Resurrection is the Power of Love

Jesus “loved me and gave himself for me.”

(Galatians 2:20 – Part 4, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 25, 2018)

Love and Resurrection

What is the connection between the love of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead? We think more often about love and the cross, but what about love and the empty tomb?We know that biblical love is more than an emotion, so we have come to see the important link between suffering and love, but the cross, though the greatest display of love, is not the end of love, only the beginning of it. Cross love has no future without resurrection. So what exactly is the relationship between love and the resurrection? Resurrection is the power of God's love. It is what God's love accomplishes.

The Son of God Loved Paul

Let's begin with Saul/Paul of Tarsus. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20 that the Son of God loved Him. Why did God love this man Paul? Not because he was adorable. Nor because he was useful. God's love is deeper than that.

What does Paul himself say about why God chose him? Jesus' love of Paul was proof that salvation was not based on Paul deserving God's love. When Paul was first confronted by the resurrected Jesus, the Lord asked him this question, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Paul said, “Who are you, Lord?” And Jesus said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:4-6)

In 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul wrote, “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Later in Ephesians 3:8 he wrote from prison, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Finally in 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul told his younger friend, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Paul goes on in the very next verse to tell us what the benefit is of having a most unworthy man as one of the most effective ambassadors for the grace of God, “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” If someone who had treated Jesus and His church so poorly could be saved, there is hope for all who will believe.

The Son of God Gave Himself for Paul

Not only did the Son of God have a complete heart of love for Paul, but God is no hypocrite. What He believes in His heart, He does with His life. He gave Himself for Paul. The word in Galatians 2:20 translated “gave” is used many times in the Bible to refer to someone being handed over to someone in power above them. In Matthew 27:26 Pilate released Barabbas the thief, and he “delivered” Jesus to the soldiers “to be crucified.” Prior to this it was the Jewish religious authorities that “delivered” Jesus to Pilate, but it was Judas who had “betrayed” (same underlying Greek word as delivered) Jesus to the chief priests, scribes, and elders. In Galatians 2:20 we learn that Jesus gave Himself up to the punishment Paul deserved. This was where God's love for Paul took the Son of God.

All this is much more raw than our first reading of the words “Jesus loved me and gave himself for me.” The Son of God loved Paul, who by his own admission was “a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” of the Lord (1 Timothy 1:13). How did He live out His love for Paul: He handed Himself over to the kiss of a betrayer, then into the hands of religious enemies, then to the Roman governor, then to Roman soldiers who did what they did to Him, and finally to the cross, death, and the justice that Paul himself deserved for his own seriously bad sin.

More about Love and Resurrection

Of course this heart of electing love and Jesus' handing Himself over to die was not just for Paul. We have sin too, and the penalty that we deserve had to be taken away. God's justice had to be satisfied if He was to give grace to those He loves. The love of the cross needed to touch our lives too.

The empty tomb is the power of divine love that proceeded from the Father and the Son. Love gives sight to the blind, and makes the deaf hear. Love casts out demons and restores hope to people that have given up on life. Love wipes away tears, grief, and pain. It wins not just a battle, but the entire war against sin and death. That is why love not only dies on the cross for us, it rises from the dead.

At present we do not see all of this. We do not see the Galilean crowds longing for a new life who followed Jesus and were healed even by merely touching the hem of His garment. We do not see Lazarus come out of the tomb to be joined again to his sisters Mary and Martha. But we do see the resurrection of Jesus as the central fact of history, and we believe in the power of divine love to raise the dead at the last day.

Sermon point: The resurrection of Jesus is proof of the powerful love of God for the church and His ambassadorial love for the world (John 3:14-16). Look to Him and live.

The empty tomb moves us to confident action in a world that needs to see the power of love through the church. The world needs to know that the foremost of sinners can find forgiveness through the Son of God, who is more than able to create in you a clean heart. Without the power of the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, all that we have coming from us are the works of the flesh.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:19–21, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Because of the resurrection power of God we have a new life by the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22–24 we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” May God increasingly display the power of the resurrection through us! Amen.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 51 – Create in me a clean heart

Gospel Reading—Matthew 28 – The Resurrection / The Report of the Guard / The Great Commission