Our only hope of comprehending the incomprehensible love of
Christ for us: His Holy Spirit
Jesus has loved us in ways to a degree that is
said to be beyond human comprehension. So let's start there. If that's true
then what hope is there that I might help you comprehend the love of God and
the love of Christ for you?
What is the basis of my
hope that through my preaching you might actually experience the
incomprehensible depth of Christ's love? The answer is given in Romans 5:3 Paul
calls us to exult in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about
perseverance; and perseverance, [brings about] proven character; and proven
character, [brings about] hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love
of God [that is, God's love for us, not ours for him, as the next verses will
show] has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was
given to us.
So the hope of comprehending the
incomprehensible love of Christ: Is The Holy Spirit and here is the basis of my
hope that in my preaching about the love of God and Christ for you, will be
that you will actually experience that love, and comprehend in some
significant, life-changing measure the incomprehensible love of Christ. The
basis of my hope is that God has given you—who are believers in Christ—the Holy
Spirit.
You can see that at the end of verse
5: " . . . the Holy Spirit, who was given to us." See the Holy Spirit
of God dwells in you. He is in you. "Your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God." (1 Cor. 6:19)
If this were not so my aims in
preaching about love to this church would be futile. I am preaching to people
who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of the living God. And to some who yet still
can be indwelt by this Spirit of God. How? Acts 2:38 says, Repent, and let each
of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now how does the presence of the Holy
Spirit give me confidence that my preaching on the love of God for you will
result in a real experience of that love? My answer: because verse 5 says that
the work of the Holy Spirit is to be the Agent of God in pouring his love out
into your heart. Verse 5: Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has
been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. One of the main reasons
God has given the Holy Spirit to you, is so that HE might pour out God's love
into your heart.
Do you see what this means? It means that
without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, we cannot experience and
comprehend the love of God in Christ. The love of God is a divine and
supernatural reality. But you and I, apart from the Holy Spirit, are merely
natural and we are unspiritual, and we do not recognize or value the love of
God in Christ. But when God opens our eyes to his truth, and the Holy Spirit
comes into our hearts by faith, he awakens us to the reality of God's love and
begins to pour it out into our hearts.
This should greatly encourage some of you
who feel that your past behavior makes it difficult, if not impossible, for you
to feel loved. The fact is, it is not only difficult, it is impossible—and not
just for you, but for all of us…. Hear me because this is so important to
grasp.
Apprehending the love of God
for you—experiencing it, being gripped by it, tasting it—is not the product of
good preaching plus good behavior. It is not the product of merely natural
forces—good or bad. It is the work of God, the Holy Spirit. The love of God is
poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Without that you can have the
best behavior, and you will never truly know the love of God. And with that,
you can also have the worst behavior, and the Holy Spirit will still pour the
love of God into your heart.
But someone may ask where preaching fit
into this does? What does what I am doing, as your pastor have to do with the
work of the Holy Spirit pouring out the love of God into our hearts? The answer
is given in verses 6-8 and the connection that they have with verse 5. Verse 6
begins: For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly. Notice the connection. In verse 6 what we have is the recounting of a
historical fact. "Christ died." And we have the meaning of that fact,
which is, God's purpose in it: "Christ died, for the ungodly"—to take
the place of the ungodly, to save the ungodly.
Now this is different from verse 5. In
verse 5 we have Christian experience—the Holy Spirit pouring out the love of
God in our hearts. In verse 6 we have history ("Christ died"), and we
have theology (Christ died to save the ungodly).
And the connection between the history
and the theology on the one hand (v. 6), and the experience on the other hand
(v. 5), is that the history and theology are the foundation and context of the
experience. What's happening is this. Paul has said that the Holy Spirit pours
the love of God into our hearts. But then he shows us what that love is. And he
bases it on history. This means that the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart
is not to describe the love of God to you. It is not the job of the Holy Spirit
to describe the love of God to you. That is the job God has assigned to history
and to the Word of Scripture that interprets that history, and to preaching
which brings them both to bear upon your mind.
You learn the nature and content of the
love of God from the way that love acted in history in Jesus Christ, and you
experience that love as a present life-changing reality as the Holy Spirit
pours it out into your heart. Both of these are crucial. If we make claims to
have experiences of the love of God without solid foundations in history and
its God-given meaning, we become cultic, emotionalistic, fanatical; and if we
claim to understand the history and the meaning of history but we don't
experience the love of God poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we
become barren and impotent and intellectual.
The point is this; my message, from God’s Word,
cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit in your life. And the Holy Spirit will
not do the work assigned to the Word of God.
My calling is to describe the love of God to you. His
calling is to pour it out in your hearts. …
My calling is to point you to what Christ did; His calling
is to open your eyes to see it as glorious and personal. …
My calling is to make it plain; His is to make it precious.
Mine is to make it clear; His is to make it dear.
Mine is to take you on a tour around the deep and scenic
lake of the love of God; His is to plunge you in and saturate your life with
the love of God—to baptize you in it.
LATL
Pastor Greg
