Augustine wrote on the Trinity, “Now when I, who am asking about this, love anything, there are three things present: I myself, what I love, and love itself. For I cannot love unless I love a lover; for there is no love where nothing is loved. So, there are three things: the lover, the loved and the love.” (Agape love)
The person with major sin in their life, struggle to believe that God will forgive and free them from the guilt, the condemnation that binds them. In the parable of the labourers in the Vineyard those who had worked only for an hour, received the same wage as the labourer who had worked all day. Matthew 20: 1-16.
God in His mercy applies this formular to a person whose sin is minor compared with someone who has major sin in their life. God forgives both their sin.
Under Jewish law the gravity of the sin, the greater the punishment. Under grace in the New Covenant, God forgives through Jesus’ love, in the varying depth of his love forgives both.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians to know the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love. The Lord can forgive the worst atrocity, such is the depth of God’s love for a person. Ephesians 3: 18.
“How deep the Father’s Love for us” Stuart Townsend
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss –
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart –
His wounds have paid my ransom.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, “And that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love.” Paul knew this from his own life, he experienced God’s love reaching down to the depth of his sin, in the breadth and length of his life and through forgiveness, reaching to the heights of eternity, knowing Jesus as his Saviour and Lord.
Paul prayed for this to be our experience, whether in our own lives or when bringing a person to faith in Jesus.
Prayer
May every Christian experience knowing they are rooted and grounded in God’s love, through the Holy Spirit reaching out through our lives to the lost. May every Christian know the breadth, length, height, and depth of Jesus’ love for us, dying for our sin and experience this in bringing a person to faith in Christ our Lord. Amen