Charlottesville Christian Fellowship

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Click here for Martyn Lloyd Jones on Romans 7

“Now, therefore when I [Judah] come to your servant my father [Jacob], and the lad [Benjamin] is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.”
~ Genesis 44:30-31

Jacob’s love for his son Benjamin was so great that it was said, “His life is bound up in the lad’s life.” This is but a very dim picture of God the Father’s love for His only-begotten Son. Consider only a few New Testament references:

“And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased'” (Matt. 3:17).

“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” (Matt. 17:5; see also 2 Pet. 1:17)

“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” (John 5:35)

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son [literally, the Son of His love]” (Col. 1:13; see also Eph. 1:6).

The thing which is still more staggering is that, incredibly, God’s love for us is equal to His love for His only-begotten Son, Jesus.

“So that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:23). He could not say it any more clearly than that. What else is implied by such passages as, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16) and, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all” (Rom. 8:32)?

This means that, though it may seem unbelievable and nearly blasphemous, there is a real sense in which, if you are in Christ, God the Father’s life is bound up in your life, to the same degree that it is in Jesus’ life. The Lord Jesus’ vicarious life, death, and resurrection have, as Joseph has been preaching, removed all condemnation and all wrath so that we are now standing with wide footing in His broad grace! But the infinite, rock-solid foundation which holds up even the cross of Christ is His love for you. It was this love which so amazingly and incomprehensibly acted in your eternal salvation.

“Amazing love, how can it be?
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?”
~ Charles Wesley

“Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!”
~ William Newell

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” Matthew 23:23