God Loves You Whatever You're Like! (Romans 5.7a) — Ernest O'Neill

Humanity’s Purpose and the Two Problems of Salvation

Why are we here? That is, not why are we in the theatre, but why are we here on this earth? Why are you alive? Why am I alive? You know that we keep on giving secondary answers like to make money or to have children or to be successful, but many of us are really still bewildered about why we're alive at all.

And you know the answer that God has shown us, that we're here so that we can live forever in fellowship with Him, and that's really why we're here at all. And that that involves two problems. How can a holy, just creator accept unholy people like us?

And secondly, how can we ever become the kind of people that He would want to spend eternity with? Those are really the two problems that we've seen that Jesus answers. And you know that most of us have problems when it comes to the second one.

We know that God accepts us because Jesus has died and paid the price of our unholiness, and therefore God is free to accept us. But many of us who call ourselves Christians have problems at the second step, becoming like God so that we will be enjoyable for Him to be with for eternity.

Sanctification and Conformity to Christ

And it's at that point where many of us run into real problems in our Christian life. We call it sanctification, this business of becoming like God. You find that if you want to look at it in Romans 8 and 29, that's where the truth is expressed.

Romans 8 and 29. It's page 983. No one's in that black RSV. 983. And Romans 8 and 29. And this is really the truth of sanctification. God making us like Himself. Romans 8 and 29. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

And that's it, you see. God wants to conform us to the image of His Son. Now, that's where many of us begin to run into difficulties, at that experience. Because you can't make free agents like us, like Jesus, unless you begin to show them in what ways they're not like Jesus.

Because you want them to enter into it willingly. So you can't make them like Jesus by putting them to sleep and just making them wake up the next morning like Jesus. That would be taking away their free will.

The only way to get free agents to be like Jesus is to begin to point out where they're not like Him. Now, that's where many of us who are Christians fall into difficulties. Because the Holy Spirit, soon after we're converted, begins to point out the inward sin inside us.

The selfishness that nobody sees. The jealousy that nobody sees. The anger that we never express. The pride that is deep down in all our motives and our ambitions. And the Holy Spirit begins to show us these things, and many of us at that point throw up our hands in horror and say, Oh, God couldn't possibly accept a person like me.

So I must not even be a child of God. Now, do you see, dear ones, that you're a child of God, accepted by God, not because you're good, and not because you're pure, and not because you're utterly unselfish, but because Jesus died for all your selfishness.

That's why you're a child of God. But it happens with many of us that when the Holy Spirit begins to work on us as children of God to take us the second step, that is to begin to make us like God, we throw up our hands in horror and say, Oh, if all that mess is down there, I mustn't be a child of God.

God couldn't possibly accept somebody like me. Now, loved ones, that's why God prompted Paul to write clearly in black and white why God was willing to accept us at all. And you see it in Romans 5 and 9.

Justification by Christ’s Blood

And we've talked about the verse often, but it's good to remember it, especially if we are beginning to go deeper with God and beginning to move into more of the dealings of the Holy Spirit and into the experience that we call sanctification.

It's page 980. Romans 5 and 9 is the basic reason why God accepts us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood. Now, God is justified in accepting us, not because we're good, not because we're worthy, not because we're trying harder than we ever did before, but because Jesus has paid the debt of the death penalty to his justice on our behalf, and God has no longer anything against us.

And we similarly are justified in expecting God to accept us because we can say, This man has died for us. You don't need any longer to demand our death. He has died for us. That's the reason God accepts us.

But you know that often we come under kind of false condemnation when the Holy Spirit begins to deal with us. He takes you, you know, in your home situation. And your mom or your brother or your roommate say something to you.

And before you know it, you've whipped out against them in bad temper. Or you've said to them, What right have you to treat me like that? And all the irritability and the impatience and the sarcasm comes out.

And you look inside and you say, Oh, if I'm like that, I couldn't be God's child. Do you see, brothers and sisters, you're God's child, not because you have none of that down there, but because Jesus has died for all that.

That Jesus has made things right between you and the Father. But many of us still rebel against that. Many of us fall under the condemnation that Satan brings. And it is Satan. I think it's good to see that, really, for some of us.

Satan’s Accusation and Christ’s Death for the Ungodly

If you look at Revelation 12 and 10, you can see Satan's main function in regard especially to those of us who believe God has accepted us. Revelation 12 and verse 10, And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come.

For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And often, when we begin to enter into some of the new conviction of inward sin that the Holy Spirit brings, when he begins to point out, you know, that it's not just drinking, it's not just swearing, it's not just these outward sins that we have called sins that matter, but it's the inward pride.

It's the sarcasm in our voices when we speak to people. It's the critical attitude inside our hearts that nobody sees. It's that that God wants to get rid of. When we begin to receive the new conviction of the Holy Spirit that precedes an experience of sanctification, often Satan gets into the act as well and starts accusing us and says, Yeah, yeah, I mean, Jesus has died, yes, but he's died for people who are better than you.

He hasn't died for you. And many of us get into that position. We say, Oh, yeah, we know Jesus has died for everybody, but oh, he couldn't have died for me. God couldn't love a person as miserable and wretched as I am.

And you know that's why we read that verse last Sunday, that Jesus, at the very time when we were incapable of doing anything to make ourselves right with God, Jesus died for the ungodly. And it's so good to see that Jesus died for ungodly people, not for godly people.

And yet many of us have troubles. We still say, Oh, yeah, Pastor, yeah, I know he died for the ungodly, but no, he couldn't love me. He couldn't love me. If you saw into my heart, nobody could love me.

Romans 5:7 and the World’s Conditional Love

Now, why do we feel that? Why do many of us here this morning, when we begin to move into sanctification, suddenly begin to doubt if God can possibly love us? Well, the answer is in the verse that we'll study today, if you like to look at it.

It's Romans 5 and verse 7. It's Romans 5 and 7. It's page 980. And this is the reason why many of us, though we accepted at one time that God loved us and that Jesus had died for us, when we begin to move in to some new conviction of inward sin, we begin to doubt whether God loves us at all.

Romans 5 and 7. Why? One will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man, one will dare even to die. It's because you and I judge God's love according to the world's love. You and I judge God as loving us the way the world loves us.

And the world always loves us depending on the kind of people we are. It depends on our state. The world looks at us, and if we're worthy of love, the world loves us. So, the world says, you see, well, for a righteous man, one who just abides by the letter of the law and is morally upright like a Pharisee, one will hardly dare to die for him at all.

But for a good man, a man who not only abides by the law but is maybe warm and loving and generous as well, one might even dare to die for him. In other words, the world decides whom it loves on the basis of the state of that person's heart and their character.

And so, we have a great tendency to look into our hearts and to say, God couldn't possibly love me because the world loves me according to the kind of person I am. So, if God loves me on the same basis, He couldn't possibly love me.

And that's the error that we fall into. See, the world does love us on that basis. People hire you on that basis, don't they? They examine you completely, examine all your abilities, and then they decide whether to accept you or not.

They fire you on the same basis. If you haven't performed well, they fire you. We get friends on the same basis. So often, people love us because we're worth loving. There's something attractive in us or there's something worthwhile in us.

We, in fact, tend to love other people on the same basis, don't we? We tend to love people who are compatible with us or who are attractive to us in some way. And we ourselves try to win acceptance by our peers on the same basis.

At school, we try to be swingers, try not to be squares. At college, we try to wear beards because beards are in. We try to gain acceptance with other people by being the kind of people that they would want to love.

Now, brothers and sisters, that's the way the whole world works. Even the commercials on TV assure you that if you could possibly ever get the sweetest breath in town, then you're set for a married partner for the rest of your life.

Or, if you mothers could possibly have hands like your teenage daughter, then family troubles just cease. Everybody loves someone with sweet breath and with smooth hands. And really, if you could be a new you coming every day, then a lifeguard will undoubtedly love you.

And do you see that we're brainwashed with the idea that you're loved when you're worth loving? You're loved when you have a certain state of heart or a certain character, then people like you. You know, it works even in marriage, the highest form of worldly love and human love that we see.

So often, married people even come together because they see something in each other that they want. And again, they love each other because they see something in each other that attracts them. That's why so many marriages fall apart, because they cease to see in each other what they want.

And so, they love each other according to the state of each other's character and heart. Now, brothers and sisters, God's love is absolutely different. Now, dear ones, you just have to face it, that God's love is not like human love at all.

God’s Love Depends on His Own Nature

You know, even in Christian circles, it comes about. We say, you know, we love people's souls, but so often, the brothers love the sharp-looking girl's souls. And the sisters love the sharp-looking boy's souls.

And so often, even in Christian circles, our love is governed by what the other people are like. Now, God's love is not like that at all. Dear ones, God's love depends not on the character of the person to be loved, but depends on the character of the person loving.

God's love depends on His own nature. God loves because He's loving, because His heart is filled with love. He doesn't look at a person and say, Ah, you're nasty and jealous and selfish and proud. I'm not going to love you.

God loves independent of your nature, independent of how bad or miserable or rotten you are. God loves. It's utterly different from the world's love. So, do you see, it's never right to look at the way other people love us and then say, Ah, God loves us like that, multiplied to the nth degree.

He doesn't. Because human love is based on your character, on the kind of person you are, on whether you're useful or attractive to the other person. God loves you utterly, completely independently of whether you're attractive or not.

God loves you because He's a loving Father and His heart is filled with love. You see, that you will never build up your faith by looking at people and their attitude to you. You'll never build up your faith in God's love that way.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And the Bible is full of passages and stories that show you that God loves independent of the person's character that He's loving. Now, if you look at it, you know, even in the Old Testament, you see it.

God’s Compassion for Unfaithful Israel

If you look at Hosea there and see God's attitude to Israel in Hosea. And it's Hosea and chapter 11. And you'll find that God loves there the nation of Israel independent, really, of the character of the nation of Israel.

And it's page 782, Hosea chapter 11. And you can see here God's heart. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Aphraim to walk. I took them up in my arms. But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love. And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws.

And I bent down to them and fed them. They shall return to the land of Egypt. And Israel shall be their king because they have refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates and devour them in their fortresses.

My people are bent on turning away from me. So they are appointed to the yoke and none shall remove it. But here is God's heart coming out. How can I give you up, O Aphraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?

How can I make you like Atma? How can I treat you like Zeboim? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst.

And I will not come to destroy. Now, brothers and sisters, God is God and not man. And he loves people because he loves them. Not because they're worthy to be loved. And you see it right through Jesus' life, you know.

Jesus’ Love for the Unclean and the Outcast

You remember the times when he does it. If you look at Matthew 8 there, and just one indication with a leper. Matthew chapter 8 and verses 1 through 3. And it's page 841. And he came down from the mountain.

Great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And he stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean.

Now, the leper's skin was not smooth. The leper's skin was peeling and was putrid. And the leper's breath was not sweet smelling. It smelled like his body and like his disease. And Jesus saw nothing in the leper that was useful to him.

But he loved the leper. And loved ones, Jesus looks at us in the same way. And however leprous we are on the inside, Jesus loves us independent of the kind of people we are. And you find it, you know, with old Zacchaeus, you remember.

And Zacchaeus was a traitor to his country. He was just a quizzling. Just a fellow that was being used by the occupation forces to milk finances from his own people. And yet you remember when Jesus came together with him, he asked him, can I come to your house for tea?

And you remember the Pharisees said, why do you have anything to do with a sinner like that? And Zacchaeus was not a popular man. And he was not a man that everybody wanted to be with. But Jesus loved him.

God’s Love and the Necessity of Repentance

Now, brothers and sisters, God continues to love us even as he is showing us the ways in which we are not like Jesus. God not only loves us, but Jesus has died for all of us. God has atoned for all of the stuff that he's even showing you inside in your heart.

He's atoned for it all. In other words, the death of Jesus is for all of us, whatever state our hearts are in. Whether we've been Christians for years or whether we're not Christians, Jesus has still died for us.

Now, that's different from saying we are all, therefore, accepted by God. God loves us all, but he doesn't accept us all. He can only accept those of us who repent and who trust him. So, it is important, you know, to see that.

Some people, you remember, have perverted God loves everybody into God accepts everybody. God can only accept those who come to him. It's like having a lifeboat in a raging sea and the ship is just going down.

The lifeboat is available, but survivors have to get into the lifeboat in order to be saved. Otherwise, they'll be lost. Now, it's the same with God. God loves us all. There's no question. Loved ones, do you see there's no question as to whether God loves you or not?

There's just no question of it. There's only a question in your mind when you look at human beings and you see them despising people who aren't attractive and who aren't winsome and who aren't personality people.

It's only difficult for you then to believe that God loves you. But if you look at God as he appears in Jesus and as he appears through the Bible, you'll have no doubt that God loves you. Of course, he loves you.

But he can only accept you when you begin to come towards him and move towards him in repentance and in trust. But God does love you. Now, do you see there's no question of God's love. If you want God's love, it is there.

The only people who cannot believe in God's love this morning in the theater are people who will not believe. I know that's hard, but that's the way Jesus put it. Jesus said, there are some people who will not believe.

They have all the ground, all the basis for believing, but they won't believe. Now, you see that in, I think it's Luke 22 and 67, if you remember. Jesus put it strongly, and there are two Greek words for the negative, u and me, and he uses both of them, you know, to emphasize there are some people who just will not believe.

It doesn't matter what you say to them. And it's page 917, 917, Luke 22 and verse 67. And you remember the priests and scribes are speaking to Jesus. It's 918, 918, Luke 22 and 67. If you are the Christ, tell us.

But he said to them, if I tell you, you will not believe. Now, brothers and sisters, the only way not to believe that God loves you is to actually will not to believe. And if you keep looking at human beings and their attitude to you, then you are willing not to believe because you keep on saying what is not true.

You keep on saying, yeah, that's the way God loves me. He loves me like human beings love me. They love me when I'm attractive or when I'm good. That's the way God loves me. If you will to believe that way, then you cannot enter into truth at all.

And you live a lie for the rest of your life. Now, here are some of the people who do that. And the psychologists have helped us in this. Some people say, well, I had a cruel father. I had a father who wasn't loving at all.

He was hard and impersonal. He laid down the law to the family all the time. Or I had no father. Or I had a father that left my mother and abandoned me. And they say, now, you tell me, how can I possibly believe in a loving heavenly father if I have a father like that?

Human Fathers Cannot Define the Heavenly Father

Now, loved ones, do you see that it wouldn't matter if you had the greatest father in the whole world? His human love is nothing like God's love. Do you see that that's only a cop-out that we've been enabled to enter into through psychology?

Do you see that it doesn't matter if you had an angelic father? His love is nothing like God's love. Because even his love is tainted a little with your own state and your own character. God loves differently from any father.

Or some of us say, and you know it came in through the liberal philosophy and through humanism. Some of us say, now, if my brothers won't love me, we Irish minority groups say this. No, but the minority groups are strong on it, aren't they?

If my brothers and sisters won't love me, my brothers and sisters whom I see won't love me, how can I possibly believe that God whom I cannot see loves me? Now, dear ones, do you see that it wouldn't matter if you were surrounded with the best and most loving friends in the whole wide world?

Their love is still different from God's love. It wouldn't give you any better an idea of God's love. The only way you see the way God loves is to look at the Father and to look at Jesus in the New Testament.

And to see that he loved a leper who was dirty and smelly. That he loved Zacchaeus who was a traitor and a liar and unpopular. And that this is the same Jesus who lives this morning. And loves you. Even as through his Holy Spirit he begins to expose the jealousy and envy and the pride and the sarcasm inside you so as to make you like himself, yet Jesus is still loving you.

And he's accepting you. Because he dies for you. Not because you're perfect. And not because you're pure. A lot of us say, you know, well, I want to believe that. But I can't believe it. Loved ones, everybody has a will free enough that with the aid of God's grace, they can believe what God has shown them of himself down through the centuries.

Faith in God’s Love Beyond Feelings

Some of us say, oh, yes, I know many can. But I can't. I've tried. And I can't feel God's love. Brothers and sisters, do you see that your feelings are programmed by other people's attitude to you? If you try to feel God's love, then you're dealing with feelings that are programmed by human love and by human's attitude towards you.

It's not a matter of feeling God's love. It's a matter of believing God's love. You believe that if God loved a leper, if he loves Zacchaeus, then he loves me. Whether I feel he loves me or not, I believe he loves me.

And loved ones, it's vital to walk in that confidence, you see, as we begin to walk into this experience of sanctification. Otherwise, it'll just be a desperate, defeating, sorrowful, grief-stricken experience.

But if you look at it this way, and you see that God loves you independent of what you're like, even when you're the saintliest person in the whole world, God loves you no more than he loves you today, then you can begin to move into the new conviction of sin that the Holy Spirit brings and begin to move towards crucifixion of Christ and move into it joyfully, you see, and comfortably.

And that's the Father's will for us, you know. So, will you stop looking in? Will you stop judging God by the way other people think of you? Do you know that you're the most lovable person in the world to your Father?

Loved ones, do you really know that? Now, would you stop cringing yourself up in a little ball and saying, nobody loves me? That's not fair to your Father, you know. He gave you good hair and good face and a body that he thinks is good and he thinks he has given you a good personality.

Now, you have no right, loved ones, to look up to him and complain and say, you haven't, you haven't given me the right things and you don't love me. You've never given your life for anyone and the Father has given his own son's life for you.

So, really, you know, it's time for us to stop pitying ourselves. God doesn't love you because you're pitiable or because you need sympathy. God loves you because he loves you. He thinks the world of you and he doesn't want you to let Satan get in and persuade you of a lie or let human beings persuade you of a lie.

They'll never love you as God does. We thank you that when we look at you in Jesus, we don't have any doubt that you love us. Father, we can't have any doubt. We see it plainly stated that you love the world so much that you gave your only begotten son for us.

Father, we know that. When we look into Jesus' eyes, we see compassion for lepers and for traitors and for liars. When we look into your eyes, we see compassion for sinners. We see compassion for confidence tricksters.

We see compassion for people who have opposed you and fought against you. And, Father, we know that that is your attitude to us this morning. So, Lord, we thank you that you are beginning to show us the ways in which we're not like Jesus.

And we thank you that you accept us, not because we're like Jesus, but because you love us with all your heart and because Jesus has died so that you could accept us. And, Father, we believe that. We choose to believe that this morning and accept your love and thank you for it and trust you for more conviction of inward sin by the Holy Spirit so that we may come into the fullness and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and into real sanctification for your glory.

Amen.