Christ took painful knowledge of our sins on the cross, when they were laid on Him, and He was judged as guilty of them in our place.
It seems that true love requires taking on a sad knowledge, because only such love is sacrifice and costly. What sort of love is it that only shares the good times, and never undertakes the burdens and sorrows of the beloved?
It seems that the situations that require sacrificial love are brought on by poverty, sickness, ignorance, helplessness, foolishness, and sin. In order to sacrifice, one must engage in the consequences of these weaknesses and failures. That requires entering into a sad knowledge of the beloved's travails.
If God was going to love poor sinners, it meant He would have to interact with our sin, and its bitter consequences.
The Pharisees thought they could approach unto God because they supposed themselves righteous. But what sort of love would it be for God to embrace the righteous, when it is sinners that need saving?
That is why Jesus ate with publicans and sinners! He took on the sad knowledge of their troubles and their sins, because only a love that does that will even try to make the sacrifice to help!
Because true love is sacrifice, it is always easier not to love, for then we avoid being entangled in the sad knowledge that love imposes upon us.
We avoid drug users and mentally ill people, because the cost of loving them is deemed too much, and we want to live comfortable, uncomplicated lives.
Praise God, our Lord Jesus didn't turn away from poor sinners that way! He knew all the sad consequences of sin, because He saw them in the ones He loved, having never sinned Himself.
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
#25 - Top Played Sermon (48-Hours) on 6/25/2017
