Introduction
The question I want us to reflect on this evening is, Who is God most deeply?
At his deepest level, what is he like?
What is his core personality? What makes him most happy? Where is he most comfortable?
Imagine you had a date with God, a coffee tomorrow morning, “what do you think that’ll feel like? What does he smell like, interpersonally? What will you go back home and say about him when people ask you what he is like?
In other words, who is God at heart?
Now, God being who he is, there is a lot that can be said about him. The doctrine of God is a whole course in Systematic Theology. And an important element on the doctrine of God is what is called the attributes of God. His characteristics, you might say—he is eternal, he does not change, he is great, transcendent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, he is simple etc
And then there are also moral attributes, he is holy, righteous, just, truth, faithful, loving, compassionate, kind, merciful.
All wonderful things. There is lots to say about God.
But what is he like most deeply? Not just his many attributes.
Now, wonderfully, the God of the Bible has chosen to reveal himself to us and to show us what he is like in terms we can understand. And so all we need to do is look at Jesus, God in flesh, if we want to see what God is really like.
Heb. 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being..
And so we will come to Jesus in a minute, but before that, a couple of passages about God.
The Heart of God:
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The imperative is clear: love one another!
The ground for that imperative is: Love comes from God; Because God is love.
I think it is Shakespeare, tell me later if not, who said that “to err is human, to forgive divine.”
I think there is truth there.
But the thing that is quintessentially divine, John says, is love.
Love comes from God. In other words, love started with God.
Whenever you see real authentic love, you can say that’s a ripple of the stone God cast into the pond. There is something of God, in love. You can say, love is a gift from God.
Of course, like most other gifts, it is a gift people have trampled on and dragged through the mad, but it comes from God.
But love does not just come from God; God is love.
Love is not just something that God does, it is who he is. Forgiveness is something that God does, mercy is something that God does, justice is something that God does. But love is his very nature.
He never needed to learn to love and he doesn’t need to decide if he’ll love. He is love.
2 weeks ago we marked 4 years in marriage, and I’m still learning to love Javellah properly. And I think I’ll still be learning to love her next September, and even on our 20th anniversary and 50th anniversary.
Becomes when it comes to love, we all wear the L plate, and it’s not an L plate for Love, but an L plate for learner.
Not God! He does need to learn to love. He doesn’t to grow in love. God is by his nature love.
And this is something that we see in the Old Testament too. The most common way people describe God is a description God himself gives in exodus: “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
The word love there is from the Hebrew word ‘khesed,’ which is a constant theme of God’s character in the Old Testament. There is no proper English translation to that word, much like the Dutch word gezellig. No direct translation. But it speaks of generous love, never-ending love, loyal love, steadfast love.
And if you asked any Israelite who knew his Bible well to give you one word that describes God, I think they would say Khesed.
That’s who God is at his deepest level. God is love at heart.
But what is God’s love?
Wayne Grudem, one of the Systematic theology books on my shelf defines it like this:
“God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.”
This definition understands love as self-giving for the benefit of others. Always caring for others in a self-sacrificial way. And that is what God has been since eternity past, before the creation of the world.
J. I Packer, renown evangelical Anglican theologian defines God’s love like this:
“God’s love is an exercise of His goodness towards individual sinners whereby, having identified Himself with their welfare, He has given His Son to be their Savior, and now brings them to know and enjoy Him in a covenant relation.”
Which I think is a wonderful way to summarize 1 John 4 which we read.
Two things strike me in that definition: ‘An exercise of his goodness’ … we can say benevolence and ‘having identified himself with their welfare.’
God is so good, Packer says, that he identifies with the welfare of others (in this case, sinners) and does something about their condition. That’s what God’s love is.
Now hold that thought and let’s go to the only one place in all the 4 gospels that Jesus opens up to us about his heart..
The Heart of Jesus, the God-man.
Matt. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
I am gentle and humble in heart. That is Jesus’ autobiography. That’s his About on WhatsApp, or his bio on his CV, or the title of his website.
You want to know who Jesus is most deeply. He doesn’t say I am exalted and demanding in heart, which is what we mostly think of him.
That doesn’t mean he is not exalted and demanding. He is. No one is as demanding as Jesus. He says you have to be willing to ‘hate’ your family if you want to follow him. He says you must deny yourself, and take up your cross. In other words, he is demanding your life.
But when it comes down to it, exalted and demanding is not what he thinks of himself. I am gentle and humble in heart, he says.
And as Gen-Z say, Jesus is exactly what he thinks he is.
The Greek word translated ‘gentle’ occurs three other times in the NT, where it is also translated as ‘meek’ or ‘humble.’ Jesus is not harsh, reactionary, intimidating, easily exasperated.
I once heard someone say that some of these very powerful people, speaking of Mandela, usually have an aura around them. Some tension. You just feel their power.
But though powerful and exalted, the vibe around Jesus is meekness, humility, gentleness.
Jesus is Gentle and humble in heart.
The Greek word translated ‘humble’ is sometimes translated ‘lowly,’ and it’s not humble, as in the opposite of proud. It is humble in the sense of, a humble background. Not flashy, not celebrity, not particularly impressive.
Paul uses the word in Romans 12 to tell us to be willing to associate with people of ‘low position.’ The people no one invites to the party, the socially awkward people.
And so when Jesus says that he is humble in heart, he is saying he is the lowest common denominator. Anyone can access him, whoever you are. no prerequisites, no hoops to jump through.
Isn’t it why the church is the most socially diverse institution you can find? I can’t think of any other social group, where, if we are true to who we are, even homeless people from the streets should feel welcome to worship with us on Sunday, and they should be treated just as well as if it is the prime minister who walked in.
People with mental disadvantages should not just find a safe home here, but be treated with the dignity anyone else is treated with. Anybody, irrespective of where you think you fall on the social cadre. The bar is too low. Actually, there is no bar.
“Come to me,” Jesus calls “…I am gentle and lowly in heart.”
And like I’ve said, Jesus is exactly who he thinks he is. Just read the gospels. He can’t stand suffering people. He is always said to have compassion on lepers, and sick people, and sinners. He is deeply moved when he sees people suffering.
Indeed, throughout the gospels, it is those who are struggling that Jesus is constantly navigating towards. Which is shocking for a religious leader. “This man,” he is accused, “eats with sinners and tax collectors.”
Someone has explained it this way: imagine a wealthy but compassionate doctor decides to travel to some remote tribal village to help treat people with a contagious disease. He does everything, sets up his clinic etc. but no one comes, or people are incited not to go to him. Finally a few brave young women come and he treats them. What does the doctor feel? Joy. The doctor’s joy, happiness, fulfillment increases to the degree that people come to him. Not that he lacks anything, but he is compassionate, and that’s the whole reason he came.
I think it is the same with Jesus. As sinners and sufferers came to him, that must be what gives him the most joy. That’s why he came.
Which is ironic because personally when I sin, my tendency is to run away from Jesus. It is like a sick person who is embarrassed to go to the doctor because they are sick.
And yet it is as we draw from his love, forgiveness and compassion, that’s what gives him the most joy. Because that’s who he is at heart. Gentle and humble.
Adonirum Judson was an American missionary to Burma, present-day Myanmar. He suffered so much. Lost 2 wives and I think 7 children, beside various other suffering and persecution he faced.
This is one of his famous quotes: If I had not felt certain that every trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.
In other words, what sustained him through his ever-increasing suffering was that he believed that God who is ‘infinite love and mercy’ was sovereign over his life.
That’s our God, infinite love and mercy. That’s who he is at heart.