Sparing No Expense

He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

What can be said about Romans 8?

-There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

-The Spirit of life has set us free from slavery to sin and death.

-We who put our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ are children of God.

-Some day, all of creation will be completely redeemed and restored to the way God originally designed it, including all of us who are in Christ!

-Because of God’s love, we are more than conquerors.

-Present sufferings, though very real and painful, are not worth comparing to eternity with Jesus.

-Joy in Christ must consume our focus regardless of the present circumstances of life.

I don’t know a single person who defaults to right thinking about any of the above truths found in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. I also don’t know a single person who lacks increasingly profound joy as his/her thoughts rest more and more in these truths.

It is my prayer that one of two things results from reading this. If you already possess the perspective discussed below, I pray that the conviction of your need to think rightly about God would increase and be strengthened and that you might be encouraged to press on toward Christ. If you find yourself lacking in this perspective, my prayer for you is that you would seek it regardless of the effort or cost required.

God longs for us to draw near to Him and is faithful to draw near to us when we seek Him.

I challenge you to read on. You’ll find words of wise men that have convicted me. You’ll see a bit of my heart where God has me. And hopefully, just maybe, you’ll see a loving God and His grace that He freely extends to all of us who would receive it.

I was reading a new book (surprise, surprise) Desiring God by John Piper (which is turning out to be one of the most influential Christian books I have ever read) and read the following as part of a longer quote by C.S. Lewis from his sermon “The Weight of Glory.” Even in the few hours since I first read it, it is serving to further shape my perspective of God’s desire for me.

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

How contrary to our normal thinking these words are! Don’t we often argue with God that our desires are being infringed upon by His rules? Does your heart grumble like that? I know mine does. “If only I didn’t have this particular struggle in my life…” “If I only had this…” “If only so and so would see it my way…” “Enough of this talk about heavenly delight, I want what the world offers.”

Why, O, why have I settled for less than God’s best for me? Why have I not allowed Him to give me all good things? I can relate to Lewis’s conclusion. I am far too easily pleased. I find this shamefully true when I consider the relationships that I have been blessed with. Whether it be family, friends, coworkers, or strangers on the street, I seek far too little instead of the abundance that God desires for me.

In all the times I have feasted on God’s Word, I just haven’t found passages instructing me in ways to validate my disappointment, anger, impatience, frustration, or bitterness with someone else, especially with God. And there is good reason for the lack of verses. My default response is sinful and comes from a sinner’s heart.

Instead, I find in God’s Word a ton of convicting, heart-piercing truth about bearing with others, forgiveness, sacrificial love, and humility. God wants my response to emulate His response to me even though I gave Him every reason to be angry and disappointed and embittered!

What was His response to my sin? He gave His only Son to die for me so that the destroyed relationship (caused by my sin!) would be restored. By the blood of Jesus Christ, I have been redeemed and now can approach God’s throne of grace with confidence to receive help in my time of need. And I say that “today” I am in need of grace!

Now, if you will, allow me to try and share what I believe is a right response to the Holy Spirit’s convicting.

My words are woefully inadequate to describe the marvel of God’s response to my sin, but let me make an effort to shed some light on the perspective I desire for myself and the body of Christ by pairing C.S. Lewis’s thoughts with Romans 8 and perhaps God will graciously use the effort for His glory.

Each one of us has fallen short of God’s glory and actively rebelled against Him. We have stood there shaking our fists at God and wanting nothing to do with Him. We were born into this state because of our father, Adam, and we had zero hope of breaking out of the snare of sin because we were sinners by our very nature. Not a single day of our lives has gone by without us offering an abundance of proof to this reality.

God, having created us for eternal fellowship with Him, saw our hopeless predicament and had mercy on us. Instead of keeping us under His wrath, which was perfectly just, He gave His only Son for our sake. Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, died a horrific death on a cross, was forsaken by God, and bore the full weight of every sin in the history of creation on Himself. And He did it with joy.

Imagine that! Really take the time and consider this as if for the first time. The perfect Lamb of God took our punishment upon Himself and suffered the wrath of an all-powerful, holy God.

And instead of crying out in gratitude for this, even after the eyes of my heart have been opened to this reality, wanting nothing more than to please God, I continue to grumble, whine, and complain about the injustices I face.

Perhaps you can see that one of my “too weak” desires is to be validated by men. I want people to agree with me. I want to be right. Even after I get a taste of the infinitely greater desire that God wants to satisfy, I go back to wanting mud pies.

However, by the grace of God, I am learning to not be satisfied with the pea pods and slop of the pig trough. I’m learning to spit out the best delicacies that the world offers because they are like eating a bar of soap compared to the filet mignon offered me by my Lord Jesus. I’m learning to develop stronger desires, desires that only God can satisfy.

As part of this learning, I find myself asking the question, “If Romans 8:32 is true, how can I validate thoughts that are contrary to God’s promise to give me all good things?” How can my ultimate desire be for good earthly relationships when God invites me to come into His sanctuary and behold His glory, which is far better?

I think it was Bonhoeffer who said that the only real relationship is an individual’s relationship with Jesus Christ. All other relationships require Jesus to bridge the gap. When I understand this properly, I don’t yearn for relationships here and now nearly as much. Instead, I yearn for Christ. How I long for eternity! There will be no more deceit from myself, only Christ. There will be no more miscommunication or heartache, only Christ.

God have mercy! I don’t want my attitudes, words, and actions to contradict what I know to be true about God. And my actions will always prove what my beliefs about God actually are. But sadly, I fail here on almost a daily basis.

This realization shines light on my great need for Jesus Christ. And for that, I am so thankful, because God did not spare His own Son and will give me all good things. The Gospel is Good News. I must cling to it! I urge you to cling to it as well.

So, we’ve come full circle back to our great need to think rightly about God, the one, true, living God. He didn’t spare His own Son. He spared no expense in freeing us from our slavery.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Jesus gave His life freely for us.

By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 3:16

How can we settle for less than the infinite joy that is offered to us? How can we feast on mud pies when God wants to bless us with so much more?

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to hold fast our confidence and boasting in our hope in Jesus Christ. By this, he means that we must stop ourselves from defaulting to our very nature of apathy, complacency, and mediocrity, and hold fast to the glorious hope we have in Christ. It doesn’t come naturally. It takes energy. It costs us a lot. But by doing so, we come to know God and Jesus Christ and take hold of eternal life.

Following Christ costs us our lives, but we gain Christ, the pearl of great price who lavishes unthinkable joy upon us. We can’t offer enough to deserve Him. The best we can do is respond to God’s grace rightly by abandoning everything to follow Him.

I’m encouraged by C.H. Spurgeon, who said, “Would you be a featherbed warrior instead of bearing the rough fight of love? He who dares the most shall win the most; and if the path of love is rough, tread it boldly, still loving your neighbors through thick and thin…Love your neighbor, for in so doing you are following the footsteps of Christ.”

As the battle wages on, let us be bold and confidently face the trials of life as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. He is worth the pain. He is worth the scars. He is worth everything.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…

Philippians 3:8

The God who did not spare His own Son wants all of you and all of me.

And He is worth it!

God of grace,

When I am tempted to settle for mud pies, help me to see the infinite joy that seeking real delight brings. Give me a resolve to love others with the same passion and commitment possessed by Christ in loving me. There is sweetness in laying down my life in this way.

I confess that I lack an accurate perspective and ask that you would fill me with all the fullness of Yourself. I ask for wisdom. I ask for your power to live faithfully.

Thank you for the challenges that your Word confronts me with.

I would not be the man I am today apart from You.

For the glory of Jesus Christ,

Amen