The King of Love - Part 2

Continued from "The King of Love - Part1" which was posted yesterday.

The Old Testament, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles – all are woven through and through by the God of wrath, the God of judgment, the God of unflinching truth and fearless honesty. But surely there is hope in the Epistles. Once people are saved and are in the church surely the love of God comes to the fore. Surely all those solemn warnings, harsh reproofs and rebukes go away in favour of just basking in Divine love. Once we are in, after all, we are in, aren’t we? Children of the living God. Co-heirs with Christ. Beloved of the Father.

The first Epistle, Paul to the Romans – regarded by many as the definitive explanation of the gospel – begins with three whole chapters devoted not to the love of God, but to the depravity of man. Three times in three different ways Paul circles around the wagons of the sins of self-justifying humanity and cuts off any hope of human cavalry coming to the rescue. The word love doesn’t even appear in Romans until Chapter 5, verse 5.

And we find admonishment upon admonishment, warning upon warning throughout the other epistles, too. Don’t be idolaters. Don’t lust for the things of the world. Avoid immorality. Remember that on account of these things the judgment of God is coming. Obey God, for if you do not then you are a liar when you say you love God. The tongue is a flaming fire that is set on fire by hell – it is a restless poison. If you profess faith and then later deny Christ there remains no more sacrifice for sin.

Finally, when we get to Revelation we come to the most flagrant depictions of judgment, hellfire and punishment to be found anywhere in the Bible. This is the Revelation of the New Testament, folks! This is the book where you find the Lamb on the throne, the Lamb bearing the Name Faithful and True riding a white horse, in righteousness judging the nations, with the sharp sword in His mouth to smite them. This is the Christ Who will tread out the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. This is the Christ in Whose presence the smoke of the torment of those in the lake of fire will ascend for ever and ever:

And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If any one worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:9-12)

This is New Testament stuff! This is the same Jesus that is preached as meek and lowly of heart, as being love itself. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is that Jesus. It’s not another Jesus, as is preached by some people. This is Jesus, everlasting Son of Almighty God, of the same substance as the Father – all powerful, all holy – God the hater of sin, Who can not abide its presence, and will not look upon it.

So what am I saying? That God is not love? Am I leaving you with just a few verses like John 3:16 and 1Corinthians Chapter 13, along with, perhaps 1John 4:8 and 16. Not at all! And neither am I really saying that the God of love is not to be found in the Old Testament. In fact, the hymn “The King of Love”, with which I opened, is based upon the 23rd Psalm of the Old Testament. So, what I am actually saying is that both aspects of God are to be found all over both testaments.

If you have been offended at my deliberately passing over the many wonderful passages that speak of God’s love in the New Testament, then take a look in the mirror and ask what offence is generated when so-called gospel professors deliberately pass over the many passages in that same Testament that speak of God’s holiness, His judgment, His wrath and His hell – prepared for unrepentant sinners.

The God of love abounds in the Old Testament and the God of righteous wrath, indignation and judgment abounds in the New. It is one book written by the one true God. Only you would be hard pressed to know that from what is preached today. This is a call for balance. Let Christ be preached. Let Him be preached as loving saviour of all those that believe. Let Him be proclaimed as the embodiment of grace and truth. Let His love be the source of all wonder and praise.

But let Christ also be proclaimed as righteous God, as the judge of all the earth, as the avenger of blood, the inflicter and sustainer of the everlasting wrath of God upon all who have not believed on His Name.

Let it be known that now, in this age of grace, is the hour of salvation. Let it be proclaimed that those who hear His voice should not harden their hearts, lest they sin away their day of grace never to be called again. Let it be known that just as surely as Christ came the first time in love to seek and to save that which was lost – so He is coming the second time, in an hour when we suspect not, with His winnowing fork in His hand, to gather into the barn all the harvest, and to forever separate the wheat from the chaff. And the tares will be tied into bundles and cast into everlasting fire.

Let it be declared that salvation is full and free at the hand of God our Saviour – that anyone who wills may come. But let it be declared that to those who will not receive Him that He will say to those on His left hand, “Depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” But then it will be too late to repent.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not love alone. It is love rejoicing in the truth. It is the magnification of God through the manifestation of His grace. It is not simply love, but love to the unlovely. It is not just sentiment, but the payment in full of the very price described as awaiting all those who believe not the very gospel we preach. It is mercy to hell-deserving sinners. It is not “God so loved … that He gave His only begotten Son,” but “God so loved the (fallen, depraved, sinful) world of lost and rebellious men…”

The love of God is beyond our understanding apart from Christ. We could not begin to imagine Him. But the advent of Christ would be unnecessary if a single human being was able to justify himself. If there is, has been or will ever be a single righteous human being then Christ would not have come. If man, even one man, could attain to the place where God would be pleased with his whole life, his thoughts, his actions, his omissions – everything – then Christ died in vain. But the Word of God in both Testaments tells us plainly that:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-12)

Why would we ever shrink from declaring this when it magnifies the Name of God by speaking the truth about His love and grace – that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly?

Many modern purveyors of the gospel unashamedly hide this truth. They play bait and switch. They seek to attract the worldly by hiding the truth, only to spring it on them when they think the timing is right. Only the timing may never be right. They are ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ when it says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Unlike Peter, Stephen and Paul, they pull back from declaring boldly and plainly what the gospel is. They do it in the name of love – but it is in the name of a love that does not rejoice in the truth.

May God forbid that we ever manipulate the gospel to make it attractive to the world. The gospel is was and always will be both foolish and offensive to the world. It cannot be made palatable. If what we present is palatable to the world then it is not the gospel – plain and simple. I like the words of Clay Miller of Grace Community Church:

Beloved, our great challenge is not to get the world to start liking Christianity. Our great challenge is to get Christianity to stop liking the world.

I thank God that He saved me. I thank God that He loves me and keeps me. But I thank God most of all that He does all these things when I deserve only His wrath and His judgment and an eternity in hell – just like the rest of mankind. I will not withhold or disguise that gospel for any price. It is the one through which I was saved, and by which I am upheld. May we always remember that He came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance – and preach that for all its worth – for those that are well have no need of a physician, but those that are sick.

We started with a great hymn inspired by Psalm 23 – The King of Love. Let’s end with another great hymn that tells of our need and His grace.

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Robert Robinson, 1758