult in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the at-one-ment, the reconciliation.
V. Christian joy is well founded, springing from the atoning work of Jesus Christ.—Glory in self-righteousness, in fancied goodness, in good works, is vain. Not thus can we rightly joy in God. Such joy is like the chaff of the summer threshing floor which the wind will soon drive away. Let our joy spring from the finished work of the Saviour. He that exulteth, let him exult not in himself, but in that good God who gave His only begotten Son.
Christian joy should be raised above the storms and tempests of time. The greater the outer darkness, the clearer shall be the inner light of Christian joy; the fiercer the outward heart, the more cheerily shall the inner joy glow and refresh.
VI. Christian joy is abiding.—God cannot change. Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How soon our earth joys fade! How often we have joy in anticipation and sorrow in realisation! Heaven’s joys do not fade. The believer joys in God as a present possession. He joys in anticipation of eternal union, and the realisation of that bliss will be bliss indeed.
“I will see you again; I will remain with you: and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” Soul joy is abiding and eternal. Surely we ought to have strong confidence who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us in the gospel.
The dead and living Christ.—“For if, when we were enemies.” There are four distinct facts or events given us here, on which the argument of the passage builds itself. Two of these have reference to the history of the sinner, and two of them to the history of the sinner’s Deliverer. The first two are, man’s enmity and man’s reconciliation; the last two are, the Saviour’s death and the Saviour’s life.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Let me interrupt the commentary to say this: I was familiar with that word for decades before I actually learned what it meant. The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines it as: “the act of gaining or regaining the favor or goodwill of someone or something; appeasement.”
What if, when he was a kid, my son told me he threw a ball, and broke my neighbor's window. So we knock on the neighbor's door, and my son apologizes, but the neighbor is not satisfied. So then I tell him that my son would pay for the window to be replaced from his allowance. Now my neighbor accepts his apology. That payment was the propitiation that sweetened the deal, gained the favor of my neighbor, and alleviated his anger. Jesus' death was the propitiation for our sins.
Going back, now to the commentary: “There having been in His infinite bosom this exceeding love before He gave His Son, it is wholly incredible that He should be less gracious now, less willing to bestow all needed gifts. For 1. That gift did not exhaust His love. It did not empty the heart of God, nor dry up the fountain of His grace.”
2. That gift has not thrown any hindrance in the way of God’s love. It is not now a more difficult thing for God to love us; nay, if we can say so, it is easier than ever. All hindrances have now melted away. Having thus briefly noticed this important truth, we now pass on to consider the three special heads of argument.
I. If God did so much for us when enemies, what will He do, or rather, what will He not do, for us now that we are friends?—Our enmity, great as it was, did not hinder His bestowing such an unspeakable gift: what is there, then, within the whole circle of the universe, which we may not count upon, now that that enmity has been removed, and we have entered into eternal friendship with Him? There may be said to be three stages in this love, at each of which it rises and increases: 1. He loved us when enemies;
2. He loves us more when friends, even in this imperfect state of still-remaining sin;
3. He will love us yet more when imperfection has been shaken off, and we are presented without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Here, then, is love in which we may assuredly triumph. It was love which expressed itself by an infinite gift. He is loving us and blessing us here; oh! will He not love us and bless us in the day when we take possession of the provided inheritance?
II. If Christ’s death did so much for us, what will not His life do?—If a dying Saviour did so much for us, what will not a living Saviour be able to do? The expression “saved” used here denotes the whole blessing which God has in store for us—complete deliverance in every sense of that word—a complete undoing of our lost estate. Its consummation is, when Jesus comes the second time without sin unto salvation.
The apostle’s argument rests on the fact of the existence of these two opposite states of being—the two opposite extremities of being, death and life. Death is the lowest pitch of helplessness, lower even than the feebleness of infancy. It is the extremity of weakness. It is the utter cessation of all strength. Life is the opposite of this. It is the full possession of being, with all its faculties and powers.
It is the guarantee for the forth-putting of all the vigour and strength which belong to the individual in whom it dwells. And it is thus that the apostle reasons: If Christ in His lowest state of weakness accomplished such marvels for us, what will He not be able to do for us now that He is in the full exercise of His almighty strength?
III. If Christ’s death did so much for us when enemies, what will not His life do for us when friends?—In other words, if a dying Saviour did so much for us when enemies, what will not a living Saviour do for us when friends? If a father, in the midst of poverty and weakness, will do much for a prodigal child, what will he not, in the day of his riches and power and honour, do for a reconciled son? Hear how Scripture speaks of His life.
“When He who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” His appearing as our life shall bring with it all that blessedness and glory which pertain to Him as the living One—as our life. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” He cannot die; He liveth for ever. He is the resurrection and the life; therefore life, and all that life comprises, shall be ours. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.”
Ground of confidence.—“Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” This and the following verse draw the obvious inference from the freeness and greatness of the love of God, as just exhibited, that believers shall be ultimately saved. If the greater benefit has been bestowed, the less will not be withheld. If Christ has died for His enemies, He will surely save His friends.
“Being justified.” To be justified is more than to be pardoned; it includes the idea of reconciliation or restoration to the favour of God, and the participation of the consequent blessings. This idea is prominently presented in the following verse. We are justified “by His blood.” This expression, as remarked above, exhibits the true ground of our acceptance with God. It is not our works, nor our faith, nor our new obedience, nor the work of Christ in us, but what He has done for us.
Having by the death of Christ been brought into the relation of peace with God, being now regarded for His sake as righteous, “we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” He will not leave His work unfinished; whom He justifies, them He also glorifies. The word “wrath” of course means the effects of wrath or punishment, those sufferings with which the divine displeasure visits sin. Not only is our justification to be ascribed to Christ, but our salvation is “through” Him.
Salvation, in a general sense, includes justification; but when distinguished from it, as in this case, it means the consummation of that work of which justification is the commencement. It is a preservation from all the causes of destruction, a deliverance from the evils which surround us here or threaten us hereafter, and an introduction into the blessedness of heaven. Christ thus saves us by His providence and Spirit, and by His constant intercession.
There is therefore most abundant ground for confidence for the final blessedness of believers, not only in the amazing love of God, by which, though sinners and enemies, they have been justified and reconciled by the death of His Son, but also in the consideration that this same Saviour that died for them still lives, and ever lives to sanctify, protect, and save them.—Hodge.
“Justify” here means “deliver from.”—“Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The word “justified” is here used to denote “delivered,” as may be inferred from the connection of the argument. Christ died for us, saith the apostle, and thus “justified,” that is “delivered,” us from death, which was our due. And if we are already delivered from death by the shedding of His blood, much more shall we be saved from wrath...
that is from future punishment, through Him. Such is the argument. But if we should suppose the word “justified” to have its most usual meaning, namely, “accounted righteous,” there would be no room for the further effect here mentioned, of delivering us from future punishment. For justification denotes both delivering from wrath and also holding us entitled to the reward of righteousness.
The apostle’s assertion therefore is, that being delivered by the death of Christ from the dominion of sin and from that death which was due to us, we shall through Him also be saved from the wrath to come. The expression “much more shall we be saved from wrath” implies that Christ’s dying to save us from the death due to us as sinners was the most important part of the plan of salvation... there can be no doubt that... saving us from future punishment, will in due time take place also.—Ritchie.
The word “atonement” may be used.—The word here translated “the atonement” is twice, in the preceding verse, rendered by the word to “reconcile”; and it would have expressed the meaning more exactly had the passage been rendered “by whom we have received the reconciliation.” For, according to common use of language, an atonement is a sacrifice offered for sin; and it is received or accepted by Him whose law has been violated, and whom it is intended to propitiate.
Strictly speaking, therefore, we do not receive atonement. It is both offered to God and accepted by Him. At the same time, the use of the word “atonement” instead of “reconciliation” makes no change in the meaning. For reconciliation is altogether the effect of the Atonement. It is this which removes the displeasure of God which lies on mankind as sinners, and renders Him willing to receive them into His favour. —Ritchie.
Jesus reveals the love of God by deeds.—Francis Turretin says the doctrine of the Atonement is the chief part of our salvation, the anchor of faith, the refuge of hope, the rule of charity, the true foundation of the Christian religion, and the richest treasure of the Christian Church. When prophets and apostles have given us their message, their work is done. But it is different with Christ Jesus. Far more of God is revealed in what Jesus was, in what He did, and in what He suffered, than in what He taught.
He revealed the mercy and tenderness of God more by His deeds than His words. Others had spoken of the beautiful, but none lived so beautifully. The evangelists give lengthened accounts of His death: the Saviour Himself ever kept it before Him, because it was of a sacrificial character. Jesus viewed death with terror, while the martyrs viewed it with delight. Surely this terror was not caused by the prospect of crucifixion, though painful.
The only explanation of His death is His own: “He gave His life a ransom for many”; “His blood was shed for the remission of sins.” The cross, the symbol of dishonour and weakness, is the mightiest power in the universe. Peter, in his early discourse, refers to the death of Christ as a crime on the part of the Jews in order to lead them to repentance. It is significant that Peter’s whole thought should be concentrated on the cross and resurrection.
How was it that Peter referred so much to His death? Christ suffered for us. It is not said that Christ taught or worked miracles for us. St. John strongly sets forth Christ’s death as a propitiation, and St. Paul maintained that Christ died for our sins... The history of the doctrine is a proof that the idea of an objective atonement was not invented by theologians.—Abstracted from, “The Atonement,” by R. W. Dale.”
The Father loves us, but to say He forgives us because He loves us is to remove Jesus from our Salvation. The Father's love for us was manifested when He gave His Son Jesus to die in our place. We read in 1 John 4:9: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” He paid the highest possible price for the Gift of His Son, that we might be forgiven, and redeemed, and sanctified.
As startling, and humbling, and exhilarating as it is to try to wrap our minds around the unfathomable love of the Father that He would give His Son to die in our place, Scripture adds... yes ADDS to that in Romans 8:32: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
This concludes this Evening's Discussion, “The Greatest Giver of Gifts.” But this in no way concludes our examination of God as “The Greatest Giver of Gifts.” There is much more to review and examine, and we will, God willing, in the coming weeks between now and Christmas, be delving into this subject with a finer tooth comb than I have ever used in previous Discussions under this general theme. I hope that all of you, whether you are hearing or reading my words, join me.
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on December 4th, 2019
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