Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. | 1 John 4:15–19
On Sunday, we talked about the fact that Jesus sympathizes with our weakness, because He lived in the flesh and has faced them. This sympathy is much greater than a friendly tolerance, because it leads to salvation. We can take great comfort in the fact that Jesus not only has compassion on us, but that His compassion fuels His redemptive action. Jesus intercedes for us, because He loves us. He continually stands between us and the wrath we deserve out of a deep concern for us.
This is a doctrine that should move us. Realizing that the God of the universe does not just tolerate us, but actually cares for His people deeply is not something to just believe; this is something that should change all of our relationships, specifically:
RELATIONSHIP WITH SELF| This allows us to accept our own weaknesses
I taught a men’s Bible Study once in which I stated that every man in the room was deeply insecure. My confidence in this comes from years of working with people and finding common ground on how everyone sees themselves in relation to others. While some people manifest this insecurity through bravado and others through shyness, the root is the same: we know that we don’t have it all together and we don’t want anyone else to know about it.
The solution to this is not to be better; you will never be good enough to not have sin and weaknesses. As long as flaws exist, there will always be something to hide. What we need is to be seen for who we are and know that we are accepted. This is what all people are looking for: to be loved. In our sympathetic Savior, we are known completely and loved deeply.
RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS | This gives us an example of how to show compassion
Jesus loves us with a love that is based on Himself, not our loveliness. We should be extremely thankful because this means that Jesus continues to love us when we don’t deserve it. This also gives us a picture of how to love others around us who do not deserve it.
One of the conflicts many Christians feel is between the love and holiness of God. We try to balance God’s morality and His mercy in how we care for those around us (to varying levels of success). Much of this is based in not wanting to enable bad behavior in others. What the compassion of Jesus Christ toward sinners shows us, is that our love toward others should come from within. Our compassion and love is a reflection of us more than on those who receive it. This gives us the freedom to serve and love without worrying about the worthiness of the recipient. In our sympathetic Savior, we are shown a compassionate love that bears repeating.
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD | This gives us confidence to come to God with our weakness
We often hedge our relationship with God, not really sure where we stand with Him. We make deals with Him: get me out of this and I promise…Or we try to get everything right so that He won’t reject us. We imagine that we are always on thin ice with our heavenly Father, we fear letting Him down. We see this in Adam after the first sin: he hides his sin from God, not sure how God will respond. The gospel shows us exactly how God responds: Jesus reverses the effects of sin so that people can come to God sure that they will be received. Jesus’ intercession assures us of acceptance. In our sympathetic Savior, we are covered in righteousness so that our relationship with God is secure.
All of this allows us to relate in the way that we were created to. On our own, we will only ever interact through the shame of sin. In our sympathetic Savior, we are freed from our shame and invited into loving relationship, with ourselves, with God, and with others.