Love: the greatest act ever

Love: the greatest act ever

Now imagine the following scenario:

You’re 6 years old and you have a little brother that is 3 years old.  You guys are coloring in a coloring book together.  Your father tells you only to color in the coloring book.  He says that if either of you color on any of the furniture or the walls that you will be in big trouble.  You will get a spanking and you will be in time-out.

You say “yes sir” your dad leaves the room and you hone in on your masterpiece.  You’re focused on coloring snufalupagus and staying inside the lines.  After a while you notice that your little brother has wandered off.  It’s too late.  By the time you noticed his absence he had already colored the couch purple and the wall magenta.  You call his name and he comes back over to you and joins you in the coloring book.

Within 10 minutes your father walks in and notices the new markings on the furniture and the walls.  “Did you guys color on the couch and on the walls?”

What is your natural inclination?  You didn’t do it and you certainly don’t want to get a spanking and time out for what your brother did.  You did nothing wrong; you did everything right – you even stayed in the lines on Snufalupagus.  Your brother colored on the couch and the walls.  Is it not your natural inclination to pipe up and say “HE DID IT!”

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that.  If justice is to be served, the one who did the crime deserves to serve the time.  The one guilty should receive punishment.  You’re not guilty and he is.

Isn’t that the natural response?  He did it.  Even if we were guilty, we wouldn’t want the spanking, right?  We are naturally selfish.

Now imagine if the shoe were on the other foot.  Imagine if you were the one who had colored on the walls and on the couch.  You’re the guilty one.  And imagine if your brother did the unthinkable.  Imagine if your brother piped up and said “I did it, dad.  Spank me and put me in timeout.”  Can you imagine if your brother took the heat for you like that?  

What a selfless act.  What a loving act!  What a loving act to set aside the position that is rightfully his, the position of being righteous before the father and to have his smiling face shining upon him in order to receive scorn, shame and punishment that you deserve, so that you will not have to receive that punishment, but rather that you would be seen as righteous before the father and to have his face smiling upon you.

• What a display of love.  
• What a display of selflessness.  
• What a setting aside of oneself for the sake of another.

Now all analogies break down and one might argue that this scenario wouldn’t be for your ultimate good because it could teach you that you can get away with doing wrong and not face the consequences and that’s true.  

Set that aside and go with me to this place.  

Think about how that would make you feel if you 

• did wrong and were guilty, thus
• faced with the consequences of punishment and 
• not having the approval of your father and
• your innocent brother stepped up and took those consequences upon himself, 
• kept you from receiving the punishment you deserved and 
• allowed you to stand in his position of appearing innocent before the father and thus in good standing with the father, having the approval of the father, having the face of your father shining upon you.

How would that make you feel toward your brother?

For those of us who are believers, that scenario describes what is true for us.  We are guilty of sin and deserve punishment.  

WE DO NOT DESERVE 

• our heavenly father’s approval
• to have his face shining upon us 

WE DESERVE 

• his disapproval
• his wrath
• to have him turn his face from us.  

Our brother, Jesus, is innocent of sin.  Though he was tempted in every way as we are, he was without sin.  He was innocent and yet, he stood in our place as the guilty one, took upon himself our guilt and received the punishment due us.  The Father turned away from Him because He took our guilt and received the punishment for that guilt.  

Though we are the guilty ones we are seen as innocent.  The Father’s face shines upon us and he looks upon us with approval.

2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Our innocent brother, Jesus, took our guilt upon Himself and received the punishment we deserved in order that we would stand righteous before our Father.  

For the past few weeks we have been talking about love.  Love is the greatest commandment.  Love is the defining mark of a disciple.  We defined love and looked at some practical ways to express it.  

And by definition, the cross is the greatest act of love ever.

The cross is the greatest act of love ever.  

Love simply defined is selflessness.  The cross was the most selfless act in human history.

Love is the setting aside of oneself for the sake of others.  The magnitude of this in the case of the cross is immeasurable.  There was more worth and value and glory in that one man, Jesus than in all human-kind combined and he set it all aside for the sake of others who were far less worthy, far less valuable, far less glorious than He.  The cross was the most loving act in human history.

Love is the desire and pursuit of the ultimate good of others.  At the cross, Christ took our sin upon himself that we would have restored fellowship to the Father.  This is our ultimate good.

The gospel is this: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death.  But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.  If you trust in Jesus Christ and believe in faith, you will be forgiven of sins and you will get God, Himself.  You get the treasure of infinite measure in whom is unfathomable pleasure – God.  He is our ultimate good and we get Him because of the most loving act in human history, the sacrifice of Himself for us.

God made the ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate good of others.

We read of Jesus’ selfless service in the act of foot-washing and saw a great picture of love.  We looked at 1 Cor 13 and saw that love is patient, kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not proud or rude.  We got a great idea of what love is and what it looks like.  But the ultimate illustration of love is the cross.  The cross was the greatest act of love in human history.

1 John 3:16  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

He laid down His life.  If that is not selflessness, I don’t know what is.  Simply put, love is selflessness.   Jesus laid down his life for us – that is the ultimate act of selflessness.  The cross is the ultimate illustration of love.

Look to the cross.  Contemplate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  This is how we know what love is.  The cross defines love.

Jesus laying down His life for us is the ultimate expression of love.  It was the greatest act of love in human history.  

The most valuable life that ever existed was laid down for others who are far less valuable.

THE CROSS not only illustrates love, but DEFINES LOVE.  THE CROSS IS GOD’S DISPLAY OF LOVE TOWARD US.

1 John 4:9-10  ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

This is how God displayed his love toward us: He sent his only Son to die that we might live.  

It’s not that we loved him because we didn’t.  We have all turned away from him and turned to our own way.  By nature we all sought to reign on the throne of our own lives rather than submit to His rule and reign in our lives as King.  It’s not that we loved him, but that He loved us.  

Remember, love is selflessness.  Regarding God, we were selfish and sought the presents of God rather than the presence of God.  

Yet God, in love, not only gave presents but also His presence.  In love He sent His precious Son.  In the greatest act of love, the greatest act of selflessness, He sacrificed His son to make atonement for our sins.

THE CROSS WAS NO SMALL THING.  Think about how hard it can be to set aside self when there’s one slice of pizza left and we want it, but someone else wants it.  It’s hard to set aside self for the sake of others in small things like forgoing the last slice of pizza or the last soda.  You know the anguish of watching somebody eat the last slice of pizza and drink the last soda.  Right?  It’s terrible.  Imagine the anguish of Christ before the cross.

Matt 26:36-42  ³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 

⁴⁰ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 

⁴² He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

The cross was no small thing.  Jesus in anguish, in sorrow and trouble, with his soul overwhelmed to the point of death, set Himself aside for the sake of others.  The cross was no small thing.  The cross was a great thing, an enormous thing.  It required a setting aside of self of the greatest magnitude.  It was the greatest act of love in human history.

OUR UNWORTHINESS MAGNIFIED THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE LOVE DISPLAYED AT THE CROSS.

Romans 5:6-8  ⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very 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.

It’s easier to do stuff for “worthy” people.  You leave the office after work and you see somebody on the side of the road with a flat tire and you squint to see who it is and if you know him.  You see that it’s the super-nice lady from the office who always greets you with a smile, compliments you and brings the breakfast tacos.  It’s easy to pull over and help that lady – she’s worthy.  On the other hand let’s say you look and see that it’s the guy who’s always condescending toward you, always rude, the guy’s just a buster.  It’s easier to keep driving and not help that guy.  He’s not worthy.

Christ died for the unworthy.  Nobody was worthy.  Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  It’s easy to set aside self for the sake of serving someone deserving.  But difficult to set aside self for the sake of those undeserving.  Consider Christ dying for us, who were totally undeserving.  Think about the sins in our past, the sins we still commit and will probably commit in the future.  We are not worthy of such love.  We’re not good people that he died for.  We are people that have served self.  We are people who hated him, hated one another, cheated one another.  We aren’t worthy.  That magnifies the intensity of this display of love.  Our depravity and utter unrighteousness makes the cross even that much more of an extravagant display of love.  The cross was the most loving act in human history.  

SUMMARY SO FAR:

• Cross is greatest act of love ever

• Most Selfless
• Most extreme setting aside of self for others
• Most extravagant pursuit of ultimate good of others
• Cross is the ultimate illustration of God’s love for us
• Footwashing
• 1 Cor 13
• CROSS!!!
• Cross was no small thing (it was enormous)
• Sorrow
• Trouble
• Heart overwhelmed
• Our depravity magnified the love displayed at the cross
• He died not for the worthy
• He died for the UNWORTHY

So what?  What do we do as a result of this greatest act of love in human history?  

What is the natural response?

Recall our scenario with your brother and the crayons.  How would you respond if your brother took the heat for you with the crayon incident?  Would you not respond in love to your brother?  Would you not seek to “pay back” that love?  Would you not seek to pay that love forward?  As a result of feeling that kind of grace & love would you not seek to extend that grace and love to others?

Our response to the greatest act of love ever should be the same, but exponentially greater.  Our response: WOW.  Glory, honor and praise to God.  Thanksgiving.  Love toward him and love toward others.  Extend God’s grace and love to others.

That is exactly what the authors of the NT propose and encourage.

Ephesians 5:1-2  Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Just as Jesus loved us and gave himself up, sacrificed himself for us, be imitators of God and live a life of love.  Imitate him.  Since he set himself aside and loved us, let us set ourselves aside and love others.

1 John 4:11  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

We didn’t just have a brother that took a spanking for us coloring on the walls.  We have a brother who died a humiliating, torturous death, shedding his blood, receiving the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins and not just one of us, but all of us.  And for all of us who believe, we are not under the wrath of God, we do not face condemnation for sin, but we stand before God as righteous, pure and sinless and thus we have fellowship with Him as his face shines upon us.

Thus, the cross was the greatest act of love in human history.