God So Loved The World / Bob Kauflin / Sung by Glad
In the garden long ago love was all there was to knowSpeak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Luke 10:25-37:
Pure, innocent and free – like we were made to be, long ago
Afraid – we followed after lies, and pain filled the Father’s eyes
But oh, from the first He knew what He’d planned to do,
… to bring us home
God so loved the world He gave His only Son
To face the death that we deserved and overcome
And everyone who hears His word and believes
The promise that he’s heard will never die, will never die
Hope – like an unexpected friend
Came to the helpless and condemned
And peace was offered far and near
To answer every fear in our hearts
Grace – only God could understand
Flowed freely from His hands
When the perfect Lamb was slain
To bear the guilt and shame of us all
Thru His death our forgiveness was obtained
And Heaven can be claimed once again
Thru His life He’s crushed the pow’r of sin
Now we can reign with Him forevermore
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
My Understanding: As I read this very familiar account of the story of the Good Samaritan in relation to the words to this song this morning, the Lord gave me a picture of the true meaning of his grace and mercy and how we are to demonstrate that same grace and mercy to others, i.e. how we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
This song is about God’s love and mercy and grace toward man after man sinned, i.e. after man followed after the lies of Satan. God is all knowing and is sovereign over all things, so he knew even before he created man that man was going to turn against him and that man was going to sin by believing the lies of Satan. I believe God already knew what he was going to do even before he put the first breath of life into man. And, that plan was that one day he would send his Son (God the Son) Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, not only that we could be free from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternal separation from God and eternal punishment in hell), but so that we could be free from the control of and the bondage to sin on a day to day basis while we live on this earth and in these fleshly bodies.
So, in thinking about the words to this song and the meaning behind them, i.e. the plan of salvation of God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness to man, when I read this passage of scripture about the Good Samaritan, I saw an understanding of it I had never seen before. I saw this story in the light of someone who had fallen into sin and had been beaten down by the cares of this world and by temptation to sin and had finally yielded to the sin and had allowed the sin to overtake him. I also saw this in light of how the three people responded to this person’s plight of having been robbed of his pure devotion to God, of having been stripped of his fellowship with the Lord through disobedience to God’s commands, and having been beaten down by temptation to sin to the point to where he was half dead spiritually.
There were two people who were religious leaders and priests of the people who not only passed by the man and did nothing to help him, but they walked on the other side to avoid him altogether. This is a picture of what many people do, including pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, religious leaders, etc., and that is that many people just don’t want to get involved. There are many possible reasons for that, one of which may be that the people themselves are caught in the same sin. For instance, the sin of adultery is increasing in the church at enormous rates via the ready availability of pornography on the Internet and sexual films and TV shows on television and in movies. I have read many statistics about how many pastors have or are presently struggling with this sin and have not gotten victory over it, and the numbers are astounding! So, a pastor cannot help someone overcome some sin that he is also giving in to, which may be one reason for not helping the man on the side of the road who is beaten down with sin.
Another possible reason is that people may move to the other side of the road and do nothing to help is that they don’t want to “offend” that person or “hurt their feelings”, but what they really don’t want is for that person to not like them. So, one of the reasons a person might not stop to help is that he or she wouldn’t want that other person to not like him, because helping someone out of sin is not an easy task and it may involve that other person not liking us or even resenting our interference.
Other possible reasons for not helping and for moving to the other side is that we know it is going to cost us time, resources, our own vulnerabilities, and giving of ourselves to try to help someone. Other reasons may include selfishness and blindness to the real need because we are too busy with our own lives to see what is really going on, etc. Whatever the reasons, still this happens all the time. People fail to see the broken lives of others and they fail to reach out to help heal and mend lives because of these reasons mentioned above or other reasons not mentioned. The result is the same. The person is left to die in his or her sins or to half die in his or her relationship with the Lord to the point to where he or she lives a lukewarm Christian life of going through the motions but never gaining true and continued victory over sin, i.e. victory over the control of and bondage to particular sins in our lives that have a pattern of repeating themselves over and over again.
Then, there was the man whose “job” it was not to help the man, i.e. he was not a pastor or elder or shepherd of the flock, and in fact he was not even one of the man’s own kind and was considered hated by the Jews. So, a man who was rejected is the one who ultimately gave his life so that the man on the ground could be healed. That is a picture of God’s grace. Jesus was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. The Samaritan had nothing to lose in relation to the man on the ground, i.e. he was already despised by the Jews and rejected, so it didn’t matter if the man turned on him. It would be no different than what he had already been experiencing. Yet, he chose to show the man mercy. And, I want to look here at how he showed him mercy and how I believe that parallels over to how we should respond to people we know who are beaten down by sin. The man:
1. Bandaged the man’s wounds
2. Poured oil and wine on the man’s wounds
3. Put the man on his own donkey
4. Took him to an Inn and took care of him
5. Paid the cost for his healing and care to the innkeeper
6. Returned to him
Wow! I see this as such a picture of what Jesus Christ did for us and of what we are to do for our fellow man (our neighbors). Jesus covered our sins via his death on the cross, he poured out his own life blood for us so that we could go free, he took upon him the cross and our sin and bore our sins for us in his own body, he left us in the care of the Holy Spirit, he paid the penalty for our sin so that we could be healed, and one day he is coming back for us to take us to be with him forever!
So, how can we do what this man did for the man beaten down and left to die on the side of the road? And how can we demonstrate God’s love and grace to others who are beaten down by sin and are half dead spiritually because of having yielded to the sin? I believe we can follow the example of Jesus and of this Samaritan man.
We first of all have to be sensitive to what is going on in other people’s lives so that we can recognize when our brothers and sisters have fallen into sin and are being beaten down by temptation. We do this through observation, through accountability, through inquiring as to how someone is doing, especially if we know the person has had a history of bondage to a particular sin. We check in periodically to see how he or she is doing and if there is anything we can do to help – to encourage, strengthen, counsel, exhort, etc.
Secondly, we need to be willing to take the necessary steps to help someone out of his or her sin and back on to his or her feet, as this Samaritan man did. He didn’t just tell him, “Hey guy, it looks like you have a problem you need to resolve.” NO! He took him and he cared for him and he helped him to heal and to restore him to health.
Galatians 6:1-2:
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.Restore – to return something to its proper owner or place; to bring something back to an earlier and better condition (Encarta). So, if we are going to “restore” people, like this Samaritan man did with this man on the side of the road, we have to be willing to work with the person over a period of time, perhaps, to help him or her take the necessary steps to be back in a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
James 5:19-20:
My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
Turn – means to move to face in a different direction or toward a particular location, or move something so that it does this (Encarta). To bring someone back and to turn a sinner from the error of his ways means to do just what the Samaritan man did for the man on the side of the road. It means to help him to heal his wound by recognizing and confessing his sin so that he can turn from it, and then by helping him or her to take those necessary steps to bring him or her back into a right relationship with Jesus Christ and to truly turn him from his sin so that he is going in the opposite direction. This takes time, it takes love, it takes patience, nurturing, perseverance, etc. Most of all, it takes the cooperation of the person you are attempting to help, and it takes much grace on your part to do this in a manner that is humble and is gentle.
This is not going to happen if all we do is ignore the sin in our brothers or sisters lives. It is not going to happen if we merely put a Band-Aid over the sin as religious leaders past did.
Jeremiah 6:13-14:
“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”Notice that the Samaritan poured oil and wine on the man’s open wound. It hurts when you pour oil and wine on an open wound. We can’t help people out of sin by merely putting Band-Aids over their wounds. We have to be willing to allow them to hurt even more so that they can get down deep into the wound to do the healing that needs to be done so that the wound can truly be healed. If it is merely covered with a Band-Aid, the wound will fester and it will rise up again and then the cycle is repeated. We can’t give people a pat on the back and say “It’s ok,” (peace, peace) when it isn’t ok. To help people out of bondage to sin we need to be willing to go the distance with them to see that the sin is dealt with on the cross in their own lives, i.e. the process of revival, so that they can turn, so that they can be brought back, so that they can be restored and ultimately so that they can gain true victory over sin and the control sin has over their lives – lasting victory.
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