The Gloriously Inconvenient God

Romans 5:8-10

On Easter Sunday, they day we celebrate the most glorious event which has taken place on the face of the planet –the resurrection of The Son of God, which was preceded by His being slaughtered in our place on the cross, for our sins — I was putting up current rods.

My wife asked me to hang four curtain rods up in our house. I told my wife I would hang these curtain rods earlier last week, however, when it came time to do it (as it the case most of the time) I did not want to do what I said I would do. It was an inconvenience to serve her, and my attitude and actions toward her, spoke this louder to her than my words of love.

My attitude was saying, “serving you, like I said I would, is an inconvenience to me”. I hung the curtain rods, but my attitude was full of passive aggressive anger and frustration, not love and care and joy for the very opportunity to serve her. This is sin.

I was inconvenienced by my wants and needs having to be put last and my wife’s needs and wants needing to be placed first. I could feel the hands of my heart holding on to what I wanted and my attitude let my wife know this clearly. God help me for I am a sinner.

This I believe is the fundamental problem with me and all of humanity. We want and desire a God who poses no inconveniences to us getting our own way as we pursue our own way and all of our sinful desires.

When God does not move out of the way, as we pursue sin and selfishness, we not only wrap our hands around our sinful desires, we reach for the very throat of God (and others) as an inconvenient obstacle to our sinful desires.

Not much has changed since the fall. We are all naturally like Cain toward God Himself and therefore toward others. We are all much worse than we think we are.

This is the reason why we die.

To sinfully fallen people, the God who has every right to our worship, the God who’s glory is the aim of all His pursuits, is the only God who exists, and therefore the God who must be murdered.

Here is why Christianity stands apart from every other religion, even the other monotheistic ones (Judaism and Islam): It is only in Christianity that God decisively acts to redeem His glory by taking on the offenses of those who have soiled His glory and attempted to dethrone Him from his rightful place.

God is the God who willingly embraces all of our sinfulness and all the inconveniences that come with it (hostility toward Him and therefore toward others made in His image, evil, death, hell and the grave) with purpose and joy. I am not that way, but I want Him to make me like this, like Him.

How God could love us like this, is beyond me, but I am so grateful that He really does love who we really are at the cross. Paul writes in Romans 5:8-10, ” but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

The kind and loving God who mercifully and lovingly tells us the truth about who we are to Him (His enemies), make His enemies His sons. He alone is to be exalted and celebrated and proclaimed to all nations. Truly John Piper is right, when He wrote, “let the nations be glad!”

God has done this profound work, in order that His name may be praised and that man might have Him as their only hope, security and desire, forever. For it is the praise and Glory of God where mankind finds its deepest and only hope.

Thank God that God remains committed to His glory as the aim of His love for us. Paul gives us the reason for God’s abundant love and mercy to Godless sinners like me, He writes in Ephesians 2:7, “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”.

The only God who exists, is the inconvenient one and the cross tells us so.

Every single sin comes from a heart to suppress God’s right to His glory in us; it is an attempt therefore, to enslave God to our own conveniences. We all want the best deal on God in this life that we can get. May God forgive us of this sin.

Therefore, from this view of sin, the crucifixion shows us that love is not love, rather that God himself is love. God is love, and, thank God, that He Himself, does not stoop to loving like me, selfishly. At the cross and resurrection of The Son of God, God emblazons Himself as the perfect standard of Justice, Righteousness Holiness and perfect Love.

This He does, “to the praise of His glorious grace” Ephesians 26. Therefore, the term “love is love” is so sinfully servile and full of endless evil triviality.

Next to God Himself as the definition of love, the term “love is love” is exposed as vacuous sin-craving evil, which resides in the sinful heart of mankind.

Salvation comes from the heart and mind of the triune God. The amazing thing is that no one must compel God to love sacrificially. We must be redeemed by Christ’s cross, filled with God’s Spirit and made Holy in order to love God as He deserves and to love like God loves us, sacrificially.

It is not natural to me to imitate God, yet God is more than able to transform me, in order that I would love not only my wife, but also my enemies, like He loved me, His enemy. God never has to be compelled to love, it is at the very core of His nature, and He has been like this from eternity past, where the plan of salvation was thought of and agreed upon within the trinity.

This is an astounding revelation into the God that we will have forever in Christ Jesus.

It is His Holy redeeming love that redeems us from not only the penalty of Sin, but also the power of it. He accomplishes this by allowing us to be united to Christ in His sinless life, atoning death and His wonderfully powerful resurrection from the dead.

Such grace and mercy can only come from within the trinity. It is unearthly and heavenly sweet. Oh my God my God, thank you for Jesus Christ.