SEEING THE BEAUTY OF HIS KINDNESS TOWARDS YOU

" Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you…" (Romans 11:22)

Why do millions of people travel to Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, or Yosemite? Why do I feel happy when I look at my latest National Geographic and its photos of nature or Surfer Magazine and its photos of waves. Why do people admire singers, actors, sports stars, and models? I believe that it is because the essence of humanness is the appetite for great beauty.

I have previously mentioned that the great tragedy of the human race is that we were made to find our supreme joy by admiring God in his infinite beauty; but because of our spiritual blindness admire things that are less than and less satisfying than the enjoyment of God to satisfy our insatiable craving to admire greatness and beauty.

The irony of our sinfulness is that God put us within sight of Kauai and we have chosen to stay home and watch DVD's of downtown Watts. If we are honest, as the question goes, "Are we having fun yet", we aren't! Every single person here knows that it hasn't worked. All of my scenic vacations and pictures and movie stars, models, and rock stars can never satisfied the deepest longings of our heart. At best they give some pleasure, and make the drudgery and emptiness of life a little more livable; but they are incomparable to seeing the beauty of Jesus Christ!

Jonathan Edwards wrote:
“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to Heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the ocean.”

If your life is boring, empty, without happiness, without significance, and without a fulfilling direction, it is because you do not see Jesus Christ, for who he really is. Some of you see him scarcely at all, perhaps. Others have such a pitifully small and sentimental picture of Him on the wall of your mind that you are starving for the real thing.

I have previously stated Jesus is beautiful because He has a glory, an excellence, a supreme beauty-that as you read the Bible is self-authenticatingly true. That is to say, when you see Him there is a direct and personal apprehension and appreciation of the beauty that you see. It’s like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light, or tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet. There is a direct apprehension and attraction once you see Jesus that affects your thinking, your will, and your feelings, it goes deep and does something to your very soul. It changes your life.

What makes Jesus Christ so precious, so beautiful, and so glorious is what Jonathan Edwards calls “an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies". It is a unique coming together in one person of extremely diverse qualities. The depth and complexity of Jesus shatter our mental frameworks. Where is the beauty of Jesus? What is God for us in Jesus?

The apostle Paul opens for us a window in God's word and points to the beauty of Jesus Christ. We are encouraged by him to "Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you…" (Romans 11:22). The Amplified Bible translates it: "Note and appreciate the gracious kindness and the severity of God”. The NKJV translates it: “Consider the goodness and severity of God”.

Literally, the apostle Paul is exhorting us to “look” at something. Look at what? Look at two things: the kindness of God and the severity of God. Or we could say: look at the mercy of God and the wrath of God. Look at the tenderness of God and the toughness of God. Look at the salvation of God and the judgment of God. Look at the assistance of God and the opposition of God. Look at the friendship of God and the fierceness of God.

This reminds me of a corny old Frank Sinatra song called Love and Marriage. Maybe you remeber it as the theme song to the old TV show Married With Children. The lyrics went like this:
Love and marriage, love and marriage,
fit together like a horse and carriage.
This I tell you brother,
you can't have one without the other.
Try, try, try to separate them It's an illusion.
Try, try, try, and you will only come to this conclusion
Love and marriage, love and marriage
Go together like a horse and carriage
Dad was told by mother
You can't have one without the other.

In a deeper and true sense, the kindness and severity of God fit together like a horse and carriage and you can't have one without the other. Try to separate them and it is an illusion. The goodness and mercy and grace of God go together with the justice and severity and wrath of God. They are all part of who He really is and are what make Him so full of infinite worth and beauty.

Many people today do not undewrastand and see this. Thus, they overemphasize love, mercy, and kindness and underemphasize(If they even mention or think at all of it) God’s severity, justice, judgment, and wrath. When the Bible says, "Note the kindness and the severity of God," we should do that. “Oh, how comfortable is a little glimpse of God!” said David Brainard.

We cannot study the kindness of Christ without also encountering His severity. We cannot savor His mercy without savoring His severity. We cannot savor His grace without savoring His justice. We cannot savor His kindness without savoring his wrath. Sheldon Vanauken coined it well. He called it a “severe mercy or a merciful severeness”.

The word "kindness" here means "kindness, mercifulness, gentleness, goodness." God is kind, gentle, merciful, and good. But God is more than that. He is also severe. The word "severity" means "rigor, sharpness," even "harshness." God is both: He is kind, gentle and good, but He is also rigorous, sharp, and harsh. We see this demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ.

So this week let us look at the kindness of Jesus. I love what John Piper writes about the mercy of Jesus. I quote at length what he wrote about it in his book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the incarnate display of the wealth of the mercies of God. His life on earth was a lavish exhibit of mercies to all kinds of people. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (John1:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6) The glory of God seen in Jesus is full of grace, mercy, kindness, and goodness. Mercy is the goodness of God shown to those who are in a miserable plight. Grace is God’s goodness given to those who don’t deserve it. Every act of grace shown to a sinner is also an act of mercy because his sin brings misery. And every act of mercy shown to a person because of his miserable plight is an act of grace because he does not deserve it. When God shows mercy he shows grace and vice-verse. That’s what we see in Jesus!

Every kind of need and pain was touched by the mercies of Jesus in his few years on earth. When the blind beggar cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" many were embarrassed and indignant. But Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you whole.”(Luke 18:38, 42). When the revolting and feared lepers raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” He stopped and took pity on them and said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they were going, they were cleansed" (Luke 17:13-14).

Even more remarkably, Mark recalls the time another dreaded leper fell on his knees pleading with Jesus to make him clean, and Jesus not only spoke to him, but also touched him: "Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, `I am willing; be cleansed"' (Mark 1:41). When Jesus saw a widow who had not only lost her husband but now her only son as well, Luke tells us, "[Jesus] felt compassion for her, and said to her, `Do not weep"' (Luke 7:13). Then he raised her son from the dead. And in this case, not a word was said about her faith. It was a free and lavish overflow of divine mercy, even before faith.

Mercy also drew Jesus to those who were made miserable by demons. One man brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus after years of sorrow. The boy was unable to speak, and the evil spirit often threw the boy into the fire. The father pleaded with Jesus, "Take pity on us and help us!" (Mark 9:22). And even though the grieving father could only manage a mustard seed of faith-"I do believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). Jesus responded to the cry for pity and rebuked the spirit and cast it out.

Not only was the mercy of Jesus kindled by suffering, but also by sin. When Jesus ate with "tax collectors and sinners," the Pharisees and scribes criticized him. But Jesus told three parables to explain what he was doing. One was the parable of the prodigal son. The climax of this parable pictures God, filled with compassion for his sin-soaked, home-coming son: "While [the son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). In other words, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners because he was the incarnate display of the Father's tender compassion for sinners.

Jesus showed this compassion not only for individuals who sin and suffer, but also for whole multitudes. He did not look on masses with contempt or with impersonal indifference. Once when great crowds had followed him and had not planned well for their food, Jesus looked on them and said, "I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat" (Mark 8:2). On another occasion, it was not their hunger but their spiritual need that filled him with such compassion for the crowds: "He saw a large crowd, and he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34)

This compassionate and merciful "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). This is why God, who is called "the Father of mercies" (2 Corinthians 1:3), beckons us to come boldly to his throne through Jesus Christ who can "sympathize with our weaknesses" (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus is our sinless, all-sufficient High Priest. He has offered himself as our substitute in perfect obedience and perfect sacrifice. All of the Father’s mercies belong to those who come to God through faith in Jesus. “Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).The place where mercies are kept is at the throne of God. Here is the source of infinite help and infinite wealth and infinite power and infinite wisdom in our time of need. And all this stands ready in the service of mercy, because of Jesus Christ, the mercy of God incarnate. "The Lord is full of compassion and is merciful" (James 5:11).

O would you consider the kindness, the mercy, the goodness, and grace of Jesus Christ! May you see the mercy of Christ and savor it for what it is. May the mercy of Jesus become the greatest beauty of the Savior in our eyes. Let us behold, and beholding, become like him. Make we seek to be filled with His mercy that we might show mercy.

Seeing and savoring the beauty of Jesus' mercy,
Pastor Bill