The Father's Love - Romans 5:1-8

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick

One of the realities about us as humans is that the person who knows he or she is loved has a great advantage. There's a sense of peace that comes with knowing you are loved, there's an inner confidence that affects everything you do. Knowing someone else loves you suggests that in their eyes, you have value, and if that person believes that you have value, then you can begin to believe it yourself. Out of that sense of value comes a confidence which in turn results in meaningful accomplishments. To put it simply, knowing you are loved is the surest pathway to success. Your parents could endow you with huge sums of money and opportunities that would be the envy of all of your peers, but if you don't have their love, you probably will waste the money and squander the opportunities. On the other hand, your parents may have been of very simple means, and yet you always knew that they loved you with unconditional love - chances are you will be very successful in life whether or not you ever own houses and lands and huge bank accounts. You will be content, you will be happy, you will be successful. You see, people who know they are loved don't have to go through life trying to please, or prove to themselves or others that they are important - they know they are important because they are loved. As parents and adult teachers and models for the young people around us, we need to take this to heart, and do everything in our power to demonstrate to the younger generation our deep and abiding love - even if we feel that we ourselves have been deprived of this necessary nourishment for life. Certainly one of the highest forms of love is that of a father for his sons and daughters. Many years ago there began to be circulated among Christians a story called "The Drawbridge Keeper." According to some accounts, the story first circulated under the title "To Sacrifice a Son: An Allegory," by Dennis E. Hensley and apparently was first published in the Michigan Baptist Bulletin in 1967. Perhaps you have heard or read the story - like many such tales, there are different versions circulating, and there's an ongoing debate about whether or not this was based on a true story or was made up simply to make a point. It goes something like this: There was once a bridge that spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river parallel with the banks, allowing ships to pass through freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing the train to cross it. On one side of the river, a switchman sat in a shack where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place whenever it was time for the train to cross. One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come; he looked off into the distance through the dimming twilight and caught sight of the train lights. He stepped into the control shack and began to turn the bridge into position, but noticed that the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely in position, it would cause the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This was of special concern because the approaching train was a passenger train with many people on board. The switchman finished turning the bridge so it crossed the river and then hurried to the side of the river where there was a lever switch he could hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. By now he could hear the rumble of the train, and so he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man's strength. Then from across the bridge, he heard the voice of a child calling out, "Daddy, where are you?" His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. The man's first impulse was to cry out to the child, "Run! Run!" But the train was already too close; the tiny legs would not be able to carry him across the bridge in time. The man was faced with an awful choice - he could abandon his lever to snatch up his son and carry him to safety, but then he would not get back to the lever in time to secure it for the train. Either many people on the train, or his own son, would be killed. He took but a moment to make his decision, and then held his place as the train sped safely and swiftly on its way. After the story is told, the preacher is supposed to say, "If you comprehend the emotions that went through this man's heart, you can begin to understand the feelings of Our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life." Now the central point of the story is understandable, God sacrificed His own beloved son in order to provide a way for innumerable multitudes to be saved from certain death. However, we must point out that there are some glaring differences between the story of the bridge and the story of Jesus. The death of Jesus on the cross was by design, not by accidental circumstances. From the beginning of time it had been planned, and Jesus Himself understood the plan and His own part in it - to choose to die so others may live. The other flaw is this: part of God's plan for Jesus was that He would be resurrected - His death would only be temporary. He was the Eternal Son of God, never to be totally separated from His Father. In addition, for those who believe in an all powerful, all wise, all loving God, it could be said that in the story of the bridge, it would not have been wrong for the man to save his own son, believing that God certainly could keep the train on the tracks to safely cross the river, even without the lock fully secured. We do not believe that God ever asks a human father to send his own son to death in order to save others. Furthermore, the decision about who will live and who will die is not ours to make - that is God's prerogative. One may have the right to sacrifice himself, but no one has the right to sacrifice another person. Those objections aside, the important message that we get from the story has to do with the great love a father has for his son, in the story, in our own lives, and in God's relation to all of us. Jesus also told a significant story about the love of a father. Usually when His story is retold, the emphasis is on the son who demanded his inheritance and ran away from home; we even name the story, "The Prodigal Son." Others say that Jesus told this story to fault the Jewish religious leaders of His day by likening them to the elder brother who could not bring himself to join the party. But I think the central and most outstanding character was the father. As Jesus told it, when the son was still far away from home, "His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15:20) How can this be viewed any other way than that this father, with deep love for his son, watched daily for him to return. He loved his son; he waited and he watched - he had no grudge or malice and wouldn't even listen to his son's prepared statement that he was willing to be considered a servant rather than a son. Certainly Jesus wanted everyone to understand that the Heavenly Father had this kind of love. The fact of the matter is, it seems that consciously or unconsciously, everyone needs to know the love of a father. D.C. Kaushal, a mature and faithful minister of the Gospel in India, gave us an inspirational message this past Wednesday. While briefly sharing how he became a Christian believer, this 71 year old gentlemen casually mentioned that he had never known of his father's love, he never experienced his father's embrace. Obviously D.C. is way past being anxious about this, but still, the fact that he would mention it in an impromptu speech is significant. Immediately I was reminded of a young man who attended a church we served a number of years ago. His father had abandoned the family, and the lad sat alone on the steps leading to the damp, dark basement of his home. As he sat there longing for the love of his father, he began to quietly cry when suddenly he felt the squeeze of a hug around his shoulders. He turned to look, but no one was there - it was His Heavenly Father letting him know that He loved him. Why is this so important? For one thing, love dispels dysfunction. What is that? Simply put, dysfunction is present when something or someone is not functioning as they should, they are functioning wrongly. It's like courage - courage gone wrong is dis-courage. Similarly, when ease goes wrong it becomes dis-ease. As mentioned earlier, when we know we are loved we can function with confidence; we don't have to go through life striving for acceptance. Furthermore, people who are loved find it easy to love; they function well in relationships. That's why the Apostle John wrote, "We love because he first loved us." (I John 4:19) Functional people don't yell and scream, they don't use intimidations and manipulations like dysfunctional people. People who are loved don't feel threatened every time someone disagrees with them, they don't have to put other people down to make themselves look better, they don't have to bully others in order to be convinced that they themselves are not weak as they inwardly fear. But what about the huge number of people in our society who have been neglected and who do not know of their father's love? We tell them, "God loves you." Then the question follows, "What good is that? What good is it knowing that God, our Heavenly Father loves us?" For the past several months we have been studying the book of Romans. We have pointed out that after the Gospels, the letter of Paul to the Romans has had more influence on the development of Christianity than any other book in the Bible. From Augustine to Martin Luther, thoughtful Christians have valued this book greatly, coming to understand the meaning of grace and salvation through simple faith in Jesus, His death and resurrection. One of the very high points within this book is found in the opening verses of chapter 5. Twice in the opening paragraph there is mention of God's love: "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (vs.5) "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (vs.8) The first mention of God's love is related to what was just written, suggesting that love provides what it takes to persevere in the midst of hardship and suffering - love gives us necessary hope. No doubt that's why Paul wrote earlier that love is greater than hope (I Corinthians 13:13) because love produces hope - the greater produces the lesser. And that's exactly what we've been talking about. Because we know we are loved, we possess an inner strength, the strength called hope. No matter what happens, no matter what unfortunate circumstances or suffering we are required to bear, we are not defeated, and we will not be overcome with despair - knowing God loves us gives us hope - in the end, everything will be all right. The second mention of God's love simply is that this love is demonstrated at Calvary, "Christ died for us." In some parts of our world, both historically and also at the present time, highest honors are given to those who kill themselves for what they believe to be a great cause, whether it be the suicide kamikaze pilots devoted to the will of their Japanese Emperor, or the suicide/homicide bombers dedicated to the forced advancement of the religion of Mohammed. These naive followers of men who wanted to be gods were told that they would be guaranteed a place of highest honor, if not in heaven, then at least in the eyes of their overseers and peers, if only they would sacrifice their own lives for the cause of their leaders. Please understand that Christianity makes no such demands. Yes, Christianity demands sacrifice, but it calls for a living sacrifice. Self-imposed martyrdom has no value, it is not the road to salvation, in fact, it may well be a speed lane to eternal damnation. The way to salvation, the way to be sure of eternal life, is to have the hope produced by love, the love of your Heavenly Father. That is the love displayed at the cross, not the accidental death caused by unforeseen circumstances, but the death of the Beloved Son of God accompanied with a promised resurrection. But of special significance to us all is that God committed His Son to die, and Jesus the Son agreed to die in our place, not because we were good and deserved His favor, but precisely because we were not. Yes, we were created in the image of God, but that image had been marred by Adam's sin and by our own. Paul explained it this way: "When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8) Jesus saw that we were weak and impure, but He died for us anyway - not in spite of the fact that we were weak and impure, but because we were weak and impure. Or, as Jesus once said, using a different analogy, He didn't come for those who were well, those who did not need a doctor, but He came to heal the sick (Luke 5:31). That's us. And why did He do that? Because of the love of the Father. That's all. And that's all I want to say - God your Heavenly Father loves you. Accept the word spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." (Jeremiah 31:3) Believe this simple truth, and your life will never be the same. Discussion Questions The Father's Love - Romans 5:1-8 1. Why is it to our advantage to know we are loved? 2. When a person seems to be constantly striving to be noticed or accepted, what may that suggest about their own upbringing? 3. Among humans, what are the highest forms of love? 4. What are some of the problems with the story about the drawbridge and the father who let his own son die to save a train load of people? 5. Has there ever been a time when God expected a human father to sacrifice his own son? What was the outcome of that story? 6. Rather than "The Prodigal Son," what would be a better title for the story Jesus told in Luke 15? 7. How are we like the returning son in Jesus' story? 8. If everyone has an innate need to be loved by their father, how can this need be met when the human father fails? 9. What are some of the signs of dysfunction within families? 10. How does love dispel dysfunction? 11. What is the relationship between love and hope? 12. Is there any virtue in self-imposed martyrdom? 13. Why is it "good news" to hear that Christ died for us because we were powerless sinners? 14. On what basis are we permitted to believe these words apply to us: "I have loved you with an everlasting love"? - - Return to Top of this Page - Email a link to this page - Go To Next Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick - Back To Sermons Page or to the Sermons Alphabetical List - - Download This Sermon - - Download a Power Point Presentation for This Sermon - - If you have enjoyed joyfulministry.com, you may send a referral letter - Click Here, and enter email addresses of your friends. This Page's Title Is: Your Name Is: Your Email Address Is: Your State and Country: Please identify your vocation: Senior Pastor. Associate Pastor. Youth Pastor. Lay Minister. Church Member. Which section of this site would you most likely return to? Sermons Articles Stories Poems Hymns Articles for Leaders Marriage Articles A Bit of Humor Would you like to receive the free weekly E-mail Circular? 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