There was another tendency I noticed within myself whenever I heard or read the Ten Commandments. I felt like God was giving me a list of “dos and don’ts” to provoke me—like a lab rat being tested—to see how high up the moral ladder I could jump. The Ten Commandments took on a whole new meaning when I realized the moral law of God reveals the holy love of God. The Ten Commandments show us what God’s love looks like in relationships: in our vertical relationship with Him and in our horizontal relationships with each other. The Ten Commandments describe the type of love close to God’s heart: honoring parents; honoring His name; loving our neighbor as ourselves; not murdering, stealing or harming others. These are not arbitrary commandments to test us to see how good we can be. These are commandments that specifically express how God intends for us to love Him and each other. His law reveals His heart. God hates sin because sin is a violation of His law of love. Just as a parent hates polio because of what it does to his child, so God hates sin because of what it does to the people He has created and loves. He sees how sin separates us from Him and prevents us from experiencing His love for us. He sees how our sin destroys us and prevents us from loving each other.
When we hear what His love is like, we can’t help but be attracted to it and desire it for ourselves. It touches a part of us that cannot be satisfied by the things of this world. We may find ourselves agreeing with the French physicist, Blaise Pascal, who said in every man is a God-shaped vacuum that can only be filled by God.(See Note P) I remember the “ache within” that surfaced when I first recognized the hunger in my soul for Him. I had not yet come to know Him, but I knew I wanted Him. I had come to a point where I knew the things of this world and the relationships of this world could never satisfy this deeper part of me. It was this very hunger within me that pushed me to listen to my friend when he explained how I could know Him. The desire to know Him became stronger and overrode any offense I felt at being told I was separated from Him because of my sin.
This standard of holy love that attracts us is the same standard of love that exposes us. If we honestly look within our hearts, we see how far we fall short from having this type of love for God and for people. The standard of God’s love does not change because God’s heart does not change. At the same time, His love does not contradict or conflict with His holiness and righteousness. “His love does not diminish in the least His hatred of sin. If anything it intensifies it…He hates what sin does…His love is relentless…. There is a sternness to God’s holiness, but that sternness is there, not in spite of His love, but because of it”.
He sweat blood in the garden praying for strength hours before He shed His blood on the cross. The intensity of His love for us was revealed in His life and in His death. “Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because He did love us”. It was the love of the Father that sent the Son. The love of God and the justice of God joined hands at the cross. He satisfied His justice by paying our debt in full. He satisfied His love by paying our debt for us.
In Note B above, the judge was uncompromising in his justice and required that the fine be paid in full. There’s more to the story. The preacher says that moments after the words, “That’ll be $15,” fell from the judge’s lips, the judge reached into his own back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out his money and paid the debt himself. Justice fulfilled…love satisfied.