THE WORD 4 ev 1

Read Mark 6 (click here for link)

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. –Mark 6:34

On December 23 I quoted from Isaiah 53. Read again a brief portion of this prophecy of the suffering Servant, Jesus Christ.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Afterwards, I closed that blog post with these words:

It would be untrue entirely to build a theology on the premise that God forgives us our sins because he loves us. Yes, he does love us, but he hates our sin. Jesus Christ on the Cross is the proof of his hatred for sin. We must never believe that God has sympathy for us sinners. There is no sympathy from the perfect justice and righteousness of God; He does not sympathize with sin. He condemns it! If God does forgive sin it is only by the death of Christ. This is the mercy of God: that he sent Jesus to become the curse that was hanging over our heads.

The past week I have had a few people make comments to me about the above words. Some took offense at the statement that our theology should not be built around the fact that God loves us. That is indeed a shocking statement—and scary! But it is entirely true.

God does indeed love us—he loves all his creation. But the moment we begin to base our status before God on his love for us, a dangerous thing happens, we forget the terrible act that God performed to save us—Jesus Christ crucified.

The only love we know from God is through Jesus. Apart from Jesus there is no love from God—only damnation. It took the blood of God to bring out the love of God for us. That is a terrible thing. But for us it is SALVATION.

Thus it is entirely appropriate for Jesus to have compassion on sinners in our text from Mark 6.

He is the love of God made flesh.


Francisco de Zurbaran, "Agnus Dei" (1635-40)

…He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. –Isaiah 53

Pastor Aaron