The Demonstration of God's Love
RO50-02

The Book of Romans

Martin Luther

There were great problems relative to what the church was doing and what the church was teaching and what the Bible taught. What Martin Luther did not fully realized, at the time that he began to suspect that something was wrong, was that he was enmeshed in a system, which once Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire under the Emperor Constantine, it had gradually been transformed from New Testament Christianity into an amalgamation with the old Babylonian mystery religions, which were Nimrod's creation way back after the flood, and which was Satan's great false religious system. And Martin Luther had become part of a system that was not Christian, but was pagan with Christian names.

Gradually, this became clear to him. At first, he didn't know what was wrong. He just knew that he read the Bible here, and he looked at the church that he was a part of, and its practices, and the two were worlds apart. So, one day he said, "Enough's enough." He took a piece of paper, and he wrote out, and he said, "I think we ought to discuss this; this; this; purgatory; this thing; and, this thing. And before he finished it, he had 95 of them. So, he walked down the street, as was the custom in the day for public debate, and he nailed the statements onto the door of the church, and he said, "I'm calling a public forum for discussion by the theologians and by the general public on these matters."

Now, all of that was yet two years away when this man stood up behind his desk in his classroom at the University of Wittenburg, and for the first time, opened to the book of Romans, and began instructing his students out of this book. These lectures on the part of Luther were very painstakingly and slowly prepared. One of the reasons for that was that he abandoned the medieval way of teaching theology, which was simply to go to what the fathers of the church had taught, and then repeat it to the students. Instead, Martin Luther said, "I'm going to teach this course this time from the Greek New Testament. I'm going to take the book of Romans as it is in Greek, and I'm going to explain it to my students on the basis of the historical grammatical procedure. I'm going to give them isagogics, and I'm going to tell them the background of the times, and I'm going to explain this on the basis of what the Greek text has to say. And I'm going to match this with what I learned from the other parts of the Bible so that it is compatible. Scripture will illuminate Scripture. That was a dramatic departure from medieval procedure.

So, Luther's preparation were understandably very slow and very painstaking as he hammered out exactly what Romans was teaching. And gradually, the light dawned on him. He finally grasped Paul's main teaching in this book – the doctrine of justification by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, without any human works or any human intermediary, including the Roman Catholic Church, all the way on up to the Pope himself.

I imagine that Luther had to sit back in his chair some time in his study, and shudder within himself as he began to consider what it was that he was actually saying to himself – what it was that he was beginning to think he saw here on the pages of Scripture in the book of Romans, because Luther undoubtedly realized that this was very powerful stuff, and it was very dangerous stuff to the whole medieval church. There must have been times when he closed the book and walked off and said, "Now, wait a minute. I'm getting way off out here in left field. This cannot be. I am abandoning everything that the church has stood for ages. Something must be wrong. Our church cannot have been that far off base. It cannot be that wrong."

Then he'd come back to his chair, and he'd sit down, and he'd open up that Greek New Testament, and he'd start reading it again. And he'd start analyzing the grammar, and he'd start analyzing what this text is saying. And the truth kept hammering back to him: "Luther, man is helpless. He is in sin. He can do nothing about it. God has given him a solution. It is a solution entirely prepared by Christ, and can only be received on the basis of grace. Man can do nothing. His works are nothing. The church is nothing. The Pope is nothing. No one has authority but God Himself in this matter, and God says, "I've paid for your sins, and I'm ready to take you into My heaven as a gift from Me, if you will accept it – if you will believe this.

Finally, the day came when all this accumulation of his study of Romans broke through with a blaze of glory. And Martin Luther realized that "the just shall live by faith." Then there was no return. He had crossed his Rubicon. He said, "This is what Scripture teaches. This is what my conscience must adhere to. And I care not what pope, or theologians, or church authority, or anybody else has to say. I can do no other."

So, he began standing up in his preaching occasions, and he began sounding forth the doctrines of Romans. And, of course, the Protestant Reformation was born. And the result was that Luther himself was finally brought under excommunication, and was brought under the ban of death itself, because he had abandoned all of the paganism of the Roman Catholic Church, and had returned to Scripture.

Well, interestingly enough, Luther never taught Romans again, and the full text of his teaching has been preserved. He actually published it in a book. Luther was a great publisher of books. I mean, this man would publish scores and scores of books in one year's time. Hundreds of books came from his pen, and one of them was his lecture on Romans. And he began that book with what has come down to us, described as the preface. And the preface to Luther's book on Romans has had some very monumental effects on some very significant people in human history. I won't go into that today, but I just want to read to you the opening paragraph of Luther's preface to his commentary on the book of Romans, which was his lectures to his students – what this man finally concluded about this book. It is well-stated, and it is true for us indeed today:

"This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament, and the very purest gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word-for-word by heart, but occupying himself with it every day as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much. The more it is dealt with, the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes."

That is well-stated indeed. This is what Luther thought of Romans, and he couldn't have said it better. Many people today think that the book of Romans is not a desirable book to spend a lot of time in with a church congregation, because it is so heavily theological. But I want to remind you that God the Holy Spirit Himself wrote this book through Paul, and that it was sent to ordinary believers in the city of Rome, who were far less educated than the average American is today. And theology is precisely what our age needs, because it's the only pathway to God, whom our society has abandoned. We have cut our anchor. We have separated ourselves from God. Now there's no direction. We don't know who we are or where we're going. And theology is precisely what our nation needs – the theology such as we find in the book of Romans, if we're ever going to get things straightened out again.

Yet, the grasp of the truth, which is revealed here in the book of Romans, can only be achieved by you in the same way it was achieved by Luther. Many people sit in church services where indeed the book of Romans is preached. But if they were careful listeners, and they sat there with a piece of paper, and they wrote down how much was actually exposition (explaining what the actual words of Romans particularly from the Greek text were saying), I think you would discover to your shock that the overwhelming part of the sermon was the preacher's opinion and his preferences, and very little was telling you as to what God has said – very little "Thus saith the Lord." You sit here today on your way to heaven with a great opportunity for being rich Christians with rewards in heaven, because Martin said up there in his study, and he hacked out the book of Romans word-by-word and verse-by-verse. And you will never learn the contents of this book unless somebody leads you by the hand through it the same way, as he led his students through it after he had informed himself.

If we had more expository preaching on Romans, the local church would be revolutionized. If we had more massive doses of Romans, the result would be that Christians would have counseling in divine viewpoint on major areas of their lives so as to produce fantastically stable believers with a phenomenal record of divine, good production and service. If we had people being taught the book of Romans, there'd be a lot less need for these hotshot counselors that the religious world likes to constantly be putting forth. And you can take a major step forward if you'll just read the book of Romans – if you'll just read and reread it, in different translations. As Dr. Luther has said, "This book should be read again and again. And this book is the chief book of the New Testament." It is the most formal presentation of the gospel of man's need; what the gospel has accomplished; and, as we shall yet get into, the consequences of the spiritual life of the individual believer.

Romans 5:6-8 is explaining the love of God toward sinners who stand under His wrath. This divine love is demonstrated by the fact that it was expressed toward those who were spiritually helpless. They lacked absolute righteousness, and they were permanently unable to do anything about it. They had no future but the yawning jaws of hell before them.

Most people, sooner or later, recognize very clearly that they are sinners. But few people can accept the fact that they're helpless to do anything about it before God. People are absolutely addicted to the evil of wanting to do something to get saved or to keep themselves saved. The very same people who will say, "I am a sinner before God" will refuse to say, "I'm also helpless." But we have seen in this text that God said that Christ died for sinners when they were helpless – when they could not help themselves.

God's Love, and His Gift

So, in relationship to the world, the Bible says, "You must connect the love of God with the gift of God." This is true in terms of the body of Christ, the church, Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it." Again, you have the word "love" and the word "gave" connected together.

One more: In Galatians 2:20, you have this in reference to the individual human being: "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

So, throughout the Scriptures, you have the two concepts: the love of God; and, the gift of God, in terms of salvation, tied together. And the reason for this was because of the helplessness of the human being. Because man is helpless, God's love had to provide a gift.

First, Justice; then, Love

When Jesus Christ came into the world, all of the ancient great civilizations and their religions were bankrupt. So, the Bible says, "He came at precisely the right time." It is God's love which moved Him to satisfy His justice toward the sin of the individual sinner. The love of God in itself could not forgive sins, nor could it justify anybody. God's love could not do this – only God's love, when freed, after justice had been satisfied.

Substitutionary Atonement - Not Just Martyrdom

So, the believer possesses the merits of co-crucifixion; co-death; co-burial; and, co-resurrection – payment in full. As far as God was concerned, you were involved in all of these with Jesus Christ. He was doing it in your place.

The love of God is further demonstrated in that the death suffered by Jesus Christ was in the place of the ungodly type – the rebel toward God who holds God, and all that He represents, in contempt. This is the utterly detestable type of person by divine viewpoint standards. This is the kind of person that Christ died for. How bad you are does not affect God's love for you as an unbeliever. But how bad you are does affect God's wrath toward you as an unbeliever. In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul says that Christ died for the chief of sinners – himself. So obviously, no one else could be excluded.

Thus, the love of God, which the Holy Spirit exercises toward us and in us, was demonstrated by Jesus Christ dying for those who are both spiritually helpless and willfully opposed to God. That's where we have come at this point.

God's Love for the Sinner

"For scarcely." The word "scarcely" is the Greek word "molis." "Molis" is an adverb. It means "with difficulty." It means "hardly." In Luke 9:39, it's spoken of in terms of the departure of a demon from a demon-possessed person, and it's translated "hardly" there. It is with difficulty that a demon can be cast out.

In Acts 27:7-8, it's talking about the maneuvering of a ship in the face of a storm, and in the face of wind. And it's translated there as "scarcely," with difficulty.

In Acts 14:18, this word is used in terms of controlling a mob, and it's translated "scarce." It's very difficult. It is hardly able to be done.

In 1 Peter 4:18, it's talking about the legally righteous person being saved, and that is translated as "scarcely." It is very difficult for a person who is a legally righteous person (a person who keeps all the rules) – it's very difficult for that kind of an upstanding member of the community to be saved, because he doesn't think he needs salvation.

This word "molis" is used in all of these places to convey the idea that it just is hardly possible. So, that's what he is introducing here about a human being – an attitude of dying for another person. There is a certain condition where hardly anybody would be willing to die for another person. And that is: "for." And we have our word "huper," which is properly rendered here as "substitution" ("huper" – in place) of a righteous man. And that's the word "dikaios" (righteous man).

Now this does not refer here to the absolute righteousness of God. This is speaking in terms of man's righteousness (relative righteousness). This is used to describe the person who is legally exact – the person who is precise in his observance of the customs and the rules of the society in which he lives. This is the person who drives this car down the road, and when the sign says 30 miles per hour, he sits right on 30 miles per hour. He does not sit on 31 miles per hour. He sits on 30 miles per hour. That is the "dikaios" person. When the rule says to do this, that is what the "dikaios" person does. He does not say, "Well, I'm generally doing this, but I have a little exception here." He has no exceptions. He is a very precise, exact person.

In Matthew 1:19, we read about Joseph when he discovers that his potential bride Mary is pregnant with the Savior. "Because he was a righteous man," meaning that Joseph was the kind of a person that obeyed what the Law of Moses said to do." And he knew exactly what the Law of Moses said to do in this particular case. It seemed that she was guilty of fornication. Therefore, the Law prescribed a procedure which he was to take, as one who had his rights potentially violated, and he was proceeding to do that. He wanted to do it in as nice a way as possible, but because he was a righteous man, he proceeded to do what he was supposed to do.

This is the person of unbending human righteousness – the person who's a stickler for justice; who will not deviate from the rules; and who is always correct. If you ever have to go to a court of law, and you sit before a judge who is the "dikaios" type, you're going to be in a lot of trouble. He is the rigid kind who will not deviate from what the law says. If the law says to pull off your left fingernail, he's going to pull off your left fingernail. Whatever it says, that is what he's going to do. He's not going to consider extenuating circumstances. He's not going to consider how old you are; how young you are; whether this is the first time you did it, and you never did it before; or, whether you have ever been in trouble before – none of that: "What did you do? You did that. Let me see. That's page 43. That's number two. The law says do this. This is what's going to happen to you." That is what the "dikaios" person is.

Now that's the kind of a person that has a cold legal integrity. And you respect a person like that. You would have an admiration, and you would have a certain trust, for that kind of judge, and that kind of an individual, who follows the rules precisely, but you would not have a warmth for that person. You would not be inclined to go out of your way to do something nice for that kind of a person. You would certainly not be ready to sacrifice yourself to any degree for that kind of an exactly, morally, precisely right person.

We have some Christians who are like that. They know exactly what the rules are, and they precisely stand by the rules, and they have no mercy. They have no judgment. They have no discernment to exercise in a situation. And they are people that you would respect, but they are not people that you have a particular warmth toward. Sometimes they wonder, "Why don't people like me?" People don't like you because you're too precise. You're too righteous. You're too exact.

The Bible tells us here that it is very difficult to think of anybody for a righteous kind of person like this dying. One is "tis," which is an indefinite pronoun, meaning "anyone" or "someone." And the word "die" is "apothnesko." "Apothnesko" here refers to physical death. It is future tense. Anytime in the future that you would have an occasion to die for a person like this, you would not be inclined to do it. It is middle voice because death is your self-sacrifice. You're taking this person's place in death. It's indicative – a statement of fact. Legal righteousness is cold. It's a cold thing which does not motivate one to sacrifice his life in place of such a person. It's hard to envision a righteous person needing someone to bear a death penalty for him, as a matter of fact.

So, we may translate this first part with these words: "For it is very difficult to think of someone dying in place of a legally righteous person." That kind of a person leaves us cold, and we're not ready to put our life in his behalf.

On the other hand, there's another kind of person: "Yet perhaps." The word "yet" is the Greek word "gar," meaning "but still." "Perhaps" is "tacha." It's an adverb. "For" is again "huper," our substitution word – "in behalf of a good man." This is an "agathos" man. The word "agathos" is a word that refers to a person who is producing benefits. The word "agathos" is good in terms that it is beneficial. There is a person who does something that benefits you. Here's a person that does something that you need, and therefore you welcome his help. Now you have a different attitude. This person is still ""dikaios." He's still righteous. He's still is morally honorable, but he exercises a certain warmth – the warmth of mercy in his dealings with the rules.

In Acts 11:24, Barnabas is described as being a good man. What that is telling us is that, as Mary's husband Joseph was a legally, by-the-numbers righteous man, Barnabas was a morally honorable man who had some discernment, and who knew how to exercise mercy in his dealings with people. He was a good man. His pursuit of what was right resulted in good for people being produced. So, here's a person who has a discerning kindness which is referred to here, while he still is encouraging righteousness. In other words, this man is more than correct. The "dikaios" man is just correct. This man is more than correct. In the case of an "agathos" man, he is the beneficent person who draws forth affection from others, and thus motivates them to the point of self-sacrifice in his behalf; perhaps in contrast to the rigidly inflexible, righteous person.

Next it says, "Some." Again you have the word "tis:" "someone might dare" ("tolmao"). "Tolmao" means "to endure" or "to bring yourself to do a thing:" Some might be willing." This is present tense. That might constantly be your attitude. It is active. A person himself does this. The subject is potentially: "even to die." And again it is "apothnesko" – the word for physical death here. You might be willing to die. It's aorist – at the point of this person needing you. It's active. You choose to substitute yourself in his place. It's infinitive – a result is expressed.

Dying for Others

Or it's the person who shows off. He rushes into danger in a show-off way in order to salvage someone else's life, and he gets killed in the process.

Or there's the person who does act on calculated risk – the soldier who enters battle. He enters battle on a calculated risk, but he's hopeful, and fully expectant, of coming out alive.

There is the policeman or the fireman who dies in the line of duty. They too take calculated risks. And while they may die in another's place, it is not a deliberate sacrifice on their part.

A person may remove an organ from his body to transplant to another person, where you have double organs. He does it with the expectation that he will live even after he's done that. But he might die while the other person lives.

Then there's the emotional trauma type. This is the mother or the father who rushes into a burning building, or into a stream of water, to rescue a child, and dies in the process, and maybe the child is thrown up on the bank and lives – one life in behalf of another.

However, this kind of giving is a giving with a vested interest. The parent wants to save the child. Furthermore, the parent kind of expects to get out of it alive himself.

Or there could be the reaction to some crisis situation without any thought of the consequences at the moment. Many people dying in place of other people are simply of one of these types.

So, the most a human dying has a selfish motivation. That's what I'm getting at. It is a vested interest, and it is unintentional. Very, very rarely does one human being, by deliberate selection, proceed to sacrifice himself in behalf of another person, and say, "I will die, and you live. I know it. I don't expect to come out alive. I'm deliberately giving you the chance to live, and I am accepting the result of dying." That is very rare. Most of one person dying for another falls into one of these categories.

I want to stress to you that dying in behalf of sacrifice of whatever kind for another person does not put you in some kind of standing in merit with God. It does not affect your future. If you are an unbeliever, and you are caught in a battle situation, and you're sitting in a shell hole of some kind with other men, and suddenly somebody lobs a grenade in there, and you throw yourself on the grenade to take the impact of the explosion, and save the lives of the others, that does not mean that you're going to go to heaven. I have heard preachers suggest that that kind of self-sacrifice is in such meritorious value in God's eyes, for it reminds Him of His Son, and that kind of a person has some standing with God, and will be blessed with eternal life.

Do you remember the story of A Tale of Two Cities when Charles Darnay substituted for his look-alike? The final words of Charles Dickens' novel are these, by Charles Darnay, as he stands on the platform of the guillotine, about to be executed because the French revolutionaries think that he's the other man – the one who had been related to nobility. They do not realize that they have switched places, and that Charles Darnay is simply the innocent Englishman. And he stands on that platform and says, "It is a far, far better thing that I do have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

There, in those words, Charles Dickens implies this concept that: if I give my life in behalf of another, I will have out in eternity a welcome by God to eternal life. That is not so. If Charles Darnay was an unbeliever, when that guillotine blade cut his head off, he went straight into hell, not into heaven, even though he did one of those rare moments in human history where one human being actually gives his life in behalf and in place of another.

Now take a look at verse 8, in contrast to this. Take a look at what God does: "But." This is the word "de," introducing a contrast of the divine motivation for dying in place of another with the human motivation of verse 7. We may translate it as "in contrast with this, God (that is, God the Father) commended." The word "commended is "sunistemi." This word literally means "to place together," and it connotes introducing one person to another. Paul uses it in this way in Romans 16:1. The word has come to mean "to show" or "to demonstrate;" that is, God demonstrates His love.

This is present tense. God is constantly doing this. It is active. God Himself does it. It is indicative – a statement of fact. This word connotes that God does something in a conspicuous way. The word "sunistemi" is something that is shown where it is conspicuously evident. And here it is God's love, which is conspicuously evident, because (as we're going to see) the kind of people for which Christ died were loathsome people. And the love, therefore, that substitutive the life of Christ for the life of these people is an extraordinary kind of life. It's conspicuous. A love for the undeserving and the antagonistic is conspicuous in the nature of the case.

"His" is "heautou," which means "of himself." So, this God's own love stressing, in contrast, the motivation between His love (divine love) and what humans are motivated in love to substitute for one another. Man's beneficence is prompted by the object that he's going to sacrifice for. But God's beneficence (God's love) is not prompted by the people that He has died for. There's nothing within them to prompt that kind of love. And the word "love" is the Greek word "agape" that you're acquainted with. This is God's mental attitude goodwill. God loves the sinner. But first, He must love His own holiness. God loves His own holiness, because He is God, before He loves the sinner. Therefore, He will not violate His own holiness by evil.

So, God proves His love for the ungodly by making certain that His own holiness is uncompromised so that He is free indeed to justify the unjustified. And the magnitude of God's own love for the sinner is indicated by the fact that the Father sacrificed His Own Son.

"Toward" is the Greek word "eis," indicating direction: "Us;" that is, all unbelievers: "In that" is the Greek word "hoti," indicating God's purpose, and introducing how God demonstrated His love toward sinners: "While we were yet sinners." This means while we were in the status. This is the verb "eimi" – in the status quo. While we were in the present condition still of being a sinner (a "hamartolos"). "Hamartolos" means the kind of a person who has missed the mark of God's standard of absolute righteousness. It means simply "sinful." It is the word in contrast to the qualities of the righteous and the good man that human beings will sometimes die for. This is the far-less type that anybody would even think of dying for.

In other words, this is the person that is absolutely unworthy. This is the person that we would call "the scum of the earth." And there are few human beings that would look upon the scum of the earth, who need to have someone die in their place, and be willing to do it.

Now Jesus Christ comes along. God's love is motivated not by the scum, but by what He is, Himself, as God. And that's a kind of a person (this "hamartolos" kind) that Jesus Christ came to die for. The object of God's love is up in verse 6. It was described as the ungodly kind. Here it is described in verse 8 as "the sinner," and in verse 10, it's going to be called "the enemy." This is all the offensive types. This is the kind who deliberately breaks God's commandments. This is the kind who is not interested in God. This is the kind who doesn't like God. He hates God. This is the kind who puts his will against God. This is the kind who attacks God's character. This is the kind who completely spurns God. This is the offensive; the obscene; the degraded; and, the cheap.

Those who most fully recognize their sinfulness are those who most appreciate the kind of love it took for God to sacrifice His Son in their place. You can find a biblical example of this on your own in Luke 7:36-47, where Jesus is visiting in the home of the proud Pharisee. And this proud Pharisee does not treat Him with the normal amenities and courtesies. But in comes the sinful woman, and she anoints the Lord head with oil, and washes his feet with her tears, and then dries them with her hair.

Let me just read the last verse on that. Jesus summarizes this whole principle of people who do not realize how vile they are. That's our problem – that we do not appreciate how different was the substitutionary death of Christ motivated by a different kind of love than what we ever experience. In Luke 7:47, Jesus says, "Wherefore I say unto you. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she love much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same love little." And the Lord has to say to Simon, the Pharisees: "Simon, you're such a "dikaios" man, and such a righteous man. You obey all the rules. You go by the numbers. You're not really a very bad guy, and that's why you don't love me very much. But this woman – she's the dregs of society." Jesus said, "I wouldn't even want to mention what she's done, and wouldn't. But because of what she has been in sin, she loves Me. She knows what kind of love God has exercised toward her."

Paul identifies this as the love of Christ, the Son of God, who died ("apothnesko" again – physical and spiritual death): "for," and again, it's "huper." God demonstrates His mental attitude love in the direction of we unbelievers, in that, while we were yet sinners (when we were in this condition of opponents of God), Christ died for (in behalf of) us;" that is, all of us together.

A Summary of Romans 5:6-8

1. We don't Deserve God's Love

   There's nothing whatsoever in lost sinners to cause God to love them, but much to deserve His hatred.

2. Christ did not Come to Answer the Sinner's Plea

   Christ did not come into the world to die for sinners in answer to some plea from them for help.

3. Christ did not Die for the Sinner's Merit

   Christ did not die for sinners because of some merit in them deserving of such a sacrifice on their behalf, but in spite of what they were.

4. Christ Died for Sinners

   Christ died for sinners while they were vile; rebellious; hateful; disgusting; filthy; obscene; arrogant; and, contemptuous.

5. Christ Died for the Helpless

   Christ died for sinners who were totally helpless to escape God's eternal wrath.

6. People Rarely Die in Place of a Good Person

   God's love is demonstrated by the fact that people will rarely be motivated to die in place of a fine human being. But Jesus Christ died for the worst imaginable.

7. God's Love is Motivated by What He is

   God's love is motivated to act in our behalf – not by what we are, but by what He is.

8. God's Love will Never Change

   Because God is immutable, His love for the believer will never change.

9. The Saved will Enter God's Glory

   The clearly demonstrated fact that God loves those who are saved makes it certain that He will also see to it that they enter His glory.

10. The Permanence of our Salvation

    Since our salvation is based only upon God's love for us, its permanence is never threatened by our fluctuating love for God.

11. Our Inconsistent Conduct

    Our salvation is based only on the conduct of Jesus Christ on the cross for us, so it is never placed in jeopardy by our inconsistent conduct.

12. Sin

    Divine love functions through divine holiness, so sin prevents God's love from getting to the sinner.

13. God's Love

    Since God's love is infinite perfection, His love can only be expressed toward an object of infinite perfection.

14. Infinite Perfection

    God justifies the believing sinner, and thus makes him an object of infinite perfection to receive God's infinite love.

15. The Death of Christ

    The death of Christ on the cross has made it possible for infinite holiness in God to love infinite holiness in man.

16. God Never Excuses Sin

    The love of God never excuses sin, but only calls for its punishment, because God loves His own holiness: His justice and righteousness.

17. God's Grace

    When divine holiness is satisfied toward the sinner by Jesus Christ, the love of God is free to express itself in grace.

18. God's Justice

    God's dealings with the sinner is neither arbitrary nor the result of his indifference, but rather perfect justice, fulfilling what absolute righteousness demands.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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