The King of Love - Part 1

The King of Love my Shepherd is,
His goodness faileth never.
I nothing lack if I am His
And He is mine forever.

In certain sectors of the church in this modern age the love of God has become the only attribute of His that is worth thinking about. We are aware, of course, that there is a lot of other stuff in the Bible that’s not loving – at least not on the face of it – but we have somehow managed to brush all the unpleasantness under our spiritual rugs so that we don’t have to be so distasteful to the unbelievers among us, or unduly negative between ourselves. No fear of God, no trembling at His Word, no terror of sin and its consequences is allowed to cast a shadow upon our witness, our fellowship and especially upon our preaching.

We don’t hear about the Lord taking up His seat between the Cherubims, and the flaming sword turning every way, and keeping mankind from the tree of life ; all but ignored is the judgment of the flood in which all of mankind, except for 8 souls died less than 5,000 years ago; silent to us now are the fire and brimstone rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah; a vague memory is Lot’s wife changing into a pillar of salt, having no impact on us today; Achan and his whole family being put to death for holding onto a tiny little bit of booty – that sort of thing has been done away with forever.

If we look back at Korah’s rebellion at all, we see something shrouded in a history and under a covenant that couldn’t possibly affect us. The ground isn’t any longer going to open up and swallow the wayward into the bowels of the earth. When we think of God supplying so many quail that the people got sick and died, or of sending poisonous serpents as a punishment that killed thousands we are no longer connected to these events. It’s as if they were brought on by a God that ceased to exist when Jesus was born.

The rumblings of Sinai have long since ceased to carry any fear for us. Gone is the God that so terrified Israel that they begged Moses to deal with Him directly on their behalf. We ignore the words of Paul in Romans when he said:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

I mean – who could find hope in all of that hail and rain and fire and brimstone and earthquakes and pestilence and misery and death? Where is the love in that?

Words hardly suffice to describe the warnings and the severe admonishments of the prophets to Israel. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others spoke in the most hair-raising terms about God’s coming judgments upon the nation’s unfaithfulness to God. There would be deaths and starvation and captivity and enslavement – disease and cruelties and tribulations of all kinds – made more sure by the fact that it was the God of heaven who breathed the warnings. When they failed to turn and repent these things happened, just as God had promised.

O, what a testament we have in those 39 books handed down from the Jews! Thank goodness we have a New Testament now and we can toss then Old one out with the trash, including all of its harshness and its judgments. The old God is dead – long live the new God brought to us in the person of Jesus Christ – a God of love and gentleness and grace and forgiveness. At last a true picture of God has appeared! Someone we can relate to – someone like us – someone more reasonable, more tolerant, someone with more popular appeal. Someone we can market!

But wait! What’s this we see in Matthew? Do we really hear this new God of love speaking so much like the old one of judgment? It cannot be! Yet we see the very first cry that the gospel writer puts on the Lord’s lips is not, “I love you – come and let me heal your inner hurts,” but rather, “Repent and believe the gospel!” Sounds remarkably like one of those stodgy old prophets.

This cannot be the new God of love calling the religious leaders “a generation of vipers” and asking them who warned them to flee the wrath to come. Surely not! What is this talk of wrath? Where could there be any more room for vehement indignation and violent rage from such a gentle and loving deity?

What can it mean that the mere cursing of our brother puts us in danger of hell fire? Or what is this talk of not getting out of “prison” until we have paid the last farthing if we don’t make peace with our brother. How can this gentle God of love be saying it is better to pluck out your eye if it offends you than that your whole body should be cast into hell?

Who is this loving deity who says that the disciples should shake the dust off their feet in any town that rejects the gospel because worse than what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah will come upon them in the day of judgment?

Who is the God of love that berates Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, telling them that, on account of their hardness of heart, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for them? Haven’t we already settled the matter that this “fire and brimstone from heaven” sort of God passed away with the incarnation? What’s going on here?

What kind of love warns us to fear more Him Who can destroy both body and soul in hell than those who can merely kill the body? What kind of love came not to bring peace, but a sword?

I would say that this suffices, but Matthew goes on and on and on with such illustrations from the Lord’s own lips, including the almost unspeakable judgements upon Israel in Matthew 23-25. These, too, came to pass when Jerusalem was besieged by Titus and Vespasian in AD69-70, when the starvation and slaughter was just about indescribable.

Unfortunately the next two gospels, which harmonize well with the first, only bring agreement with the harsh judgments we find in Matthew. But when we look for hope in the gospel of John (the Apostle of love) we get little relief. Jesus warns that he who doesn’t believe remains under the condemnation of God and tells man who had been infirm for 38 years, after healing him, to go and not sin any more lest something worse befall him. This loving Jesus has been given, He claims, authority to execute judgment, at the unveiling of which those who have done evil will be resurrected unto damnation. This Christ calls one of his disciples a devil. How can this be? How hurtful! How ungentle!

More ungentleness appears in the full frontal accusation to the religious leaders that they were law-breakers plotting to kill Him. And again He warns them of the Pharisees that do not know him that He will go on His way, but that they will die in their sins and that they cannot go where He is going. He calls their father a murderer and speaks plainly that they are of their father, the devil. What offense! Who would dare to speak to people that way? One has to wonder if Jesus wasn’t a bit afraid that He might be turning away some poor sensitive seeker that would otherwise have wrestled his way into the kingdom!

This same Jesus called upon people not to love their life in this world and said that if they hated their life here then they would keep it unto eternal life. What’s that all about? That’s fanatical. It’s fundamental. What are today’s “recovering fundamentalists” to make of such radical religion. It ain’t lovin’ to talk like that.

In His most intimate talk with His closest disciples, who He loved dearly – at the very moment when He was about to start His final journey to the cross – he warned them that any branch that did not abide in Him would be cast forth and thrown into the fire and burned. Wow!

But when we come to Acts we will surely find a loving God? Pure love will be manifested in all He does. Surely at the presentation of the gospel for the very first time to lost humanity we will see the love of Christ declared in all of its glory so that people can respond in kind! What does Peter say to the feast-goers in Jerusalem at Pentecost? He tells them that they have taken their Messiah by wicked hands and crucified and killed Him. The word “love” does not appear anywhere in the sermon. Nowhere. Not even a hint. Peter confronts them with their own wickedness, proven in the deeds they accomplished. He refers to the scriptures, to prophesy and the promise of God, the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection and His ascension into heaven as Lord of all. What he doesn’t mention is love.

Did the people respond with love? No! they were cut to the heart and asked what they should do. And Peter said to them, “Accept this gift of love that God holds out to you,” right? No! We have already established that the word “love” (Greek agape) never appears in the sermon. In fact it never appears in the whole of Acts. Peter tells them to repent and believe the gospel – and to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. In this will they receive the Holy Spirit. What happened to the God of love in all of this?

You may go on to Peter’s sermon in the temple where he confronts the leaders with their willful crucifixion of Christ (Acts 3), and before the Sanhedrin where he repeats the charge (Acts 5). Check Stephen’s sermon where the same form is followed (Acts 7). Read of Paul in trying to preach to Sergius Paulus, when opposed by the magician Elymas – how God made Elymas blind for a season. And follow on to Paul’s sermon at Antioch of Pisidia where Christ foretold, incarnated, crucified and resurrected is preached with all promises and solemn warnings (Acts 13) – just as the Lord Himself preached.

Throughout the whole Acts we find no reference to love at all. We see people confronted with history, with facts, with promises, with prophesy, with solemn warnings and with their own wickedness. And yet Acts is often taken as the narrative that is the normative for the church. If we took Acts as normative we would never preach the love of God. We would preach Christ crucified for sin and resurrected according the foreordained divine plan of God, so that whoever believes on Him would be saved from the wrath that already abides upon the whole world.

This article will be concluded in "The King of Love - Part 2" - Tomorrow